The last Capitol Hill laundromat — and one of the last in Seattle — has closed. Crystal Clean Laundry, the sister laundromat to Capitol Hill’s City Market, was shut down over the 4th of July holiday.
Destined for wrecking ball, the laundry’s management says increased vandalism and ripoffs at the business made it difficult to stay open. Theft of the $200 a pop laundry carts was also a factor.
“It made no sense staying open when it cost more to have to fix the machines when they are broken into and replace the stolen carts,” the laundromat’s ownership said in a statement.
Crystal Clean was already destined for demolition.
It and its neighboring sibling business City Market are slated to be torn down to make way for an eight-story, mass timber, mixed-use apartment building at the site. Development firm Barrientos Ryan said the return of City Market on the ground floor of the new building is in the plans. It is unlikely there will space for a new laundromat in the project.
(Image: King County)
CHS reached to City Market and Crystal Clean owner Kurt Vold to ask more about the closure and any updates on when work will begin on the redevelopment but he did not respond beyond the laundromat’s statement.
Now one of the few old-school laundromats left in Seattle has suddenly shuttered. Most apartment buildings in the area have laundry rooms and the trend in multifamily development has been toward including washers and dryers in units, but for anyone who depended on access to the machines, the change was abrupt.
It’s always possible another entrepreneur will step in to try to clean up on the opportunity. But it will be a challenge. When 12th Ave laundromat Lather Daddy lost its lease in 2019, owner Luis Moreno told CHS Capitol Hill commercial rent was too high to make reopening the shop in a new space profitable.
Here’s what the new eight-story, mass timber City Market building — with corrugated steel and Japanese climbing vines — will look like
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What a loss. I live in a Capitol Hill Housing apartment which often doesn’t have functional laundry room machines and does nothing to fix the issue with their contractor. So this was the only way to get laundry done, on my income, when loss of our machines occurred. Very sad to see this news.
I hear you. When I used to rent in Capitol Hill, I occasionally frequented the laundromat on 15th Ave, a few blocks down from the Safeway (That’s gone I take it?) when I lived in an apartment where the machines were either constantly broken or full. This will be really difficult for people who rent in the old buildings with common machines and landlords who don’t fix them or get better ones.
I don’t know where I’m going to wash my rugs now.
I miss Lather Daddy on 12th like you would not believe.
I just want to lease that building…know anything about that?
I lived in a building on Denny and Boylston that didn’t have a functional washing machine for months. This was my only option. So many books read waiting on my laundry at this place. End of an Era.
All is not lost. The laundromat in Madrona on 34th next to Molly Moon ice cream remains open.
Seems like an easy walk from Capitol Hill with my laundry.
He has wings.