Seattle Fire says nobody was found inside after a fire did heavy damage Saturday morning to the upper stories of an apartment building under construction near 13th and Mercer.
Heavy smoke was reported billowing from the fourth floor of the new development around 11 AM as firefighters arrived to find the blaze spreading into the building. As ladder crews searched for anybody possibly trapped inside the under-construction structure ,SFD says its engine crews stretched hose lines to the fourth floor and put water on the fire. SFD reports it took 35 minutes to extinguish the blaze. Continue reading →
Those are storm clouds gathering over 13th Ave at Cap Hill Kitchens, the latest location in the nationwide CloudKitchens network of delivery-focused food prep facilities. One local food and drink concept is already bailing on the project after its owner says CloudKitchens unhooked his restaurant start-up from the system and shut him down for raising issues about the company created by ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
Pablo Vazquez of TJ’s Street Tacos says he was shut down by CloudKitchens after raising issues publicly about his dispute with the Los Angeles-based company over rent and what he says was its failure to get necessary permits in place on the schedule promised by the company. Vazquez says the services and systems restaurant concepts like his pay for also have fallen short as the CloudKitchens technology and apps “fail frequently causing money and food loss.”
“There are other businesses that need our help! I will not be silenced!,” Vazquez writes.
Meanwhile, other aspects of the CloudKitchens arrival on Capitol Hill are leaving a bad taste in neighborhood mouths as dinnertime rush hour on 13th Ave has become a parade of stuck and illegally parked delivery cars. Continue reading →
“From back of house to front of house and everything in between, Otter helps your restaurant seamlessly manage daily operations…”
A new restaurant space has opened on Capitol Hill’s 13th Ave offering crafted grilled cheese sandwiches. And Caribbean wraps, sandwiches, and bowls. Indian. Venezuelan. Shawarma. “American Vegetarian” fare. And more Indian.
If you are noticing a swarm of new openings offering delivery from 1525 13th Ave, you might be having your first experience with a new Capitol Hill ghost kitchen. Boo!
It’s not that spooky. CHS reported on the plans for the project taking shape on 13th Ave two years ago last week when a California company made a $2.3 million purchase of the 1929-era building being leased as laboratory space to a provider of chromosome analysis services. Permits showed the company was planning a full overhaul of the building to create a 6,000-square-foot “commercial catering kitchen project” with multiple units for “food processing and craft work” on the block neighboring Capitol Hill leather bar The Cuff. Continue reading →
A new project planned for the 600 block of 13th Ave E will continue the area’s transition away from most of its remaining single family-style housing. This week, the project takes its first bow in front of the East Design Review Board.
Under the project, three adjacent 120(ish)-year-old houses and a detached garage on 13th between E Mercer and E Roy will be torn down. In their place will rise a four-story, 50-foot tall building with about 36 apartments, a trade officials in the housing squeezed city say is necessary for Seattle to address ongoing affordability and homelessness crises.
The developer, Leschi Lakeside Property Management, working with Kirkland-based Milbrandt architects, are proposing the usual three options for how the building might be shaped. As this meeting is the early design guidance phase, most details are focused on the basic massing and layout of the planned development.
All three proposals call for parking access roughly in the middle of the building, and therefore, mid-block, which is less than ideal, but really the only option. All three are roughly rectangular in shape. There are plans to plant new trees along western edge of the property – the back of the building – to give the existing neighbors more privacy. Continue reading →
The City of Seattle team dedicated to homelessness outreach and “resolution” of camps is slated to clear tents, belongings, and debris from encampments that have formed on the blocks around 13th and Howell on Capitol Hill before the end of the month.
The tents and camping have been the subject of complaints including concerns from parishioners and officials at the area’s Greek Orthodox Church of the Assumption. “They are afraid to come. We want them to get [the homeless] help, we want them to get off the streets,” the church community’s president told KOMO. “We don’t have the infrastructure as a small church to do that ourselves.”
The situation has now been widely reported and picked up at the national level by outlets including Fox News.
