Author Archives: CHS

Kaiser Capitol Hill’s empty 15th Ave retail spaces falling short on agreement with neighborhood

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Kaiser’s 15th Ave streetfront is not completely empty — Moli Bento and Overcast Coffee continue to hold down the fort (Image: CHS)

By Matt Dowell

On 15th and Denny, across from Aviv Hummus Bar and the neighborhood 7-Eleven is a stretch of darkened windows — unoccupied retail space on Kaiser Permanente’s Capitol Hill campus. Up past Thomas in Kaiser’s North Building across from Safeway, more storefronts have gone vacant.

A longstanding agreement with the neighborhood holds Kaiser accountable to renting the space out and keeping the streetfront an active space. But the integrated managed care consortium may not holding up its end of the 15th Ave bargain.

“Kaiser appears uninterested in filling these spaces,” said David Dahl in an email to CHS. Dahl has been part of the Implementation Advisory Committee for Kaiser’s Major Institution Master Plan since its formation in 2018. Seattle requires universities, colleges, and hospitals to have MIMPs, which try to balance the institutions’ needs for special zoning rules with the needs of adjacent communities. The IAC represents the neighborhood in this arrangement.

Kaiser’s MIMP dates back to 1988, when Group Health owned the property. As part of the agreement Kaiser inherited, they’re on the hook for a few promises to the neighborhood. Continue reading →

Broadway’s Comedy/Bar is now Emerald City Comedy Club and is taking on A-list renovations

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Hesseldahl confronting the old walls before the club’s opening in 2023

By Calvin Jay Emerson

Some jokes go over better than others. Broadway’s Comedy/Bar is gone. With the Emerald City Comedy Club, a new start is underway.

If you ever walk north from Capitol Hill Station, you’ll likely pass under an unlit neon arrow. Wrapped around it is a swirling black ribbon, labelled “High Line”, indicating its former purpose. Given that the dive bar of the same name closed five years ago, it now only serves as a reminder of the changes at 210 Broadway E.

Its most recent identity was as Comedy/Bar, a comedy venue that, despite attracting national controversy, has maintained a friendly following. They’ve provided a space to go for a reliable laugh and discover new comedy talent.

However, owner Dane Hesseldahl knew that the club hadn’t reached its full potential. Continue reading →

‘We’re the same squad’ — Break Away grows from vintage on the street to a shop on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Break Away)

By Matt Dowell

This weekend will bring a celebration of the continuation of a mission of reuse and community on Broadway as Magpie Thrift hosts its grand opening.

On E Pike, the guys behind a vintage shop that opened on the street last year are also trying to build something new. They have a few things they’d like to clarify. Though their brick and mortar spot is new, they’ve been in the neighborhood for awhile.

And their name — Break Away— has nothing to do with the split from their co-tenant next door at Late Night Vintage.

And their prices are negotiable!

“There’s a big misconception. People think we broke away from Late Night,” laughs co-owner Eddie Duran. “But we were Break Away before this store was even a thing. We’re still friends [with the Late Night crew]. We hang out.”

Break Away Vintage Market has taken the east half of the upstairs space in the auto-row era building that has been home over the years to cafes and nonprofits before its latest incarnation in retail. Someday, a nine-story mixed-use building will stand at the corner. These days, the spacious former auto showroom is now divided down the middle by a makeshift wall of clothes racks separating Break Away and Late Night Vintage.

Break Away was one of the original vendors at Late Night’s vintage clothing market when it opened on E Pike in 2022. They stepped out from the Late Night umbrella last October. Besides the upstairs room, Break Away has also filled out a cavernous downstairs, another fun space to explore.

“It’s like a maze,” said Duran, “We have so many different rooms.” Continue reading →

King of the Hill: Back on the job and fully stocked with love for E Olive Way

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(Image: CHS)

 

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(Image: Google)

By Domenic Strazzabosco

A year and a half after undergoing emergency brain surgery, Aklilu “Abe” Abraham — the owner of King of the Hill Market on E Olive Way — is back on the job and endlessly thankful for the neighborhood’s emotional and financial support throughout his surgery and recovery.

In many ways, it feels like he can’t show his appreciation to the people and businesses around him enough.

“I’m really thankful to be around the Hill. And I didn’t know until I was sick,” Abraham, who is often referred to as “The King,” said.

