FEATURED STORIES
APRIL 2019
SEATTLE HOME & REAL ESTATE
MARKET UPDATE LISA TURNURE PAGE 7
www.citylivingseattle.com
Review boards clear Midtown Commons FRAGRANCE MAY BE TOXIC PAGE 5
SAFE HARBOR PAGE 3
MONTLAKE MARKET RESULTS
Lake Union Partners to begin two-year construction in July BY BRANDON MACZ After four rounds of critical review of the Midtown Center superblock redevelopment, Lake Union Partners received the green light on Wednesday to proceed with the master use permit process. LUP principal Pat Foley tells MPT plans are to begin the two-year construction of Midtown Commons on July 15, starting with the demolition of existing commercial buildings at the southeast corner of 23rd and Union. A contentious project among longtime Central District residents concerned about their quickly gentrifying neighborhood, Midtown
Commons is a seven-story mixed-use development that will spread 430 apartment units across three buildings. About half of those are proposed to be priced at affordable housing levels for incomes between $28,000 and $60,000. The northwest building will have a 12,000-square-foot drug store anchor tenant, which is expected to allow LUP to offer smaller retail spaces at below market to minorityowned businesses. The Midtown Commons design team had its last presentation before both the East and Central Area design review boards in December. The boards joined forces to address the large development after residents protested last July that the East Design Review Board was not representative of the neighborhood, as its members are mostly white architects from Capitol Hill. The Central Area Design Review Board had just been formed at that point. LUP hosted three community open houses last fall to help inform a refreshed design that
Safeway redevelopers ready to begin design process Residents give feedback at March open house BY BRANDON MACZ Developers behind plans to level the old Queen Anne Safeway and replace it with a store double its size, with roughly 280 apartments on top, took community feedback one last time on Tuesday before proceeding with designs for the project. barrientosRyan managing partner Maria Barrientos said input gathered from concept boards at the March 26 open house would be incorporated into plans before applying for Early Design Guidance. The EDG packet will be shared with the Queen Anne Community Council’s Land Use Review Committee and during another community meeting before being submitted to Seattle’s Department of Construction and Inspections, she said, to make sure nothing was missed. Once the packet is submitted, the development team will have about two months to prepare for its presentation before the West Design Review Board. The Safeway will be replaced with a new urban concept store similar
SAFEWAY, Page 6
Image courtesy of Weinstein A+U The 430-unit Midtown Commons mixed-use apartment development received approval from the East and Central Area design review boards on Wednesday, March 13.
better represented the neighborhood and its strong African-American roots. But the East and Central review board members agreed during a second recommendation meeting in December that the design relied too heavily on art and that they lacked enough information about its context and function to pass it through. Board members said during the third recommendation meeting on March 13 they were put more at ease by the addition of Vivian Phillips as the project’s communications and arts advocacy lead. Phillips is a former member of the Historic
MIDTOWN, Page 6
PAGE 5
UTILITY ROOM UPDATES PAGE 8
HOME & GARDEN EXPERTS PAGE 10
DON’T SETTLE for limited service, or limited results.
Ken Graff, REALTOR® International President’s Premier KenGraffHomes.com (206) 498-7818 kengraff@cbbain.com