(Images: Runberg Architecture Group)

The Capitol Hill developers behind the project to transform the old QFC block of 15th Ave E into new apartments, businesses, and plaza space want the new building to give the neighborhood a vibrant streetscape with a mix of trees old and new, small retail spaces to add to the street’s eclectic mix, and 170 new homes.

The only catch? They’ll need an extra story to pull it off. Wednesday, Hunters Capital will present its first public proposal for the property to the East Design Review Board and start the discussion about the tradeoff it is requesting to allow the project to reach six stories high in exchange for keeping two mature and well-loved European hornbeam trees on the north end of the property along E Republican.

“The scale of the property provides an opportunity to develop a variety of retail and restaurant spaces that will fit into the scale of the existing commercial context,” Hunters Capital’s design proposal reads. “Enhancing pedestrian life and access through the neighborhood is another priority that will contribute to the viability of the commercial spaces and help make this project a destination that draws neighborhood residents and visitors alike.”

416 15th Ave E

Design Review Early Design Guidance for a 6-story, 170-unit apartment building with retail. Parking for 99 vehicles proposed.

View Design Proposal  (28 MB)    

CHS reported here on the summer outreach effort from Hunters as it prepared for the public design process to redevelop the block home to a Rudy’s Barbershop, longtime neighborhood convenience store ShopRite, and the adjacent grocery and surface parking lot that hosted a grocery since 1944 until QFC exited the street in 2021 in a tiff with the Seattle City Council over COVID-19 hazard pay.

Now Hunters, the Runberg Architecture Group, and Jett Landscape Architecture + Design, are ready for the first public test of their plans for the property.

The European hornbeam tree swap will be a core component of discussion. Hunters says shaping the building to allow preservation of the one tree considered a prized “tier 2” specimen and one of its brethren will help transition the project to the adjacent lower zoned areas surrounding to the north but that they’ll need another floor of height to justify the zig-zag design. The requested departure from area zoning to allow the extra height would result in a 170 or so unit building — about 22 more than a five-story building that doesn’t leave room for the E Republican trees.

The developers say E Republican is also due for a street parking overhaul. SDOT has said it will either “remove all parking on the south side of E Republican St. and maintain the angled parking on the north side of the street (total count: 6 stalls),” or “change all angled parking to parallel parking on both sides of E Republican St. (total count: 4 stalls).”

By the way, 15th Ave E’s rainbow bus stop platform will be staying through any streetscape changes on the block, according to the plans.

In all, the preferred “S” design from Hunters would preserve the E Republican canopy, provide space for a larger 15th Ave E plaza to break up the retail facade and provide additional corner retail space, allow for a north podium deck, make room for a “pedestrian through block” breezeway on the south end of the project next to the old firehouse building, keep the back alley from becoming too tightly crowded, and allow for residential use of the alley, the developers say.

The “S” design would create 170 new apartment units in a six-story building, with about 10,000 square feet of retail space, and underground parking for 99 vehicles.

Those 99 spots will be popular. CHS reported here the changes the city is making this month to add paid street parking to 15th Ave E — one of the last major commercial areas in the city’s core to add the meters — to try to free up more space amid near insatiable demand.

As for those 10,000 square feet, if a major grocer is coming back to the block, they’ll have to find a new way to do it. Hunters says its retail plan is focused on creating business spaces more like the rest of the street than the old grocery space.

“The storefronts along the west side of 15th Ave E range in size considerably, with some being as narrow as 14’ and others being as wide as 50’,” the design proposal reads. “We anticipate a range of sizes in this project to mimic the existing variety of scale, color and materiality already present along the street.”

The planned storefronts will be relatively tiny, a community priority that has been frequently ignored in recent Capitol Hill development — View Larger

Hunters says the mix “of glazing styles, materials, colors, signing, lighting and canopies” will “create diversity and interest along the street.” But it probably won’t make room for a big supermarket.

Meanwhile, the project to redevelop the neighborhood’s Safeway a few blocks away is further along in the design process but has hit a bump after the neighboring New Age church filed an appeal of the approval of the development’s plan for a new 50,000-square-foot grocery store, new apartments, and a massive underground parking lot on the site at 15th and John.

UPDATE 10/12/2023 9:42 AM: The board has moved the project through to the recommendation phase after a Wednesday night decision following the review session. Questions around the requested departures — including the key element of the proposed sixth story — will be answered completely in the next review. That session has not yet been scheduled.

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