On Broadway, across from busy Capitol Hill Station, nobody sensible is going to complain about a six-story building with 50 new apartment units replacing a three-story building with only 14. Until rents slow down or, even, dip, the market needs the inventory. Some will say build it higher. Tell the HALA folks about that.
But progress on Broadway will mean change for the people living above the street in the old apartment building and a much-loved Capitol Hill favorite, below. When the old 1905-built Capitol Crest apartment building is demolished, Annapurna and her neighbors will need to find new homes. We say, in the meantime, eat at (CHS advertiser!) Annapurna often. And head around the corner to Ace Barbershop for a haircut. Perhaps Wednesday night before you take your full belly and new hairdo to the first design review for the six-story, 50-unit mixed-use building set to rise on Broadway next to Capitol Hill Station’s west entrance.
The Roger Newell-designed project is being envisioned as a mix of 50 apartment units including 400-square-foot studios up to 936-square-foot two-bedroom models above 3,500 square feet of space for a store… or a restaurant.
The developer and property owner has been in this for the long haul. Champion Development and the Ma family acquired the property in 1997 for just under $2 million and has been holding it since. The six-story project planned for the property will match the development — and a Starbucks — already under construction across Denny where the post office used to stand. With a wave of development around Capitol Hill Station kicked into motion, Champion is ready to upgrade its holding.
First Hill Medical Office Building
Designed by CollinsWoerman and owned by Tennessee-based Healthcare Realty, the final plans for the First Hill Medical Office Building look like a medical office building — a very nice medical office building. That’s a good thing, right?
Wednesday night, the East Design Review Board will warm up with what could be the final session for this project set to replace an old building at Minor and James and snuggle up next to another:
The site is currently comprised of two existing structures (both being used for medical office / clinic uses) and a surface parking lot accessed from Minor Ave. The 4 level, 1987 masonry medical office building above 4 lev- els of parking garage occupies the western side of the site (along Boren) and will remain. The smaller 2 story ancillary building along James and adjacent surface lot will be removed.
Starting with paperwork in June of 2015, the plan is to create a six-story office building with parking for 235 vehicles below ground, and “a discreet drop-off and pick-up location” with “pedestrian pathways” that “wrap outside of drive aisle from the sidewalk on Minor Ave. The project includes around 1,4000 square feet of street level retail. In the renderings, they show a barbershop. Somebody let Ace know.
RE: the Capitol Crest redevelopment…..glad to see that at least some underground parking will be provided…..19 spots. This seems about right for this location and for the number of units (50)….being so close to light rail, more spots are not needed. But at least this proposal recognizes the reality that some people living near light rail will own cars. It’s a refreshing change from the prevalent trend of no onsite parking, which only causes increased headaches for neighbors who need to find a parking spot after a long day (or night) at work.
Should be bigger and with no parking. Parking just makes the building more expensive, which gets passed on to renters. The highest priority is more housing that is as affordable as possible, not more housing with parking. There are plenty of other places in the city where you definitely need parking. This is not one of those places. This is the perfect place to put housing for people who choose to live car-free. We should maximize that.
I’m glad a new building with more density is going up, but will the new building on house one business at ground level? I really wish Seattle could incentivize developers to create more, smaller scale retail and restaurant space. I know landlords would prefer fewer business tenants taking up larger lots to deal with (banks, FedEx, etc.), but that’s not great for the neighborhood. I would like to see the city give extra FAR for building more smaller retail.
Totally agree! Loss of small local businesses is pretty much my only reservation with new construction (I don’t care where my neighbors park). It feels like this is something that could somehow get into the city code?
This is a really important point. I totally agree.