The latest design rendering for Acer House (Via @benmaritz)
It will still require the Seattle City Council’s blessing on a proposed rezone of its corner but the Acer House project, a planned five and a half-story, Afrofuturist design development at 23rd and Cherry, could complete the city’s design review process this week.
A meeting for the final “recommendation” phase is scheduled for Thursday night in front of the Central Area Design Review Board. Continue reading
UPDATE: The developers say the look and feel of planned retail along 15th Ave E could echo this facade from the Hawkins building in Portland (Image: Weber Thompson)
The developer’s preferred massing proposal for the project — UPDATE: Yes, they’ve incorrectly labeled E Thomas as E John (Image: Weber Thompson)
In keeping with Capitol Hill development, an old, single-story building will be torn down and replaced with a five-story building of residential over retail.
This time around, the Safeway at 15th Ave E and E John is up, and early plans for what will replace the store will come before the East Design Review Board this week.
The new project will replace the existing 44,000-square-foot Safeway and its adjacent surface parking lot. The Safeway was built in 1998 and as of 2021, had an appraised value of $39.48 million, according to county tax records.
In its place, developer Greystar and architect Weber Thompson propose a new, 50,000-square-foot Safeway, about market rate 400 apartment units, some new, smaller retail locations and an underground parking lot for about 350 cars, according to the design review proposal.
Design Review Early Design Guidance for 2, 5-story buildings, with a total of 400 apartment units and retail. Parking for 350 vehicles proposed. View Design Proposal (55 MB)
Project Number
The project is coming to a neighborhood suffering a bit of big grocery anxiety. Kroger chose to shut down the nearby 15th Ave E QFC last April in a tiff over the city’s hazard pay requirements and the company continues to hold a lease on that property. With the Ohio-based Kroger apparently uninterested in striking a deal to allow a competitor to use the building, efforts continue to find a Kroger-friendly tenant capable of filling the large space.
By the time the 15th and John Safeway needs to be demolished, hopefully the nearby QFC space will be back in motion with a new grocery store.
The 98,700-square-foot lot is a sort of lopsided square, with a stem sticking up where it touches E Thomas. The existing buildings including the Aquarian Foundation church on the block that are not Safeway will remain as they are.
The design
The developer has proposed three different options, and all three propose activating what is now a long, boring blank wall – that mirrored glass isn’t fooling anybody – along 15th. Continue reading
A rendering of the planned YouthCare Academy at Broadway and Pine
The next wave of major redevelopment to sweep across Broadway will be the stuff of urbanist dreams.
Relatively tall.
Affordable.
And with a minimized, streamlined version of Seattle process to pass through.
This week, plans for an eight-story, 84-unit housing project at the heart of Broadway and Pine will be reviewed by administrators with the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections. The publicly-financed affordable development will move forward without the slower, more expensive public design review process under emergency rules passed in spring of 2020 to help keep design and landmark reviews on track during the pandemic restrictions.
The plans appear worthy of the rush. Part of the YouthCare South Annex project at Broadway and Pine. Community Roots Housing is leading the development to create eight stories of affordable housing and a homeless youth “education and employment academy” in this core of Capitol Hill. The project is expecting to serve 250 to 300 individuals ages 18 to 24 per year at the training academy. Plans call for an “adaptive reuse” project to overhaul and upgrade the existing structures including the historic Booth Building that will remain two to three stories along E Pine and Broadway. The affordable housing apartment building is planned to rise eight stories on the site of the current surface parking lot.
The large Booth Building at the corner and the smaller E.H. Hamlin Building had been part of Seattle Central’s South Annex facility. Community Roots purchased the property from the school to develop the project with YouthCare.
Continue reading
The Broadway face of the new mixed-use development above Capitol Hill Station
By Lilli DeLeon, UW News Lab/Special to CHS
As Seattle continues to grow, the city’s neighborhoods have adapted for more development, greater diversity, and higher density. Yet as neighborhood organizations and local committees continue to work at having a say in the kind of development that is proposed, the process of providing community input and guiding how that development will look has increasingly come into question.
In 2015, the Seattle for Everyone coalition was instrumental in advocating for what we now know as Mandatory Housing Affordability which provides much-needed affordable units in new developments, while also offering development incentives by allowing more units to be developed on a given lot.
The group describes itself as a broad coalition of affordable housing developers and advocates, consisting of “for-profit developers and businesses, labor and social justice advocates, environmentalists, urbanists, and neighbors.”
