The groundbreaking ceremony took place inside the Century Ballroom which is undergoing some change of its own — the space is now the Reverie Ballroom under new ownership
Rendering of the Constellation Center and the new eight-story apartment building
“The next chapter of hope” is beginning at Broadway and Pine where construction is underway on the $37 million $79 million Constellation Center, a first of its kind project combining affordable housing and a youth education, skills training, and employment academy. To come together, the unique project has required the heft of two of Seattle’s most important Public Development Authorities and its leading provider of services to homeless youth.
UPDATE: No, the cost of the project has not soared. The $37 million figure represented a YouthCare fundraising goal for the project. Total construction budget has been established as $79 million — about $60 million of that is the projected cost of the new apartment buidling.
It also needed a champion. Longtime Democratic State Rep. Frank Chopp, who passed away only days before the ceremony, was remembered as officials gathered late last month to celebrate the Constellation Center’s groundbreaking.
“As we honor the indefatigable and moralistic example of Frank Chopp today, we are here to join forces on a project close to his heart,” Vivek Varma of the Schultz Family Foundation said in his remarks at the March 25th groundbreaking ceremony. “Not only join forces, but as Frank would say if he was here, we’ve got to get it done.”
The foundation is just part of the core of Seattle’s social safety net that has been required to get the Constellation Center plan off the ground.
CHS reported here on the development that includes a new eight-story apartment building above Broadway from Community Roots Housing where the PDA will provide 84 new affordable homes with a set of apartments reserved for youth exiting homelessness.
YouthCare’s Constellation Center next door will transform and rebuild the 1906-era Booth Building into a 24,000-square-foot facility that will feature “education and workforce training, financial empowerment programs, mental health support, housing navigation, and career planning for young people. The center will connect to CRH’s affordable housing development.
“At its core, this project is a civic endeavor that meets urgent, city-wide needs to support our low-income and unhoused neighbors. We’re not just building apartments; we’re building a model for effective interventions and community empowerment,” Chris Persons, CEO of Community Roots Housing, said.
Officials at the groundbreaking say they hope the YouthCare center will become “part of a more modern and effective youth focused ecosystem” with “direct support and resources” for young people providing skills training, and learning credentials, while also offering more direct opportunities and “a strong first job.”
The challenge of financing the ambitious center required more affordable housing development muscle than only Community Roots Housing could provide. The Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority has increased its growing presence in the city beyond the ID with its investment in the project. Last year, former City Councilmember Tanya Woo’s office secured $4 million in funding from City Hall’s budget to help power the project and bring the SCID.
Community Roots has been re-focusing its portfolio in recent years and in 2024 started the disposition process for for six Capitol Hill and Central District properties that were to remain under federal U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Assistance Payments contracts. Previous sales have included some of the more expensive to maintain stock held by Community Roots Housing, created in 1976 as Capitol Hill Housing.
Community Roots has continued to open new developments in partnership with the city’s new generation of nonprofits and authorities. In 2024, CRH celebrated the opening of Africatown Plaza in the Central District, which added 126 affordable apartments to the historic 23rd & Union area. In 2023, just down from the Broadway and E Pine development, Community Roots opened Pride Place with 118 new units for LGBTQIA+ seniors.
Community Roots also owns and operates the Broadway Crossing building across the intersection at Pine and Broadway.
YouthCare, meanwhile has also faced significant challenges. in June 2024, the organization reported plans to reduce its staff by 25%. At the time of the layoffs, ground breaking on the Constellation Center project at Broadway and E Pine was planned for September 2024.
Community Roots says the delay was due to a longer than expected process on the project’s closing, which required complex financing combining debt, tax credit equity, and critical funding from the state, county, and city.
The project also would not exist without a deal brokered by the longtime housing advocate Chopp. One of his final major initiatives, Chopp helped broker key swaps of properties between Seattle Central and Sound Transit to secure the corner for the project.
Construction began in January. Initial work has focused on the demolition of the Booth Building and the rebuilding of its facade. Plans call for an adaptive reuse project to overhaul and upgrade the existing structures including the Booth Building which will remain three stories along E Pine and Broadway.
