Google Street View through the years — 2021, 2019, and 2015

The ghost of Charlie’s lives on. Swedish Health Services, the largest nonprofit health provider in Seattle, will be the latest to punt on a primary care clinic space built out of the old Broadway building that legendary neighborhood restaurant Charlie’s once called home.

Swedish announced to patients this week that the Broadway clinic will close this spring. “Our Capitol Hill staff is standing by to help you transition your care to one of our nearby primary care clinics,” the message emailed to patients reads.

CHS reported here in April of 2020 on the plans for Swedish to add its clinic to Broadway’s mix of primary care facilities. The built out medical office space had been left empty after CHI Franciscan Health venture CityMD went belly up in 2019 after overhauling the bones of the old building that legendary Broadway restaurant Charlie’s called home for decades.

Its arrival was part of a trend coinciding with the opening of Capitol Hill Station that brought a flurry of minute clinic activity to the street. Zoom Care operates two clinics on the street after joining the Broadway mix way back in 2011. A former Blockbuster now houses an Immediate Clinic. Broadway also added so-called “concierge” level care with the addition of One Medical taking over the street’s former Panera space near E Pine.

Charlie’s closed for good in 2017 after being reborn under new ownership. Longtime owner Ken Bauer helped open Charlie’s in 1976, taking it over in 2000 after the restaurant’s namesake owner passed away. As the end of the lease agreement approached, Bauer started looking to sell but found no buyers for years. CHS broke the bittersweet news of Bauer’s long-awaited retirement and Charlie’s first closure in June of 2015.

UPDATE: In a statement, Swedish tells CHS low patient demand at the location led to the closure:

Patient demand for this location was low. The clinic will close in April to allow patients enough time to transition their care. Our staff is working with patients to transition their care to one of our nearby primary care clinics (we have several within a few miles of this one) or guiding patients on how to transfer their records if they choose to continue their health care services outside of Swedish.

UPDATE x2: As noted in comments, the Swedish clinic was preceded in death by the Immediate Clinic and one of ZoomCare’s twin Broadway clinics.

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