More recently, this group has turned its focus toward changing the way the design review process happens in Seattle. 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
More than 60 new households could be coming to 11th Ave E in the next few years on Capitol Hill. C&A Development is proposing to replace a three-story, nine-unit building with an eight-story, 70-unit building as the neighborhood two blocks north of Cal Anderson Park and a block from Capitol Hill Station continues to increase in density. Wednesday night, the project will begin the city’s design review process.
Design Review Early Design Guidance for an 8-story, 73- unit apartment building. No parking proposed. View Design Proposal (56 MB)
Project Number
The site is 228 11th Ave E, between East John and East Thomas streets. The area is generally home to two-and three-story buildings, with a few single-family houses peppered in. But with an 80-foot height limit allowed under current zoning, projects like this one are likely to reshape the area over time. The project site is just a few blocks away from another big project, the coming redevelopment of the Safeway on 15th and John.
The existing building dates to 1963. It and its small parking lot will both be removed. Continue reading
(Image: CHS)
Imagine this: five-and-a-half stories of apartments in an Afrofuturist design on 23rd and Cherry with thousands of square feet of childcare and other retail spaces with a public courtyard. Of the 120 apartments, which range in size from about 400-square-foot studios to two-bedroom units between 700 and 800, 30% would be reserved for low-income residents.
Thursday night, the proposed Acer House project will move forward with its first pass through the Seattle design review process:
2210 E Cherry StDesign Review Early Design Guidance for a 5-story, 120-unit apartment building with 4 live-work units, childcare, and retail. No parking proposed. Project relies on a contract rezone. View Design Proposal (23 MB)
Review Meeting: June 10, 2021 5:00 PM
Meeting: https://bit.ly/Mtg3037717 Listen Line: 206-207-1700 Passcode: 187 663 1617
Comment Sign Up: https://bit.ly/Comments3037717
Project Number: 3037717 View Related Records
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Planner: David Sachs — Email comments to [email protected]
Kateesha Atterberry, founder of the Urban Black commercial property management firm working on the development, says the team wants a childcare provider focused on “Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.” Commercial spaces will likely include the existing Flowers Just 4 U, which might be the only Black-owned florist in the Pacific Northwest, with Atterberry saying she would additionally like to see a recording studio and other artists in the five micro retail spaces for small businesses.
On top of the housing affordability, Atterberry also hopes the project, known as Acer House, can be commercially affordable.
“Creating vibrant communities where businesses can thrive and contribute to the local economy is dependent upon them being able to afford the spaces they are in,” Atterberry told CHS in an email. “Our goal is to provide affordable leasing terms and access to resources for additional support. We believe in partnering with businesses to ensure their success because their success is our success.” Continue reading
A rendering shows how the building will fit in on Bellevue Ave E
Already surrounded by buildings ranging from three to eleven stories, the last remaining single family-style homes on a stretch of Capitol Hill’s Bellevue Ave E just off E Olive Way will meet with demolition crews if a project coming before the East Design Review Board is approved. But questions remain about whether or not a small stand of trees will meet the same fate.
The project involves properties and two 1906-built homes that have been lined up for redevelopment for most of the past of decade as new buildings sprung up in the nearby area and filled the neighborhood in.
The around 170-unit project comes amid ongoing demand for new housing in the city despite the COVID-19 crisis and economic fallout.
The plan is for two adjacent parcels at 123 and 127 Bellevue Ave E, roughly where E John hits Bellevue and stops – about a block north of Denny. Each of the two sites is currently occupied by a building constructed in 1906.
One is still a single-family home. The other started that way and has been renovated and expanded to become a 13-unit apartment building with a small parking lot. The proposed building is surrounded on all sides by apartment buildings, ranging from three to 11 stories. Continue reading
Wednesday night will bring two virtual design review meetings that could help set the course for new developments on Capitol Hill in 2021 including a project planned to preserve the E Pike facade of the 1910-built commercial building that has been home to Gay City and Kaladi Brothers as part of an eight-story, incentive boosted mixed-use project.
CHS reported on the early plans from developer Hunters Capital and longtime property owner Chip Ragen to redevelop the corner of E Pike and Belmont.
Wednesday night, the Studio Meng Strazzara-designed project will take its first step in front of the East Design review board. Continue reading
(Images: Studio Meng Strazzara)
A Capitol Hill project dinged for what the developers said was “not being modern enough” is back in the design review process and ready for public comment.
The 523 Hilltop project from Capitol Hill-based developer Hunters Capital — and inspired by the neighborhood’s auto row-era preservation projects — is settling into the final phase of design review under the city’s “administrative” system put in place to keep projects moving during the COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading
