Plans are moving forward again for a mixed-use development that will replace a 23rd Ave church on the edge of a busy center of Central District growth.
New filings show plans for The Sarah Queen project are gearing up for required outreach before the public design review kicks off for the development planned to create 112 new apartment homes above street level commercial or live-work space and underground parking for about 20 vehicles. The building could rise seven or eight stories depending on the review process, zoning decisions, and the final design.
The new paperwork kicks a project that first took shape at the start of the pandemic into motion and continues hopes that Black-owned development can also be part of the growth in the Central District in addition to new buildings raised by affordable housing developers and nonprofit organizations like Africatown.
CHS reported here in June 2020 as Jaebadiah Gardner and Gardner Global announced it was acquiring the 23rd Ave Mount Calvary Christian Center property. Sandwiched between the Uncle Ike’s pot shop and the cannabis entrepreneur’s car wash on the other end of the block, the church property was an opportunity to continue “our mission of building wealth for Black and Brown communities,” Gardner said at the time.
The name will honor his grandmother, business owner and community leader Sarah Queen Gardner, who was murdered in Spokane in 1997 two days after losing a city council primary race.
Together with its land across the street, the Mount Calvary property acquisitions totaled around $6.9 million according to county records. In 2021, Gardner finalized a $3.75 million deal with Seattle-based real estate investment firm Heartland to bring them on to help develop the property.
In 2022, Gardner Global announced it had received a $4.5 million grant from Amazon to boost the project.
Gardner signing the acquisition deal in 2021 — “Uncle Ike, you got a new neighbor”
The new development will not be fully affordable housing. Gardner Global said that the investments will create a new “multifamily housing project” with a mix of market rate and affordable units and “intentional community space.” Brokerage office space was also planned to open in the building “providing the community boutique real estate and property management services.”
Growth of 23rd and Union has been driven by a mix of market-rate projects and affordable housing from Community Roots and Africatown. Developments from Lake Union Partners began the rapid transformation 23rd and Union where the developer created three projects including Midtown Square adding a combined 675 apartment units and more than 40,000 square feet of commercial and restaurant space. Meanwhile, the opening of Community Roots Housing’s Liberty Bank Building at 24th and Union that opened in 2019 created 115 100%-affordable apartment units and street level commercial and restaurant space.
Later this year, the Africatown Plaza mixed-use building on the southern end of the Midtown Square block will open as a 100% affordable, publicly funded project from Africatown Community Land Trust and Community Roots Housing. The 24th and Spring building’s ground floor has been planned to provide offices for Africatown’s new headquarters, and an affordable space that will include a commercial kitchen to be used by “local culinary entrepreneurs.”
The changes around 23rd and Union come as the city is considering its new 20-year growth plan and approaches critics say will still lean too heavily on communities already burdened with historically racist housing practices.
The development from Gardner Global and Heartland has been portrayed as proof a for-profit response can be part of balancing the city’s need for new housing with equitable growth. With the plans now moving ahead again, we’ll soon have a better view of what that approach to Central District development will look like.
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