In September 2023, Abraham became ill and was rushed to the hospital, where a CAT scan revealed that he had bleeding in his skull that was putting pressure on his brain. A week after he had surgery, a fundraiser was launched to raise money to help pay for the excessive medical bills he was set to accrue. It was largely supported by repeat customers, neighbors, and former residents of Capitol Hill. Over $30,000 was raised.

Aside from donations, the comments on the fundraiser revealed just how beloved The King was to the neighborhood’s residents. They go something like this: “The neighborhood isn’t the same without you;” “Abe is the true king of the hill. He always makes everyone’s day;” and “Abe is such an important part of our community. Sending our best to him and to his family.”

Looking back, he describes the store, customers and neighborhood like a piece of gold he didn’t realize he had. Continue reading →

Magpie Thrift ready for new beginning in longtime Broadway thrift shop space

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By Caroline Carr

When Lifelong announced it was getting out of the thrift business in January, they were naturally met with disappointment from the community. At the time, they couldn’t yet reveal what would come next for the Broadway thrift shop that had been a quintessential Capitol Hill spot for more than twenty years.

The Lifelong nonprofit will be moving away from retail to focus its efforts on an expanded kitchen and meal services mission doubling its size in Georgetown, making way for a new effort in reuse and recycling: Magpie Thrift.

The new beginning on Broadway starts next week.

Magpie will be a thrift store that encourages patrons to reuse, recycle, and make do with less.

“Although we are sad and have been grieving the loss of that identity, life is about moving forward and creating new things,” said owner Tamara Asakawa who previously served as the longtime director of Lifelong Thrift.

The new store will be a space for shopping along with upcycling workshops, senior downsizing assistance programs, and community events.

Magpie will begin as a for-profit venture that will fund the launch of Everly, a nonprofit created by Asakawa. In time, she hopes to raise the money to merge the two entities and return the thrift back to its roots as a nonprofit. Asakawa was intent on transparency with the store’s new for-profit status, and is confident that this is both necessary and temporary. Continue reading →

Why construction cranes and design review meetings have disappeared — and higher rents will keep appearing — on Capitol Hill

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A construction crane towers above Capitol Hill in 2018

By Matt Dowell

Seattle’s affordable housing crisis is still here but construction cranes have pretty much disappeared from the Capitol Hill skyline. According to local housing developers, that’s because we aren’t building much these days.

“There is almost no new construction happening in Seattle right now,” said Ben Maritz of Great Expectations, a Seattle-based real estate firm.

Permit application trends on the city’s dashboard support the observations, showing a 47% year-over-year decrease last year in residential units under application. A statement from a spokesperson for the city confirmed that “Design Review and all other land use review permit volumes are down across the entire city.”

This 2024 UW study on the effects of City housing policy noted that a slowdown in permits is a precursor to a slowdown in units entering the market, and it takes a couple of years to feel those effects. The report showed a decline in permit issuance for multifamily housing since 2021.

According to the report, it’s market conditions in the last few years that “have had a chilling effect on housing production in Seattle.” Local developers agree.

Michael Oaksmith from Capitol Hill-based Hunters Capital, behind the recently finished Capitol Hilltop Apartments on 15th and Mercer, told us, “The recent run up of interest rates really makes it hard for a property to pencil. Most developers I know, including us, have slowed their expectations for projects and their appetites for projects have gone down as a result of not being able to pump out an acceptable return.”

“Most experts are looking at pretty flat [interest] rates over the next twelve months which does not bode well for a flurry of activity,” he said. “It’ll be a year or two of “sitting on our hands.”

Hunters is, meanwhile, preparing to redevelop 15th Ave E’s old QFC block with a new six-story, mixed-use apartment building — one of the few Capitol Hill projects to come in front of the East Design Review Board in 2024.

Real estate developers rely on investor money to get projects built, but investors aren’t signing up. Continue reading →

The Summit hustlers: Weekly pool competition draws shot makers and neighbors to Capitol Hill pub

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$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍 

 

By Matt Dowell

“Some fat ass cats show up here,” said Ronnie on a recent Wednesday night at the Summit Public House. He’s a regular at the pool table there and he’s been shooting pool on Capitol Hill since the ’90s.

Summit’s free-to-play table attracts good players on any night of the week. But for the last few years, a weekly Wednesday night tournament has become a center of the scene.

