Concerns from neighbors about the parking lot under construction at Bank of America’s planned temporary location on the 600 block of Broadway appear to have been quelled by some landscaping, a new garden for a neighborhood restaurant and the removal of a brick wall. And, yes, getting community members and developers around the same table helped a lot, too.

“It’s all looking really good,” said nearby resident Mike Klozar, who recently started a North Broadway Community Facebook group when SRM began moving forward on plans to relocate Bank of America from East Thomas Street in order to make way for the 230 Broadway project.  “They’re putting in everything we want.”

Making room for the parking lot required SRM Development to demolish two buildings on 10th Avenue East, which raised eyebrows among neighbors who were concerned about auto traffic the parking lot might attract, the loss of housing, and the possible loss of the block’s residential character.  However, attitudes appear to have changed.

Klozar and Mike Frost, who manages the 614 10th Ave. E. apartment building across the street from the development site, have been meeting the past several weeks with Andy Loos of SRM to resolve some of their concerns.

“We didn’t want to ask for too much,” said Klozar.  “We only wanted to ask for what was right.”

The project now includes a six-foot-wide, 35-foot-long planting strip, a portion of which will provide garden space for Poppy, Jerry Traunfeld’s thali-inspired eatery next door.  Kate Johnson, a manager at Poppy, confirmed that she had heard about the restaurant’s potential new garden and is excited to see it happen.  Klozar said that SRM was also willing to relinquish one space of parking to allow for a planted buffer between the parking lot and the sidewalk.  The lot on 10th Avenue will now consist of 19 spaces, with another 20 reportedly being leased from the existing lot at the corner of Broadway East and East Mercer Street.

Other changes include the removal of a brick wall to allow greater pass-through between adjacent lots and the relocation of a planned parking attendant’s booth from the front to the rear of the parking lot, which Klozar thinks will be more in keeping with the block’s residential character.

In a statement, Bank of America’s King County commercial market executive Bob Landers said the bank is committed to being a good neighbor and working with the communities they serve. “While we do not own this location, we worked with the developer and our property manager to meet with some of the neighbors who contacted us and to better understand their desires before completing the project,” Landers said.  “We have received positive feedback on the project overall, and in response to feedback, the builder included some additional landscaping.  We’re looking forward to moving into this location and continuing to serve our customers.”