Tag Archives: groceries

As $25B Albertsons and Kroger merger fizzles, Capitol Hill still has two QFCs and two Safeways

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Inside the Broadway Market QFC

A day after legal rulings blocked the proposed $25 billion agreement, the planned merger that would combine the Safeway and QFC grocery families is off leaving behind scraps of Capitol Hill paperwork and plenty of uncertainty about the future of the neighborhood’s grocery shopping needs.

Tuesday’s legal decisions included a crippling injunction issued by a federal judge following a three-week hearing in Portland over the proposed merger combining the Albertsons and Kroger companies. Albertsons says it is now backing out of the agreement and suing Kroger over its failure to secure regulatory approval for the massive merger the companies have said was necessary to address spiraling costs and competition from Walmart and Amazon.

On Capitol Hill, the multibillion dollar deal was already in motion with early maneuverings. This summer, CHS reported as a company formed by C&S Wholesale Grocers applied to assume the liquor license for the QFC grocery store in Capitol Hill’s Harvard Market shopping center. Both Capitol Hill QFC grocery stores appeared on the roster of “Planned Divestiture Store, Distribution Center, and Plant Locations” as industry giants Kroger and Albertsons promised to shed hundreds of locations as they worked toward the merger.

A $1.9 billion sale of locations would have included 579 stores across the country including 124 in Washington to be acquired by C&S, owner of the Piggly Wiggly brand that was once a staple on Capitol Hill and across the city. Continue reading →

After five years of paperwork, ‘Master Use Permit’ issued for five-story Capitol Hill Safeway redevelopment

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(Image: Weber Thompson)

The development project to create a new Safeway grocery store and mixed-use apartment complex at the corner of 15th and John has overcome its final regulatory hurdle.

The City of Seattle issued a Master Use Permit for the long-planned project on Halloween day, records show.

The issuance is the final major step in the city’s development process for a project from developer Greystar and the Weber Thompson development team to create two new five-story buildings including a new grocery, around 330 market rate apartment units, some new, smaller retail spaces, and an underground parking lot for more than 300 cars on the Safeway property at 15th and John.

The development has been in the works for years. CHS first broke the news on the plans in 2019. Plans had called for a start of construction in 2024 and a possible 2026 opening of the project. Continue reading →

New Broadway Neighborhood Market joining mix of Capitol Hill convenience shops

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Seattle’s proposed new 20-year zoning plan that would scratch the surface of increasing density on the city’s most residential streets includes a proposal that would make it easier to open corner markets across the city. A new business coming to Capitol Hill’s already densely packed Broadway won’t have to wait for any of that. It won’t even be located on a corner.

Plans are underway for Neighborhood Market to open a new small grocery store on Capitol Hill in the Hollywood Lofts development next to Dick’s Drive-in.

“Neighborhood Market is a community-based convenience store expanding its presence in Seattle, Washington,” one permit filing for the new project reads. “Our original store is in Renton and we are looking to open another one in Seattle.” Continue reading →

A small sign of possible big changes at Broadway’s QFC grocery stores as federal trial to block merger begins in Portland — UPDATE

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Monday, the trial to determine if regulators can stop the merger of the nation’s two largest grocery chains began in a federal court in Portland, Oregon.

On Broadway, the company lined up to take over one of the street’s two QFC supermarkets has filed some of its first paperwork to make the transaction a reality.

The company formed by C&S Wholesale Grocers has applied to assume the liquor license for the QFC grocery store in Capitol Hill’s Harvard Market shopping center, public records show.

The filing is one of a flurry of similar filings by the company in the county and across the state as it begins the process of taking over the stores, according to the state liquor board. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s two QFCs on sale list in massive Kroger-Albertsons merger plans — UPDATE

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The Harvard Market QFC at Broadway and Pike

Kroger shut down the 15th Ave store three years ago

As Kroger and Albertsons work toward a $25 billion merger, there might soon be a Capitol Hill without any QFC grocery stores.

Both of the Broadway QFC locations are included on the “Planned Divestiture Store, Distribution Center, and Plant Locations” list (PDF) released Tuesday by the companies as they seek federal approval for the massive deal.

In Tuesday’s announcement, officials at QFC-parent Kroger and Albertsons said the merger will include the $1.9 billion sale of 579 stores across the country including 124 in Washington that would be acquired by C&S Wholesale Grocers, owner of the Piggly Wiggly brand. It is possible the Broadway QFC stores included in that deal could someday become Piggly Wiggly groceries.

