The same morning we ran this story — Is developer thawing out plan for People’s Parking lot mixed-use project? — based on a filing with DPD and a flurry of rumors sent to our inbox, a survey crew was in the lot at Belmont and Pine wearing orange safety vests and checking out the lay of the land. CHS neighbor Scott Sands, a former freelance journalist, by the way, chatted up the crew and added a comment to our report:
I spoke with two men surveying the property today.
They told me that plans are for a 108 unit apartment complex, six stories above ground and two below. It will take up most of the lot with some area of buffer between the adjacent buildings.
Construction could begin as early as December.
It’s not the same as getting it directly from the developer’s mouth but Murray Franklin has been shy of attention on this project. Not shocking given past controversies and possible future opposition. The Slog also throw an anonymous source in the mix saying there will be a groundbreaking by March 2011.
The Belmont-Pine project isn’t the only on-ice development suddenly being thawed. We reported in August that the project that will eventually replace the Undrearms Apartments on East Union was moving forward with filings to permit the demolition of the buildings on the lot.
And that’s not the only demolition being planned on the Hill. The Cascadia Center project will require the demolition of the former CC Attle’s home on Madison. The demo permit has not yet been filed on that project.
Meanwhile, over at 11th and Pine, there will be no complete demo as the historical facade of the Sun Electric building will be integrated into that project when construction begins. The paperwork for that project’s construction is still underway, according to DPD.
Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. There were no orange vests or any technical surveying. I spoke with one of the two men wearing civilian clothes and carrying clipboards, who had parked their SUV in the middle of the lot and were basically just looking the place over. I asked if they were here because the building permit had been renewed and the gentleman spoke with authority about the specifics of the planned construction.
I hadn’t approached them as a journalist so I didn’t get their names or titles, but the interaction was enough to convince me they were the heralds of the end of this bit of rugged open space, and the end of my sunshine in the south side of the building next door.
Interesting. Either your guys changed — or I saw a different group (in orange vests with clipboards) at the site. I saw them as they toured the perimeter so perhaps they donned their safety vests to avoid being trampled by the Pine pedestrian flow.