Want to see new life in the E Olive Way retail building left empty by the abrupt departure of Starbucks?
It is back on the market and looking for a new tenant.
A notice posted to Craigslist before the Thanksgiving holiday has listed a “Former Coffee Shop/Cafe For Lease” at an undisclosed Capitol Hill location.
“Former coffee shop for lease in Capitol Hill,” it reads. “Standalone building with dedicated parking/parking lot. Turnkey opportunity for new user to come in and open up quickly. Great street presence, exposure, signage and foot traffic.”
The description and elements like the parking lot pretty much narrow it down. The 3,961-square-foot dimensions from the ad also match up with King County’s parcel information for the property.
“I cannot confirm the location of this listing without a CA,” Claudia Scott of the Pacific Bridge real estate firm responded to CHS by email. Sorry, but CHS isn’t signing any confidentiality agreements.
The secret listing for the E Olive Way cafe shows just how expensive the rent is for this kind of commercial property. With a rate of around $60 per square foot, your monthly rent would come in around $20,000. Then there are the utilities. You’ll also be on the hook for triple net reconciliation — real estate taxes, building insurance, and maintenance.
It isn’t clear how the new listing valuation compares to what Starbucks was paying when it decided to shutter the E Olive Way cafe earlier this year over what it said were public safety concerns while simultaneously waging a union-busting battle with its Capitol Hill workers.
But CHS has learned that Starbucks had an option for a lease renewal heading into 2020 that would have bound it to the E Olive Way cafe affectionately known as the Gaybucks through February 2025. It’s possible the new listing is an effort to find someone to take on a sublet of the Starbucks deal — something fellow corporate giant Kroger has reportedly declined to pursue on 15th Ave E.
There is also another answer on E Olive Way — You could just buy the whole thing. The property owned by a trust for the family who has long held the parcel was briefly marketed without a price tag in the summer of 2020. Its listing probably describes an eventual future for the property, boasting of its “redevelopment opportunity” and potential for hosting a seven or eight story mixed-use building.
For now, the search is on for a new business to join a long history of Capitol Hill food and drink that has been dominated by major chains in recent years.
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Much would’ve preferred it open with Starbucks that offers restrooms to the community. A local shop won’t be able to afford that rent…it’ll be bulldozed and turned into luxury apartments.
“Restrooms for the community”? Is that code for “place for vagrants to shoot up and or smoke drugs”?
An ideal location for subsidized housing for the impoverished, disabled, elderly. Isolated from the NIMBYs on all 3 sides with the bus at the door on one side and a small park on the other.
Yes. Perhaps you can come up with the money to pursue that noble goal.
You and Hal can always find a place to move to where its government only funds your noble goal and nothing you don’t need. There are far worse things the government is wasting money on than subsidized housing.
Ah yes. The love it or leave it approach Tom and others so often resort to when they meet a point of view they don’t agree with here. Tom, even though I don’t agree with you on much here, you’re welcome to remain in our neighborhood. Because I like diversity of opinion. I think it makes us stronger. Siloed thinking benefits noone.
Love it or leave it approach….no different from you when your type tells people to go pay for the stuff they like but you don’t need.
Sounds good, lol. You give first. I’ve already been nickled and dimed by this city.
I’m all for it but the property is probably too expensive for anyone but a luxury condo developer to buy and build. Best we can do likely is reserve a few units for low income folks there for a few years.
I never thought I’d say this but the other day I had a hard time finding somewhere in that area to buy a cup of coffee. That Starbucks is gone, the one on Broadway/Denny was closed due to a worker strike, the former B & O keeps weird hours and I was at a loss. I miss the days of a coffee shop on every corner.
Analog Coffee is only two blocks away on Summit. Their coffee is excellent too. No need to be at a loss, just go there. :)
Is analog coffee a union shop?
It’s locally owned and responsibly run, probably has 10 employees total. Owners Tim and Danny are often behind the bar so you can ask them about it.
Sorry, that’s not an excuse for not supporting an employee union.
Why is a union important if the workers are well treated and paid, and feel that way?
Haha! Bingo, we have a winner!
You guys are pathetic, 😅 Unions become necessary when a company or industry becomes large/powerful enough to suppress their workers. I don’t want to paint with too broad a brush, but generally, independent local businesses tend to be a bit more invested in their workers and community than large chains, and if they aren’t they will likely quickly fail 🤷🏻♂️
if you don’t think a small “local” business can’t exploit workers maybe you don’t have a lot of experience in that job field.
Analog is a local business, I’m not sure why you put it in quotes. I never said a small local business can’t be exploitative to workers 🤦♂️ If you take the time and talk to employees and owners it’s really not that hard to find good local places 🤷🏻♂️
you didn’t look very hard then. Analog and Ghost Note are near there, and la rue and a pastry shop near it have coffee as well.
Here’s hoping they find a new tenant soon, and that parking lot (or the whole site) later gets developed into housing!
I lived in Capitol Hill for almost a decade. Going to Starbucks was never an option to me because all the other excellent coffee that the neighborhood had to offer. To me Starbucks is the coffee I get if I’m on the road. But in Seattle vivace or Cafe vida or all the other different places. So losing Starbucks I don’t think is a great loss for Capitol Hill
If only the smaller shops offered health insurance, free college and stocks…some people need health insurance and local shops typically can’t afford that.
I don’t think anyone is going to be building for a while in current economy. One block up by the goodwill has only recently had its tent camp removed, and the building looks like it’s under attack.