It is also possible the Massachusetts-based company might have other plans as the industry continues to adjust to the soaring cost of labor and growing markets for grocery delivery. There were few promises for consumers in Tuesday’s announcements and, in a letter to employees, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said Tuesday only that the company is “confident that C&S will provide the transferred associates stability and opportunities to further enrich their careers with a growing company.”

The release of the list including the divestiture plans for the two Broadway QFCs comes amid major uncertainty for big brand grocery chains in the neighborhood. Continue reading →

Yellow Bee Market and Banh Mi hopes to create buzz amid the growth and new neighbors of Yesler Terrace

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By Nova Berger/CHS Reporting Intern

A new neighborhood market from an experienced creator of locally-focused grocery stores is taking shape in the rapidly changing Yesler Terrace neighborhood where hundreds of new apartment units have taken shape in an ongoing development boom.

“That’s what Yellow Bee is all about, providing access to the urban resident,” Brian Hoang tells CHS.

23rd and Union. Madison Valley. First Hill. Major changes have reshaped these neighborhoods around Capitol Hill with major growth including challenges around gentrification and displacement. These changes have brought new neighbors and new lives to Central Seattle. In the rapid transformation of Yesler Terrace to the south of Capitol Hill, residents in these changed spaces need places like Yellow Bee Market and Banh Mi. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | ‘THIS STORE IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED’ — Goodbye to the Capitol Hill Amazon Fresh

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As tales of massive markdowns spread across social media from closures across the country, any bargains were long gone at the Capitol Hill Amazon Fresh by the time CHS showed up Sunday to check things out.

The store was closed up for good — a day earlier than reported. Continue reading →

Amazon shutting down its Capitol HIll grocery store

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(Image: CHS)

Amazon is reshuffling its efforts in the grocery industry and pulling its “just walk out” cashier-less technology out of stores. The tech giant is also pulling its Amazon Fresh grocery completely out of Capitol Hill.

The Seattle Times is reporting the company announced the planned closure in a Wednesday meeting with employees. Sunday will be the E Pike store’s final day of business.

The closure comes as Amazon has backed off its smaller stores in favor of larger investments in full groceries and its Whole Food stores. Continue reading →

Hearing Examiner dismisses Capitol Hill new age church’s appeal against neighboring Safeway redevelopment

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(Image: Weber Thompson)

(Image: CHS)

The Seattle Hearing Examiner has dismissed an appeal from a Capitol Hill new age church, upholding a city land use decision last year giving the go ahead to the planned redevelopment of the neighborhood’s Safeway to create a new 50,000-square-foot grocery store, new apartments, and a massive underground parking lot at 15th and John.

The decision eliminates one of the last major public process barriers to moving forward on the major new development project set to reshape the key intersection connecting the Capitol Hill core to the neighborhood’s eastern edges along 15th, 19th, and 23rd Avenues. Construction is still a long ways off with process around demolition permits and more still to come.

It the ruling, deputy hearing examiner Susan Drummond upheld the city’s 2023 decision to issue the crucial “master use permit” to the project as it completed multiple rounds of design review, dismissing the Aquarian Foundation’s arguments that the development would not be compatible with the neighboring converted two-story, 5,500-square-foot house on the $2.5 million 15th Ave E parcel that has been home to the New age religious organization for decades.

The group is one of the oldest corporations on Capitol Hill, formed as a church in the 1950s by a group including founder Keith Milton Rhinehart. Aquarian’s Rev. Cathryn Reid, who state records show also serves as the church’s treasurer, argued the organization’s case in front of the examiner, according to records from the procedures. Continue reading →

For sale: New Capitol Hill developer sought for mixed-use City Market redevelopment

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Speaking of neighborhood groceries, it has been 111 days since the “MUP-ready development site” also known as Capitol Hill’s much-loved City Market hit the Seattle real estate market.

November’s unpriced listing — if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it — was the surest sign that much-hyped San Francisco-based property developer Juno is now out of the picture after shepherding the property through several rounds of Seattle process on the way to plans for a mass timber mixed-use building topped with 98-residential units, including 58 studios, 21 “deep” one-bedrooms, 13 one-bedrooms and 5 two-bedrooms, above a future home for the popular Bellevue Ave grocery and new underground parking.

To make way, the existing City Market building and the laundromat next door as well as a small surface parking lot were planned to be demolished. Continue reading →