Already a home for hundreds of new Capitol Hill neighbors with its mix of affordable and market rate apartments, the mix of businesses in the new buildings above Capitol Hill Station will finally greet customers in 2022. There will be a new grocery store. There will be a Capitol Hill classic in the mix as the beloved Glo’s moves up the Hill to its new home on the edge of the station’s plaza. And, of course, there will a coffee shop.

Seasmith is planned to fill the development’s southern end with a corner spot facing the intersection of Broadway and E Barbara Bailey Way.

Like so many elements around the pandemic-delayed Capitol Hill Station development, it’s been a long wait for Seasmith.

CHS spoke with Matt Wendland about the project last spring and, still, the new cafe has months of construction process to go before opening.

The owner of Burien Press and Moonshot Coffee said his plan for Seasmith is to create an “all day cafe, really looking at how do we create something that is activating every part of the day — coffee, fresh food in morning, full kitchen, lunch, dinner, beer, natural wine.”

The cafe will hold down the Broadway corner, neighboring the Nékter Juice Bar which overlooks the station plaza from the west. The juice bar concept, part of the smaller players joining the commercial mix at Capitol Hill Station, is built out but not quite ready to open for business. UPDATE: The juice bar is open!

Across from Nékter, Glo’s is preparing to open on the eastern side of the plaza by next summer, filling out the development’s food and drink menu. Glo’s owner Julie Reisman told CHS about the big plans for the “big” space as she and business partner Steve Frias will finally be able to pursue ambitions including an expanded espresso program and a “breakfast cocktail sheet.”

Meanwhile, there could be room for at least one more restaurant in the development.

Front and center on the Broadway street frontage near the north entry to the busy light rail station will be the relatively small but jam-packed anchor — Korean grocery chain H Mart with more than 11,000 square feet of store space on the ground level plus a 5,000+ square foot mezzanine. The Exploration Academy daycare and a new dental office will also be part of the mix.

Meanwhile, the underground subway station now connects Capitol Hill to even more of the city with this year’s expansion of light rail to the University District, Roosevelt, and Northgate.

H Mart’s coming neighbors like Seasmith are hoped to be a mix of smaller counters, cafes, and shops including retail, coffee, food, and drink along Broadway south of the grocery market and on both sides of a central “portal” through the development into the project’s large central, quasi-public plaza. Spaces range from about 500 to 700 square feet.

With the addition of Seasmith, Matt and Catherine Wendland say they aren’t out to open a chain of cafes. Matt says they want to build businesses “that are part of the neighborhood they open in and are part of the people who are there.”

The long pandemic delays haven’t been all bad. Seasmith had gone through two major redesigns when CHS and Wendland talked and the final plans include “all the lessons we learned during the pandemic,” Wendland said, like adjusted seating plans and a walk-up window on Broadway. There will also be a covered patio that runs the length of the cafe and around the corner above the plaza where, we can all hope, sunny summer 2022 days of busy Capitol Hill farmers markets await.

That vision is why Wendland says he decided to make Seasmith part of Capitol Hill Station’s mix and happy to be part of the new spaces created around the busy plaza.

“The farmers market is a great example of community building,” Wendland said. “It’s meant to be.”

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