(Image: CHS)
Things are a little less convenient around Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave E. After three decades serving the neighborhood, the ShopRite cornershop has closed for good and its remaining stock and fixtures have been cleared out.
The closure comes after a long goodbye clearance sale that started this summer. ShopRite’s inventory is now the stuff of Capitol Hill legend with tales of what you could find stocked there bested only by tales of what you could not.
The 1904-era Moore Family building ShopRite has called home and the former QFC grocery store on the block are destined to make way for a planned 6-story, “S” design building with 170 new apartment units above 10,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking for 99 vehicles.
CHS reported here on the latest updates on the project in September as the design review board signed off on a plan to allow the building to rise above the neighborhood’s five-story zoning, ending months of debate.
Hunters Capital has not yet announced a timeline for demolition and the start of construction but says city permits won’t be completed until mid-2025 and next steps after that will depend on economic factors including interest rates, construction costs, and rents.
The Capitol Hill-based developer opened the Capitol Hilltop Apartments up the street this summer on the property where the neighborhood gas and service station once stood. Rudy’s has moved across the street into a new barber shop inside that new development. The street’s longtime waxing salon WaxOn will join the new Rudy’s. The building is also home to the Rufous and Company boutique interior design studio and will become home to a new Italian joint from Cantinetta.
(Image: CHS)
Hunters is keeping the former ShopRite and QFC block busy. New kids shop Thistle & Poppy has moved into the former Rudy’s space for an indefinite stay until demolition is ready to move forward. The old QFC? The Punk Rock Flea Market is set up to use the space as a venue for markets and events. The Quality Flea Center will operate through at least the end of the year.
For now, the former ShopRite space is being cleaned out but there are no known plans yet afoot for a temporary tenant.
UPDATE: Hunters says a new project is lined up for the corner. More information on that, soon.
CHS reported here last year about owner Mohammad Abid’s retirement plans as the block was lined up for eventual redevelopment. Abid ran the shop for more than 20 of its nearly 30 years of business after coming to the United States from Pakistan.
The retailer told CHS earlier this year of his hopes for putting off retirement and opening a store closer to his Edmonds home but, for now, the world remains without a Mohammad Abid ShopRite.
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Justin please cover the Summit Foods store getting its glass broken almost weekly now. They are STRUGGLING.
I’ll have more on recent incident soon — are you sure there have been multiple incidents?
Yes, they have had cars crash into the front of the building twice in the past 6 months. The first time the thieves attempted to steal the ATM. Since then, they stopped keeping an ATM, but then another truck crashed into the front of the building last week, causing more damage than the first time.