Capitol Hill Station, already busy with hundreds of new market-rate and affordable apartments above the busy Seattle subway station below, will have new energy in the new year with one of its key street-level commercial tenants welcoming its community.

The new 6,500-square-foot Summit Community Center is slated to open in January along Broadway:

The SCC is being created for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), initially aged 18-29, to fill a void that currently exists in the community and to create a place for young adults of all ability levels to continue learning, growing, making friends, and engaging in the community. Our founding principle is to celebrate these young adults as unique individuals and to recognize the value and contributions they bring to their SCC community and the community at large. We intend for the SCC to grow with this initial population of young adults to be a life-long support system. Young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities represent a key marginalized community that deserves quality services, support, and opportunities in order to thrive and the SCC is here to deliver!

CHS reported in early 2022 on the plans for the center for neurodiverse young people including programming and resources suited to prepare the center’s participants for a successful future.

In addition to the January 30th opening, the group announced Alicia Nathan, “an expert in transition issues for young adults and passionate advocate for the IDD community,” has been hired as the center’s first executive director.

“Everyone deserves to have a place, where everyone is a part of the community, disability or not,” Nathan told CHS earlier this year. “The goal at Summit Community Center is to provide an outlet and a place for true social and community engagement for young adults with disabilities.”

Community partners for the new center include Special Olympics Washington, the University of Washington, Seale Theatre Group, and Outdoors for All.

The center is also continuing its $3 million capital campaign to raise funds to help create the new center in Capitol Hill Station’s south with classrooms and indoor recreational gym space, as well as scholarships and funding for membership.

Summit Community Center will joins a diverse mix of commercial and community activity in the Capitol Hill Station development. Thanks to the pandemic, it has been an achingly slow wait for the development’s residents excited for the new stores and restaurants like the new Glo’s Diner, and Seasmith, a new cafe planned to join the station development and open in 2023. The core of the activity opened in 2022 as years of H Mart dreams took shape with the April opening of the M2M grocery next to the station’s Broadway entrance.

For the Summit Community Center, January will bring real people into its space as it looks to reach more in the communities it seeks to serve and bring additional energy to the station.

The Summit Community Center will open in January at 1830 Broadway. Learn more at summitcommunitycenter.org.

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