Author Archives: CHS

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
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
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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$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
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 →

The death of Marco Casas-Beaux

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(Image courtesy: Andrea Casas-Beaux)

By Matt Dowell

Marco Casas-Beaux was a larger-than-life fixture in the Seattle restaurant scene. One year after his death and the shuttering of his Capitol Hill and Seattle restaurants, his family wants his story heard.

Casas-Beaux and family owned a suite of Argentinian-focused establishments in the city: Boca Restobar and Grill, Boca Argentine Bakery and Pizzeria — both on Broadway — plus Boca Restaurant at Queen City Grill in Belltown. When Casas-Beaux passed suddenly last January, the restaurants closed — forever.

“Boca represented a part of latino culture that’s not on Capitol Hill,” said Andrea Casas-Beaux, Marco’s daughter. “They were places where you could come and expect people to speak Spanish, where reggaeton was playing.”

“We had Argentinians driving up from Portland to eat our medialunas.” Continue reading →

Of course Capitol Hill has a couture bridal gown shop

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By Caroline Carr

Thirteen years ago, Election Night revelers filled E Pike to celebrate victory. Obama won his second term. Gay marriage was on its way to becoming legalized in Washington.

More than a decade later, there are still threats but the institution of marriage is part of everyday life in the neighborhood. Of course Capitol Hill should be home to a couture bridal gown shop.

Against a jewel-toned backdrop of evening wear contrasted with pillowy, porcelain wedding gowns, Lisa Marie has made a home for her Art of the Cloth bridal creations on E Pike.

After years establishing herself as a designer, the owner is leading her business in a more public facing direction, hoping to use the 2,500-square-foot studio and storefront to hold community events and connect brides with the city’s most thoughtful wedding fashion creators.

She recently hosted five local jewelers in a pop-up over President’s Day weekend that drew in customers and rejuvenated the space. “Some of them sold everything they brought,” said Marie. “I was so renewed and revitalized by their experience.” Continue reading →

After first year on E Pine, Pinoyshki staying busy — and creative — on Capitol Hill

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Anderson and Pinoyshki will be included in an upcoming documentary on Amazon Prime

(Image: Pinoyshki)

By Matt Dowell

A year into Pinoyshki’s tenure on Capitol Hill, chef Aly Anderson says she and the Filipino-Russian fusion bakery have “found our groove” on E Pine.

Pinoyshki was born when Anderson moved Piroshki on 3rd out of downtown and into the E Pine side of the Pike Motorworks mixed-use development. Pinoyshki is an invention of Anderson’s. It’s a mashup of words (Pinoy and Piroshki) and of cuisine. She combines flavors from her Filipino heritage with the traditional Russian Piroshki for a baked creation that’s been recognized on national television.

But there’s a lot more than baking behind any growing business. “It was definitely an adjustment,” she said of the move to Capitol Hill. “Last year was one of our biggest years. Moving from one location to another is not a small thing to do.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Community Post | Link light rail service will be temporarily suspended between Capitol Hill and SODO stations on Sunday, Feb. 23

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From Sound Transit
Link light rail will be temporarily suspended between Capitol Hill and SODO on Sunday, Feb. 23 to accommodate necessary system maintenance.

During this disruption, crews will be completing a package of pre-scheduled maintenance projects including storm sewer cleaning, switch replacement and fiber inspections. During the disruption, Sound Transit will provide Link Shuttle buses to transport passengers. The buses will run approximately every 10-15 minutes and stop at all stations between Capitol Hill and SODO. More information is available here. Continue reading →

Harrell’s State of the City 2025 address: ‘Seattle on the Rise’

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Tuesday, Bruce Harrell made the Seattle’s Mayor’s annual “State of the City” address, his first edition of the yearly tradition as he see reelection to the office.

“Day by day, we have worked together to get our city back on the right track – restoring parks, reducing the crime rate, and getting Downtown bustling again,” the mayor said. “I think there’s a different mood in this city – a renewed spark, belief, and optimism that we are on the right trajectory.”

In the speech, Harrell highlighted progress he said showed the city’s efforts to address crime fears and hire more police are working. He also highlighted issues beyond public safety he hopes to pursue through 2025 including clearing the way for faster construction of new light rail routes to Ballard and West Seattle and barring cars from Pike Place Market.

Harrell’s push for housing will be the trickiest political path to maneuver. Continue reading →