The new affordable apartment building to the south will rise eight stories on the site of the current surface parking lot.
Walsh Construction, also the general contractor for Pride Place, will lead construction. Sidewalk closures at the busy intersection will be limited to working hours and protected pedestrian pathways will be accessible during off hours. Crane assembly on the property will bring a one-time street closure and will happen on a weekend to be announced.
The development will contain 84 new affordable homes, a mix of studios and 1 bedrooms. They will be available to households with income between 30% and 50% Area Median Income, which translates to $31,620 and $52,700 for individuals. 15 of those units will be set aside for homeless and at risk youth.
At the groundbreaking event, officials said the project and Chopp’s legacy would hopefully inspire more investments.
“I know Frank wouldn’t want us to focus on the credit he deserves but instead he would frequently remind us that we must keep going to give everyone a safe, healthy, and affordable home,” Kelly Rider, director of the King County Department of Community & Human Services, said.
“We need to develop the pipeline of publicly owned property, we need community organizing and elected champions, and we will need a whole lot of determination, vision, and partnership.”
But with uncertain economic times ahead, those partnerships will be increasingly difficult to bring together. The ambitious Constellation Center might have made it in just under the wire.
The project is expected to open “into service” in 2027 at 909 E Pine.
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Really glad Youthcare is still managing to do some decent work despite, uh, rumors. I am sad to see the new building will not have 2 bedrooms though. Really not accessible to family units
You have to ask why build in the most expensive place possible.
what?
Okayyy…what do you put there?
More housing?
Bingo!
Great location for at risk Youth as well –– this is political graft. Locations in Tukwila, Renton, and Highline would have been served youth.
Chopp did a lot of great things, but this is not one of them. Even if you want to keep the money in Seattle, there are better locations in South Seattle.
The developer should do the right thing, find an alternative funding source for this building and put the money where it will do the most for youth who are at risk; not put them into a location that will more then likely create harm.
Lol wanting to shove everything into south seattle is the ultimate goal of capitol hill snobs.
Capitol Hill has been a dumping ground for many years. Tired of it. Fo you live on Capitol Hill? We do.
isn’t this location directly kitty-corner from a community college?
I agree. Capitol Hill is a place for adult antics and teens and underage adults will use the neighborhood for such reasons. Just saying…. I agree.
you do understand there are lots of kids here right?
There is not. Cap hill proper!? Pike pine Broadway… is not full of children. North capitol hill different story and it goes to bed around 9:00pm most nights…. But on the corner of anywhere below 12th between John and pike is very adult! Very very adult. Historically!
the building across the street has about 15 kids of school ages.
There’s a high school five blocks from this corner in one direction and a middle school five blocks away in the other.
Sorry, to be clear, do you think this new development is for actual children? Did you think it’s a foster home or a daycare or something? It very much isn’t…
I think it is a bad Idea. It will have a high failure rate. Not to mention, it’s in a soda zone. The older gang members will target those at risk youth. Just look at Aki Kurose middle school. The older gang members literally lure at risk middle schoolers into joining their gang. So… have fun with your new pipe line to prison.
“Not to mention, it’s in a soda zone”
Yes…Where the cops are thick and the bad guys know they can’t go?
Sounds horrible.
“It will have a high failure rate”
What is the failure rate on doing nothing?
lol, dude fretting about a prisoner pipe line in a USA where they’re deporting citizens, like, y’all got way bigger problems than these notions.
….with a set of apartments reserved for youth exiting homelessness….
Y’all moved to this neighborhood to be a misanthrope???
that’s where all the action is.
Just an odd thought.
Graffiti. Ya can smug it so they do not get the visibility.
That turd KAM painted over the old Undertakers sign. POS
I’m still baffled that we had to underbuild here to make it look like the buildings that were torn down. Just absolutely scandalous.
I dunno, I am personally appreciative that effort is being put into hanging onto at least a little bit of the aesthetics & character of the neighborhood. It has/had a very distinctive style, & there have been far far more instances of developers ripping down interesting 100+ year old buildings & putting up giant rectangles that could be in literally any city. I do also think that it’s important to build lots of housing, though, so this felt like a not-awful compromise…
I thought it was a not-awful compromise to keep the old building. But if it’s just going to be torn down? Not a fan of the Disney-esque fake look that sacrifices what could be housing for dozens or hundreds more people.
