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Justin is publisher of CHS. You can reach him at [email protected] or call/txt (206) 399-5959. Follow @jseattle on Twitter or be best pals on Facebook.

For sale: New Capitol Hill developer sought for mixed-use City Market redevelopment

Speaking of neighborhood groceries, it has been 111 days since the “MUP-ready development site” also known as Capitol Hill’s much-loved City Market hit the Seattle real estate market.

November’s unpriced listing — if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it — was the surest sign that much-hyped San Francisco-based property developer Juno is now out of the picture after shepherding the property through several rounds of Seattle process on the way to plans for a mass timber mixed-use building topped with 98-residential units, including 58 studios, 21 “deep” one-bedrooms, 13 one-bedrooms and 5 two-bedrooms, above a future home for the popular Bellevue Ave grocery and new underground parking.

To make way, the existing City Market building and the laundromat next door as well as a small surface parking lot were planned to be demolished. Continue reading

Madison Valley’s new corner store? Kitchen & Market ’boutique grocery’

(Image: Kitchen & Market)

The corner grocery store isn’t dead yet in Seattle but you might have to pay a little more for your chips. A small neighborhood grocery in Madison Valley is set to reopen as part of the Kitchen & Market “boutique grocery chain” that says it is “chef- driven” and “primarily focused on bringing fresh products and meal kits to market.”

“I am so excited that we are opening a store in Madison Valley,” Stephanie King, Kitchen & Market’s founder and CEO, said in the announcement of the store’s opening. “Madison Valley has long been a neighborhood of fabulous customers of Kitchen & Market via our delivery service and now they can visit us in person.”

The change for the market across the street from neighborhood anchor Cafe Flora is another burst of life for the neighborhood’s struggling business community as it has asked for more support to make it through this final year of construction to create the new RapidRide G rapid bus line to connect the waterfront to Madison Valley via First Hill and Capitol Hill along E Madison. Continue reading

HoneyHole, now part of Rumba’s food and drink family, ready to reopen on Capitol Hill

(Image: HoneyHole)

HoneyHole will reopen soon under new ownership and a much more stable future befitting the popular sandwich joint’s decades serving the neighborhood.

CHS reported here in December on efforts to revive HoneyHole by restaurateur Travis Rosenthal who has grown a family of popular Capitol Hill and Seattle food and drink venues including E Pike rum bar Rumba and its post-Tiki sibling Inside Passage.

The deal is now done and Rosenthal’s Pike Street Restaurant Group is taking over the 700-block E Pike bar and sandwich counter. Continue reading

Harrell, Chief Diaz respond with more police, calls for change in state gun restrictions after student shot and woman killed in 23rd Ave gun violence

A bullet hole and shattered safety glass in the Metro bus stop in front of GHS (Images: CHS)

There are again more police and private security in place around Garfield High, the largest public high school serving Seattle’s Central District and Capitol Hill, after area gun violence injured a student at a 23rd Ave bus stop and left a woman dead on the sidewalk earlier this week.

Parents and the community are looking for a larger response as city officials and Seattle Police Department leadership say they are doing everything they can to make the area safer and solve the crimes.

SPD Chief Adrian Diaz told the audience at a Thursday night public safety forum held at the city’s central library that he expects “resolution soon” in the Wednesday afternoon shootout between two vehicles that sent a 17-year-old Garfield student caught in the crossfire to the hospital with a serious injury to her leg and left bullet holes and shattered glass amid crowds of students leaving campus for the day.

Investigative prospects are more dim for bringing justice in the shooting that followed hours later and only blocks away that left a woman in her 30s dead on the sidewalk at 23rd and Main.

Police have said they do not believe the shootings are related but have limited evidence from the slaying that took place on the backside of the busy AutoZone parking lot. Diaz said Thursday night the S Main killing happened just around the corner from a stepped up police presence at 23rd and Jackson following the Garfield shooting and only a block from the “Mobile Precinct” truck and camera system the department has parked in the lot since last fall’s driveby shooting that damaged a childcare center full of children and brought community calls for more to be done to address public safety issues in the area.

The killing happened despite the increased number of officers in the area. The deadly gunshots could be clearly heard during an officer’s radio call with East Precinct dispatch as police were making a delayed response to a reported altercation in the area. Continue reading

Massive art donation comes with a $25M gift for 12th Ave — plans for a new Seattle University Museum of Art

(Image: Seattle University)

Dick Hedreen (Image: Yosef Kalinko/Seattle University)

A 12th Ave Seattle University parking lot could become a new art museum and the center of the school’s art holdings as property developer Dick Hedreen has announced he is gifting his family’s 200-piece, $300 million collection of paintings, pottery, photography, etchings, and sculptures to the Jesuit university on the southern edge of Capitol Hill.

