By Nova Berger/CHS Reporting Intern

A new neighborhood market from an experienced creator of locally-focused grocery stores is taking shape in the rapidly changing Yesler Terrace neighborhood where hundreds of new apartment units have taken shape in an ongoing development boom.

“That’s what Yellow Bee is all about, providing access to the urban resident,” Brian Hoang tells CHS.

23rd and Union. Madison Valley. First Hill. Major changes have reshaped these neighborhoods around Capitol Hill with major growth including challenges around gentrification and displacement. These changes have brought new neighbors and new lives to Central Seattle. In the rapid transformation of Yesler Terrace to the south of Capitol Hill, residents in these changed spaces need places like Yellow Bee Market and Banh Mi.

Hoang learned the industry creating the Hong Kong Market chain of supermarkets with locations in Kent, Burien, and Federal Way. When it opens in June in the 237-unit Cypress Seattle building developed by Vulcan at Broadway and Yesler, Hoang says he hopes Yellow Bee will mark something new in the city’s grocery scene with elements of a convenience store, fresh produce worthy of his supermarkets, and a neighborhood cafe.

Hoang said Yellow Bee will cater to shoppers without cars or who prefer walking and fill the need for convenient access to perishable goods in high density urban areas. Yellow Bee’s logos and designs, meanwhile, incorporate hexagons that evoke honeycombs and, to Hoang, represent the density of cities that are tightly packed, yet still communal.

As part of this, Yellow Bee will also be an elevated neighborhood cafe, creating a cozy space in the happiest color to add a level of inclusivity. The store will have outdoor benches and seating to further facilitate opportunities for Hoang’s “bees” customers to connect. The cafe’s centerpiece offering will be its Yellow Bee Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwiches.

Hoang says he hopes Yellow Bee is part of continued healthy growth in Yesler Terrace where a core of public housing has been replaced by new development — and his company. The plan is for there to be at least five Yellow Bees across the region over the next three years.

Yellow Bee will open this summer at 922 E Yesler. Learn more at shopyellowbee.com.

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