I still have NO idea why they would build this in the most expensive, prime location in all of Seattle.
It would have been SO much better if this was a luxury property that they retained a stake in – so it would be a steady cash flow for decades to come; and then go build cheaper in places like Eastside or South Seattle – where you can help many more people.
Putting a youth center in the MIDDLE of the entertainment district is a baffling, and quite upsetting choice.
NIMBY
Sure – not clear how saying “I want more people in the neighborhood, but not necessarily a youth center” is NIMBY but sure…
“Not that youth center in my back yard” NTYCIMB is you then? Cmon dude, you can’t be this thick.
The dirty secret is business owners want monied people living there. Not foster home graduates etc.
They want their businesses to do better. If rich people lived they? They would exploit it. Just like the apartments at the port. It’s about making a little empire for yourself.
Helping people costs them money.
You think they should put luxury property there & shove all affordable housing into South Seattle….where it won’t have the potential to have any negative impact on your property values….that’s like the NIMBY-est of NIMBY concepts, honestly.
You keep saying “youth center” as if you think it’s a daycare center or something, but it definitely isn’t. The website is pretty clear about what the center is planned to offer, actually. https://youthcare.org/caphillyouthhub/ Employment training, GED programming, college access, etc, are not programs directed towards children. They’re directed towards young adults experiencing instability, largely ones who age out of the foster care system.
This building is literally on the same corner as a community college. Capitol Hill has always been a neighborhood that attracts young adults. This isn’t that weird of a choice, you’re just mad because it isn’t necessarily going to net you any extra cash. And you know what? It won’t necessarily financially benefit me, either! But I’m not just going around lying to myself & others about what it IS. Because I’m not some NIMBY Karen, and can recognize that this project has the potential to be a social net good. And that MAYBE, just maybe, attempting to force all affordable housing into far-off neighborhoods might not be.
Just food for thought.
you get it…it’s about, gentrification, empire building, self gratification. Crap on everyone and everything that’s not directly beneficial. You called it. He’s a liar. Mean one at that.
Trump does it too. The exact same thing.
Turns out character is the only thing holding it all together for team USA freedoms…
It’s people like him who want to privatise everything to make everything better. Lying is a huge character flaw. Especially when it’s used as a weapon for self enrichment.
Some people are truly disgusting. It’s a SODA ZONE! I am like. “the place most policed? That place? Where they kick you out if you fuck up?. THAT place???…Sounds like the best place on the hill for it actually.”
Like you say. The school is across the street. The park is across the other street. Everything is walking distances. They will get free ORCA cards as well. It’s a great place for it.
You think alcoholism is entertainment?
Dean Martin made a career out of it.
Yes alcoholism is entertaining.
Drunk history
Archer… um…be
I can’t think of any other shows,
But people like drunk people on tv….
DAVID HASSELHOFF! We are that mess up. When his daughter filmed him drunk and mean eating a burger in an empty bathroom.
Some Real house wives… my point is,
Yes alcoholism is entertaining. So is coke music and being grunge…
If you want to offer services to people, which is more likely to succeed: going where the people already are, or going somewhere else and making them come to you?
How familiar are you with the term “NIMBY”?
“upsetting” how?
Higher-income people are the ones who can afford a “luxury apartment.” Very few of them, if any, would want to live in a dystopian disaster zone that is Pike-Pine.
People like that commenter want more luxury developments because they hope that the existence of them will help “clean up” the area & help enhance their own property values. They don’t actually think Seattle’s wealthy are lining up to pay $3k a month to live in a studio at Pine and Broadway, but they’re hoping for a “if we build it they will come” situation.
lmao, this is almost as bad as your ‘canyon comment’ where you’re denying those rents clear in a 6 block vicinity?
Capitol Hill is the most dense neighborhood, like too dense to understand why social services would exist here.
WhaAAT? Why on earth would you want to put social services in the place where the people who visibly need them are already congregating? Just delusional stuff!
That’s Gyro sarcasm I think :O)