Tag Archives: 15th Ave

If they can turn Seattle’s old Bed Bath & Beyond into a new arts center, just think what they can do with the shuttered Capitol Hill Amazon Fresh

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The old Value Village building was temporarily used as a pop-up arts and gathering space

With Capitol Hill suddenly faced with an empty 8,000-square-foot grocery, here is hope for filling some of the neighborhood’s most gaping retail holes with life and activity. The Capitol Hill and First Hill-connected producers behind Bumbershoot have announced they will put downtown’s emptied Bed Bath & Beyond into motion as Cannonball Arts, hosting everything from art exhibits, to concerts, to fashion shows when it opens in spring 2025.

New Rising Sun, now signed up to produce Bumbershoot for the next decade under a leadership group including Steven Severin of Neumos and Life on Mars, and Greg Lundgren of First Hill’s shuttered Museum of Museums and sorely missed Vito’s, announced plans for the new venue and said they are ready to get to work creating two stories of contemporary and performing arts space in the former 3rd Ave store.

“Cannonball Arts gives Bumbershoot a year-round platform to celebrate the wealth of creativity that calls the Pacific Northwest home,” Lundgren, co-producer and creative director of the organization, said. “It is ambitious in scale and scope, will contribute to the revitalization of downtown Seattle, and train the next generation of makers, producers and curators using Cannonball Arts as classroom.” Continue reading →

The Punk Rock Flea Market is coming back to Capitol Hill — Here’s when it will open and how long it might stay

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(Image: Punk Rock Flea Market)

What began in an abandoned basement bar beneath the Low Income Housing Institute headquarters in Belltown led to the birth of the Punk Rock Flea Market. This June, PRFM will hold its first weekend sale in the former QFC on 15th Ave E that has been shuttered since 2021 to activate that space until the building is demolished to make way for new housing and new businesses.

“We’re ‘punk rock’ because we’re collaborative and very DIY, not because we adhere to any particular fashion or music choices. We’re open and friendly and weird, and everyone is welcome to buy and sell with us,” Joshua Okrent, PRFM founder, tells CHS.

While the public process and financing pathway for redevelopment can be lengthy and bumpy, the property’s developer Hunters Capital has been searching for short-term tenants to try to keep the block active until the six-story, 170-unit, mixed-use development with about 10,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space can dig in.

“The Punk Rock Flea Market will be here through the end of the year and will continue on a month-to-month basis next year,” Jill Cronauer, chief operating officer of Hunters Capital, told CHS.

The agreement means there will be time for multiple PRFM event over the coming months. The first is planned for June 22nd and 23rd the weekend before the big 2024 Pride festivities. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill 7-Eleven robbed at gunpoint

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A Capitol Hill 7-Eleven was victimized by an armed robbery late last Tuesday night.

According to a Seattle Police brief on the incident and East Precinct radio updates, an accomplice and the masked gunman entered the 15th and Denny store and pointed a “black semi-auto” handgun at the cashier just after 11:30 PM. The suspects then proceeded to grab cash out of the register before fleeing the store.

Police say it was reported the suspects fled the area in a silver SUV but officers were unable to locate the vehicle.

There were no reported injuries and no arrests.

 

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A new look but same neighborhood vibes at 15th Ave’s original Victrola Coffee

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There is a new look for an old coffee friend on 15th Ave E. One of Capitol Hill’s favorite hangouts has given its interior an overhaul with new seating and benches and a new layout.

Part of the neighborhood for 24 years, the original Victrola Coffee cafe is rolling out the upgrades as it also makes changes to its food menu.

The new setup and seating in the old favorite comes in changing times for Capitol Hill’s daytime hangouts emerging from the pandemic. Some of Capitol Hill’s best spaces changed forever in that time. Most recently, E Pike’s former Kaladi Brothers cafe has begun a new life as a home for the Capitol Hill expansion of beer hall and bottle shop the Last Drop. Continue reading →

Hearing Examiner dismisses Capitol Hill new age church’s appeal against neighboring Safeway redevelopment

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(Image: Weber Thompson)

(Image: CHS)

The Seattle Hearing Examiner has dismissed an appeal from a Capitol Hill new age church, upholding a city land use decision last year giving the go ahead to the planned redevelopment of the neighborhood’s Safeway to create a new 50,000-square-foot grocery store, new apartments, and a massive underground parking lot at 15th and John.

The decision eliminates one of the last major public process barriers to moving forward on the major new development project set to reshape the key intersection connecting the Capitol Hill core to the neighborhood’s eastern edges along 15th, 19th, and 23rd Avenues. Construction is still a long ways off with process around demolition permits and more still to come.

It the ruling, deputy hearing examiner Susan Drummond upheld the city’s 2023 decision to issue the crucial “master use permit” to the project as it completed multiple rounds of design review, dismissing the Aquarian Foundation’s arguments that the development would not be compatible with the neighboring converted two-story, 5,500-square-foot house on the $2.5 million 15th Ave E parcel that has been home to the New age religious organization for decades.