Show up around 7 PM on a Wednesday and you will see players warming up. A stack of cylindrical cue cases abuts the long bench at one end of the table. Competitors chalk up with focus, break racks with a whip crack heard around the bar. As Katy, the organizer, takes $10 buy-ins, she adds names to the bracket on a nearby TV screen.

It might look serious to an outsider, especially one who doesn’t play pool. But chat up a few people gathered around and you’ll quickly see there’s more to it than the game.

“They’re fat, but friendly cats,” Ronnie revised. “I like the competitiveness here, and the chill. Everybody’s friendly. Everybody polices themselves. You can come out here [to the patio between games] and smoke your cig, your doobie, your spliff.”

“It’s a good way to spend some time on a Wednesday night.”

Continue reading →

Around the world in 3,650 days, NUE celebrates a decade of global experimentation on Capitol Hill

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(Image: NUE)

Fried chicken for two (Image: NUE)

By Caroline Carr

Ten years ago, a food blogger opened a restaurant on Capitol Hill. After a decade of culinary experimentation on a global scale, NUE continues on 14th Ave with the same experimental spirit.

“We wanted to become [a place] where it feels like you’re on vacation and willing to talk to anybody and try anything,” says Uyen Nguyen.

In early 2015, Chris Cvetkovich, a computer animation entrepreneur and food blogger, stepped out of his home kitchen to bring his experiments in gastronomy to the people as NUE debuted on Capitol Hill. At the time as it joined the newly opened REO Flats building, it was neighboring Omega Ouzeri from Capitol Hill restaurant legend Thomas Soukakos.

“Just don’t do bad Greek food,” was the veteran’s only advice for the rookie restaurateur.

A decade later, Nguyen and Cvetkovich are the grizzled vets. Soukakos has retired and new neighbors Ramie have moved in. NUE is continuing its global tour. Continue reading →

‘We’re still making progress, we’re still having conversations’ — Seattle’s growth plan update continues despite appeals

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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍 

 

Hollingworth in front of the Leschi CC (Image: CHS)

With reporting by Matt Dowell

District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth says the process to establish an updated comprehensive growth plan in Seattle is not being put on hold while environmental appeals by neighborhood groups opposed to the city’s proposals play out.

“The comp plan is still moving forward,” Hollingsworth told CHS last week following her office’s announcement of an updated schedule of meetings of the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan she chairs and Hollingsworth’s latest meeting with a D3 community group as she hopes to calm concerns about changes to the city’s zoning that could make way for the development of more multifamily housing in more areas of the city.

“We’re still making progress, we’re still having conversations,” Hollingsworth said.

The announcement of the six-meeting series of committee sessions through May 21st may come as a small relief to proponents of the growth plan changes concerned that Hollingsworth’s office might put the process on hold while six appeals filed demanding additional environmental review of the city’s plans are considered the Hearing Examiner. CHS reported here on the appeals including cases representing Madison Valley, Mount Baker, Hawthorne Hills, and “73 remaining Southern resident killer whales.” Continue reading →

8 at Ping Yang and its Thai charcoal grill coming to 14th and Union

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By Matt Dowell

The demand for turnkey food and drink spaces in Seattle’s Capitol Hill and Central District cores remains high as 8 at Ping Yang, a “Thai charcoal grill concept,” is slated to open in late April on E Union in the former home of OOLA.

“We’re not doing traditional Thai, per se,” said Ben Evans, the new and first-time owner. “We’re trying to come up with newer fusion flavors.“

Check the menu posted on the front door for examples: Dungeness crab cake with Phuket curry sauce, khao-soi and ribeye, Thai green curry pasta, Thai tea crème brûlée.

8 at Ping Yang will share some flavors with its Ti22 Belltown cousin (Image: Ti22)

Evans is partnered with Suttabusya “Ice” Thiraphan, a seasoned Seattle restaurateur and head chef. Ice runs Ti22 in Belltown, which serves “authentic Thai food made from Ice’s grandmother’s recipes”. He’s also listed as head chef at Basilic Essentially Thai in Queen Anne, and was owner of the now-closed Fish Cake Factory in Belltown.

“This is my first time on the operational and owner side of the business versus just being an employee,” said Evans. “So this is a whole new world for me.”

“I brought Ice on board to be a mentor and someone I can learn from.” Continue reading →