The rare handover comes with a $25 million donation to begin the development of the Seattle University Museum of Art, “a teaching museum that will showcase centuries of art history and be a true learning extension of the classroom,” Seattle U says. Continue reading

Affordable housing champion Chopp stepping aside in the 43rd — Shaun Scott announces run

Chopp at the recent 43rd District Town Hall

(Image: Statewide Poverty Action Network)

A progressive Democrat and champion of affordable housing who held off repeated challenges from the left, Frank Chopp announced this week he will not seek reelection to the state House of Representatives and is bringing three decades representing the 43rd District in Olympia to an end.

“I’ve always been driven by the belief that everyone deserves a foundation of home, health, and hope,” Chopp said in his announcement. “These are the basic needs for economic success, for better education outcomes, for restoring lives and reaching potential. I am proud to have played a role in helping people throughout Washington gain access to services and support that help them gain independence and realize their dreams.”

Shaun Scott of the Statewide Poverty Action Network who lost his 2019 race against Alex Pedersen to represent the University District on the Seattle City Council has announced a run for the now open 43rd District seat.

Chopp’s final political race in 2022 turned out to be an anticlimax. CHS reported here on the Democratic leaders in Capitol Hill’s state legislative district running unopposed. In recent reelection races, Chopp’s biggest political battles have been fending off younger, hugely more progressive challengers in the primary including community organizer and sex worker Sherae Lascelles in 2020. Chopp was also able to make a stand against upstart Socialist Alternative candidates including his 2012 defeat of Kshama Sawant which put her on her path to a decade at Seattle City Hall.

Along the way, Chopp has faced only tepid competition from Republican challengers. Continue reading

On day of gun violence in the Central District, woman shot and killed near 23rd and Jackson

A woman was shot and killed Wednesday night on S Main just blocks from a shooting earlier in the day outside Garfield High School and around the corner from where an October 2023 driveby damaged a child care center and brought citywide attention to ongoing gun violence around 23rd and Jackson.

The Seattle Police Department says the woman was found down on the sidewalk along S Main near 24th Ave after gunfire was heard by police in the area just after 8 PM. The gunshots could be heard clearly during an officer’s radio call with dispatch.

Police were called to 23rd and Jackson earlier in the night to a reported assault related to the shooting.

Arriving officers attempted life-saving measures until Seattle Fire Department arrived. “Despite all life-saving efforts, the woman died at the scene,” SPD reports. Continue reading

Student hit in shooting outside Garfield High School — UPDATE

One teen was reported shot in the leg and police were searching for a possible suspect vehicle in a shooting outside 23rd Ave’s Garfield High School as school got out for the day.

Seattle Fire was called to the scene around 2:42 PM to treat and transport a shooting victim to the hospital.

SPD reported shell casings were located in a crosswalk at Jefferson and 23rd amid crowds of students leaving school. Continue reading

Mayor to launch series of public safety forums to focus on Seattle’s ‘top issue’

The CARE car — Seattle leaders hope to grow the city’s still tiny Community Assisted Response and Engagement effort (Image: City of Seattle)

Seattle leaders including Mayor Bruce Harrell and the new members of the Seattle City Council have promised a new focus on public safety in the city. Thursday night, Harrell will begin an initiative to address crime and street disorder in Seattle with a series of forums including meetings in each of the Seattle Police Department’s five precincts where the mayor says he is inviting the public to hear “his vision for creating a safer Seattle.”

“Public safety is not just our first charter responsibility as a City, it is the top issue for our community today. I look forward to meeting with neighbors to hear their concerns and ideas, and to share the actions we are taking,” Harrell said in Tuesday’s announcement of the Thursday night forum.

It’s not clear why the Harrell administration provided only a few days notice on the forum. In-person attendance will require registration. The forum will also be streamed live by the city.

Harrell said this week’s session will be followed by additional forums held across the city, one in each of SPD’s five precincts including the East Precinct covering Capitol Hill and the Central District. Continue reading

Victim in serious condition, police search for alleged armed assailant after E Olive Way rock beating

A suspect was reportedly pointing a handgun at nightlife patrons and passersby and one person suffered serious head injuries after being hit by a rock and knocked out during an E Olive Way street fight late Tuesday night.

Seattle Police were called to E Olive Way’s Crescent Lounge just before midnight where the victim in the assault had been brought inside after being struck in the head and knocked unconscious in the fight involving five or six people including the reported gunman.

Seattle Fire provided an “assault with weapons” level response to the call to treat the 40-year-old victim before transporting him to Harborview in serious condition. Continue reading