A spokesperson for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority provided a statement to CHS that echoed what the organization has been telling national media. “We are aware of this particular encampment, and are in communication with outreach teams, but the need for housing and outreach is much greater than current capacity,” the spokesperson said, referring CHS to Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office and the City Hall department that remains tasked with clearances of camps in the city despite the formation of the regional authority. Continue reading →
A boarded-up home destined for demolition to make way for a new 13th Ave townhouse project burned overnight as Seattle Fire assumed a “defensive” strategy to protect nearby homes and structures.
According to radio updates, a neighbor called 911 just before 1 AM to report flames coming from the abandoned 122-year-old house. Continue reading →
Skidmore Janette character sketch for a project planned for the corner of 13th and John
A pair of development proposals about a quarter-mile away from each other on Capitol Hill’s 13th Ave will add a few dozen new housing units to the neighborhood and are making their way through the city’s design review process, though only one of them will appear before the East Design Review Board.
131 13th Ave E
A proposed project on 13th Ave E near the intersection with E John will come before the board Wednesday night in the body’s ongoing virtual review sessions.
On the block currently are a mix of single-family and multi-family homes. The proposal calls for tearing down an existing two-story building and detached garage. The structure was built as a single-family home in 1912, but has since been carved up into three apartments. The 1903-built home on the corner would remain in place and neighbor the new project.
Developer G2 Development proposes an eight-story building, with room for 46-48 units, depending on which development option goes forward. None of the options include any parking for cars. The development is just up John from busy Capitol Hill Station. Continue reading →
A neighborhood fight to save two 40-foot-tall Norway Maples in the planting strip along Capitol Hill’s leafy 13th Ave E will end with the city deciding to stick to its plans for removal despite taking “a second and third look” at the situation, according to an email from the Seattle Department of Transportation.
CHS reported here on the argument from a group of neighbors and arboreal advocates trying to save the trees that the city said needed to be removed to make way for sidewalk and curb improvements part of redevelopment and construction of new townhouses on the street.
“Despite the follow up step to involve SDOT Engineers in additional Divisions to look with fresh eyes for other options, SDOT has made the determination to allow the removal of these trees,” an email sent Thursday by the city reads: Continue reading →
13th Ave’s new Cakes + Trees is attracting pastry-lovers with its homestyle cakes and keeping them coming back with a changing menu, pop-up dinners, and an array of indoor flora for sale.
“Once we got the place and started building it out, we really focused on making a little spot where people could walk in, forget about all the crap, indulge in a piece of cake, enjoy the plants and just not worry about things for a minute,” said Alison Odowski.
The new shop, located on 13th Ave just off of E Jefferson, opened earlier this summer from Seattle food and drink veterans Odowski and Erik Jackson. Jackson has been a chef in Seattle for over 20 years, and Cakes + Trees is the couple’s second small business venture, after creating Good Day Donuts in White Center.
Odowski and Jackson lived in Capitol Hill for three years before moving south to be closer to Good Day Donuts, so they’re familiar with the area.
“We weren’t specifically looking to be over here, or anywhere, but this space [we’re in] dictated the move because we fell in love with it,” said Odowski. “It’s really old, the building was built in 1910, which I love. With so much new stuff in Seattle it’s also fun to be in something really old.” Continue reading →
The fate of two Norway Maples along one of Capitol Hill’s most leaf-covered residential streets seems sealed— but some neighbors are hoping to influence the decision at the last minute. 13th Ave E, with its unique curving streetscape, features a lush tree canopy along most of its length.
But a project moving forward to replace two houses currently occupied as duplexes with five rowhouses has led the city toward the determination that two 40-foot-tall trees in the planting strip along 13th cannot stay. With the new homes comes rebuilt curb ramps, and ripping up the sidewalk to install new ramps will do too much damage to the trees, according to the City of Seattle.
“After more than a year of review of the project site and design requirements, there were no options to meet SDOT Traffic or Urban Forestry standards for public safety and accessibility without removal and replacement of the trees,” reads an email sent by SDOT Arborist Ben Roberts that was posted by a concerned neighbor at the site within the past few days. According to the city, a notice was posted alerting nearby residents that the trees would be removed, but that notice is no longer there as of this week. Continue reading →