The group is one of the oldest corporations on Capitol Hill, formed as a church in the 1950s by a group including founder Keith Milton Rhinehart. Aquarian’s Rev. Cathryn Reid, who state records show also serves as the church’s treasurer, argued the organization’s case in front of the examiner, according to records from the procedures. Continue reading →

With bargains, bands, and booze, Punk Rock Flea Market will take over Capitol Hill QFC destined for redevelopment

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A scene from PRFM’s 2017 stay in the Central District

 

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(Image: Punk Rock Flea Market)

The Punk Rock Flea Market, an art, vintage and thrift gathering that has grown to serve as a salve for some of the pains of Seattle’s changes and redevelopment, is returning to Capitol Hill to fill a gap in 15th Ave E.

Organizers for the market announced the PRFM will next take over the street’s shuttered QFC grocery as the property works its way through Seattle’s development process on its way to creating a new mixed-use building on the block. They’ll be moving in this May.

“It’s official! PRFM has a new home in Seattle! as of May 1 you’ll find your favorite community of artists, craftspeople, vintage vendors, music dealers and uncategorizable misfits at the former QFC on 15th Ave. on Capitol Hill!!!,” the announcement reads. “Within easy reach of the light rail, not to mention your favorite cafes, bars, pot shops and bookstores.”

The flea market was last doing its thing in downtown Seattle but has visited Capitol Hill and the Central District before. Continue reading →

15 years on 15th Ave E — Red Chair Salon still rocking as more changes come to ‘the quiet side’ of Capitol Hill

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(Image: Red Chair Salon)

 

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Fifteen years on 15th Ave E makes a pretty nice headline. With the business tumult and redevelopment changes underway on the street that used to be known as the quiet side of Capitol Hill, a 15-year run is worth celebrating. From its humble beginning as a tiny, punk-rock themed beauty joint in 2009, Red Chair Salon is marking its 15th anniversary on Capitol Hill under owners Amy and Howie Sennet.

“I really can’t believe that we’ve made it 15 years. Honestly. We need to knock on everything. With as much love and dedication as we have put in it and our staff… Everyone’s had a hand in our success,” Howie Sennet said.

The two owners remain highly involved with Howie running the back end of the business, while Amy, with her background with hair styling for 25 years, works with other hairdressers in the salon.

“I thought the idea of us expanding bigger was never gonna happen. And we just got busier and had great stylists… I never imagined what we would become,” Amy said. Continue reading →

Reborn and revived on Capitol Hill, Kedai Makan readying Belltown expansion

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Sayap Ayam Pedas wings and a coconut shake, please (Image: Kedai Makan)

First, Kedai Makan came back from restaurant limbo with a new life at 15th and Pine. Now, it is getting ready to expand to Belltown.

The Capitol Hill Malaysian favorite says it is working on the new 1st Ave location and ready to expand from the E Pine corner where it reopened last year under after founders Kevin Burzell and Alysson Wilson decided they were ready to step away.

At 15th and Pine, the new Kedai Makan is continuing the traditions started at the original Bellevue Ave location and the many farmers markets where the Kedai Makan approach to Malaysian flavors were perfected. It has been a happy transition for the collaboration from Khampaeng “KP” Panyathong with Joe and Lucy Ye of Hangry Panda who originally came together to form the short-lived Money Frog concept.

Kedai Makan now moves forward under the Hagnry Panda ownership.

The old Bellevue Kedai Makan spot is now home to the Jilted Siren lounge.

Permit records show work is underway to make upgrades for the 1st Ave location where “Asian fusion” restaurant Lai Rai closed last summer.

Kedai Makan says only that the new location will open “soon.”

Kedai Makan is located at 1449 E Pine. Learn more at kedaimakansea.com.

 

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Multiple dumpster fires set overnight on Capitol Hill

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Picture shared with CHS from a witness to one 15th Ave response

Seattle Fire responded to a series of fires set across Capitol Hill overnight.

According to emergency radio updates, crews handled multiple fires set to dumpsters and recycling receptacles including a large fire that broke out near a building in the 1600 block of 15th Ave early Tuesday morning. SFD also responded to another significant 15th Ave dumpster fire and smaller trash fires including one reported near 12th and Pine. Continue reading →

Design review: Developers want QFC block project to make room for 10 businesses, 170 apartments, 1 ‘tier 2’ tree — and they want to rise 6 stories on 15th Ave E to do it — UPDATE

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(Images: Runberg Architecture Group)

The Capitol Hill developers behind the project to transform the old QFC block of 15th Ave E into new apartments, businesses, and plaza space want the new building to give the neighborhood a vibrant streetscape with a mix of trees old and new, small retail spaces to add to the street’s eclectic mix, and 170 new homes.

The only catch? They’ll need an extra story to pull it off. Wednesday, Hunters Capital will present its first public proposal for the property to the East Design Review Board and start the discussion about the tradeoff it is requesting to allow the project to reach six stories high in exchange for keeping two mature and well-loved European hornbeam trees on the north end of the property along E Republican.

“The scale of the property provides an opportunity to develop a variety of retail and restaurant spaces that will fit into the scale of the existing commercial context,” Hunters Capital’s design proposal reads. “Enhancing pedestrian life and access through the neighborhood is another priority that will contribute to the viability of the commercial spaces and help make this project a destination that draws neighborhood residents and visitors alike.” Continue reading →