Development

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, which owns and operates the Ballard's Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, is seeking public comments regarding a draft report on an evaluation and management proposal for the Corps’ property on the south side of the Locks near the fish ladder.

The draft South Entry Landscape Report is available online for review under the announcement section here or can be downloaded with the link at the beginning of this article. The Army Corps of Engineers is accepting comments on the document through Oct. 15.

The Army Corps of Engineers initiated the study in response to the need for an evaluation and management proposal for the south entry landscape, according to an Army Corps of Engineers press release. The report provides a historic context for the property and will help guide decisions for managing the landscape features, according to the press release.

After news was leaked to the media in August that Fred Meyer was scrapping its decade-long plan for a sunken, mixed-use Fred Meyer, store officials met with the Greenwood Phinney Chamber of Commerce Sept. 10 to further explain that decision and expand on the new remodel plan.

Tom Gibbons, Fred Meyer director of real estate, reiterated that Fred Meyer moving away from the planned redevelopment is strictly an economic decision. The economy is in bad shape, and the development would have cost as much as two standard Fred Meyer stores, he said.

The scrapped plan was for a $91 million multi-use development, including a 170,000-square-foot, underground Fred Meyer topped with additional retail and residential space, as well as a three-story parking garage.

In addition to the high cost, the project was over budget by as much as half the cost of a new Fred Meyer, said Melinda Merrill, director of public affairs for Fred Meyer.

The early designs presented Aug. 23 for a four-story residential development on 15th Avenue Northwest across from Ballard High School drew some concern from the Northwest Design Review Board on parking, building size and proximity to neighboring single-family residential homes.

Plans presented by Clark Design Group at the Early Design Guidance Meeting show an 82,000-square-foot development with 101 residential units, five live-work units and parking for 68 in a ground-level garage on the vacant lot located at 6559 15th Ave. N.W.

The two vacant houses on the site will be demolished, and the site will be leveled to match the sidewalk along 15th Avenue. entry for the parking garage will be off Northwest 67th Street.

Clark Design Group presented three potential designs for the project. The preferred design, Alternative C, features an articulated facade on both the 15th Avenue and the residential sides of the building to reduce the bulk of the building and add visual interest.

After more than 10 years of working with the city and the neighborhood to develop a satisfactory replacement for the 30-year-old Greenwood store, Fred Meyer has announced it is scrapping plans for a new $91 million, mixed-use development in favor of a much cheaper remodel of the existing store.

The most recent design for the new Greenwood Fred Meyer development, which was approved by the Northwest Design Review Board in September 2009, included a mostly below-ground, 170,000-square-foot Fred Meyer with a three-story parking garage, additional retail space along Northwest 85th Street and 250 apartment units.

The project was $13 million over budget. Melinda Merrill, public affairs director for Fred Meyer, said they knew the project – the most expensive Fred Meyer development ever – would be over budget going in, but $13 million is too much to cover.

The remodeled Fred Meyer, located at 100 N.W. 85th St., will include groceries and apparel and be more high-end than a typical Fred Meyer, Merrill said. When the neighboring Greenwood Market's lease is up, it will be converted into Fred Meyer's garden center and home department, she said.

The freshly occupied and rehabilitated Kolstrand Building represents the newest outpost of the Ballard Avenue commercial district. Situated at that street's southern end among a handful of industrial businesses, the building and its tenants are standing at the retail core's final frontier.

The Kolstrand Building, originally built in the early 1900s and occupied by the Kolstrand Marine Supply Company for 80 years, was restored by evo Properties in the past year. In late July and early August, its first commercial tenants – Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Dutch Bike Co. and The Walrus and the Carpenter – moved in.

Ballardites got their first look at the six-story, 107-unit apartment building planned to replace the former Ballard Library on 24th Avenue Northwest during an Aug. 9 early design guidance meeting.

Architectural firm Weber Thompson presented three schemes for the development, which will include apartments, commercial space, live/work space and underground parking.

All three schemes split the 200-foot-long building, located between Northwest 57th Street and Northwest 58th Street, into three distinct segments in order to avoid a monolithic presence along the street. They also focus the mass of the building onto 24th Avenue and away from the low-rise residential neighborhood to the west.

Weber Thompson's preferred scheme has commercial space along 24th Avenue with an eight-foot setback from the sidewalk in the middle to create more pedestrian space and allow for spill-out from future commercial tenants.

Live/work apartments would be on the ground level along 58th Street.

Four years after an initial design review meeting for the former Ballard Library site on 24th Avenue Northwest, the development process for the site is restarting with an early design guidance meeting Aug. 9.

The current proposal for the development at 5711 24th Ave. N.W. across from the new Ballard QFC is a commercial, live-work and apartment building with underground parking.

Though more specifics on the proposal will be known at the Aug. 9 meeting, the proposal presented at the 2006 design review meeting was for a 94-unit, mixed-use development with underground parking for 120 vehicles.

The owners of the site, Pryde + Johnson, put the project on hold after that initial meeting because of the high number of other developments, including the Ballard on the Park Apartments across the street and Pryde + Johnson's Hjarta Condos, underway in the area.

In the interim, Abraxus Books was located in the former library space. But, the store moved to Queen Anne in June 2009, and since then the building has been vacant and the regular target of graffiti.

On June 15, the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce reported that Benaroya Companies is close to a deal to sell the former Denny's/Manning's property on the northwest corner of Market Street and 15th Avenue Northwest.

According to the Journal of Commerce, a buyer signed a letter of intent last week for the property – the future home of the Market Street Landing residential and commercial development – and Benaroya Companies expects the sale to close in two to three months.

Benaroya Companies declined to verify those reports or what a sale could mean to the future of the Market Street Landing development as planned.

After a protracted battle over whether or not the former Denny's/Manning's building on the site qualified as a historic landmark, the building was torn down June 24, 2009. In September 2009, the remaining buildings on the site were torn down, and the property has sat empty since.

In fall 2009, Washington Federal Savings announced its proposal for a new building at its Market Street site. Now that those plans appear headed for approval, the owner of the neighboring Carnegie's Restaurant is accusing the Seattle Department of Planning and Development, as well as Carnegie Free Public Library and Washington Federal Savings, of duping the public.

Jerry Brahm, owner of Carnegie's Restaurant, is alleging the designs presented at two public Design Review meetings are not accurate reflections of what will actually be built, and the reality will harm both his business and the historic nature of the Carnegie building.

"It's a lot more than the public knows is going on," Brahm said. "They deserve to know the truth."

A plan submitted by community members to rezone Greenwood's Town Center would allow for a more pedestrian-friendly commercial core, but it could also bring greater development into single-family neighborhoods.

The rezone proposal, which was developed by the Greater Greenwood Design & Development Group, would affect the area between the west side of Third Avenue Northwest, the north side of Northwest 87th Street, Palatine Avenue North and south side of Northwest 85th Street.

Subarea 1 of the proposed rezone, the site of the current Fred Meyer and future Fred Meyer redevelopment, would be changed from a mix of Low-rise, Commercial and Neighborhood Commercial zones into Neighborhood Commercial with a 65-foot height limit.

According to the Greater Greenwood Design & Development Group, the rezone of Subarea 1 could make the area more pedestrian friendly, add housing and promote small businesses. But, it could also increase traffic and demands on parking, reduce neighborhood affordability and change the neighborhood's character.