Tag Archives: pike pine

Still not much preserved when Pike/Pine preservation projects dig in — but the Booth Building will rise again

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On Capitol Hill, history repeats.

At Broadway and Pine, passersby are learning one of the cold, hard facts of the neighborhood’s historical conservation incentives: Not much is preserved when Pike/Pine preservation projects dig in.

The start of construction on the Broadway Center for Youth affordable housing and job training center has included a brutal round of demolition that is tearing down every last shred of the Booth Building that has stood at the corner since 1906.

The center’s development has been described as an adaptive reuse project and the development is utilizing the Pike/Pine Conservation District’s incentive program to build an extra story of housing in the eight-story project.

So, what happened to the preservation?

Developer Community Roots Housing says to wait for it — the development is set to echo past neighborhood preservation projects by rebuilding the historic structure. Continue reading →

After 16 years on Capitol Hill, Kaladi Brothers Coffee is headed back to Alaska

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(Image: Kaladi Brothers)

Thanks to a CHS reader for the picture

There is finally a date for the end of one of the last of the Capitol Hill coffee houses as E Pike’s Kaladi Brothers is preparing customers for the change.

The only lower-48 location of the Alaska coffee chain will close at the end of July. A sign has gone up at the cafe with the planned final day of service listed as July 27th 29th along with contact information for customers who might want to send a last tip to their favorite baristas.

There is no plan to move or reopen, manager Erika “EZ” Zumwalt tells CHS.

The planned closure comes after years of limbo for the block since CHS first broke the news in August of 2020 on a planned redevelopment of the auto row-era buildings along this stretch of E Pike. Zumwalt said one timeline originally had the cafe moving out last summer but Kaladi decided to take the offer of another year in the space from developer Hunters Capital. Continue reading →

Landmark-protected and waiting for its next life, 11th and Pine’s White Motor Company building undergoing major overhaul

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Under construction at 11th and Pine (Image: Alex Garland/CHS)

Saved from redevelopment as a major grocery store in the heart of Pike/Pine by the city’s landmarks protections and thrust into history as a catbird seat to the 2020 CHOP protests as Seattle Police tear gas seeped through the building’s drafty windows and into the eyes of the few remaining journalists at alternative weekly The Stranger before its move from the neighborhood, the old White Motor Company building at 11th and Pine is undergoing a full overhaul to “beautify,” restore, and upgrade the 104-year-old structure and put its upper stories back into use with new tenants.

A representative for the building’s owner Legacy Commercial tells CHS the work underway now through the end of November will restore the building “and make it high energy at the same time.”

Windows are being removed and replaced as systems work is done throughout the three-story building. Meanwhile, the exterior will be restored “with the same colors” and original terra cotta rosettes — removed when the building was being lined up for possible redevelopment eight years ago — will be reattached.

Legacy’s goal is to reinvigorate the building and attract new tenants for the upper story office floors. Continue reading →

After six years, Pike Motorworks mega preservation project finally adding an E Pine restaurant

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Before and after in the 700 block of E Pine

The Capitol Hill preservation incentive-boosted, mixed-use development Pike Motorworks is so big.

How big is it?

Pike Motorworks is so big, It has taken six years for it to fill its E Pine-facing restaurant space in the block-spanning, 260-unit building also home to the Redhook Brewlab and a collection of businesses including Taku and Salt and Straw.

But six years after construction was completed on the project that rose on top of the auto row-era bones of the neighborhood’s departed BMW dealership, it looks like the development’s retail dreams of spanning from Pike to Pine are back on track. Continue reading →

‘We have decided to end our tenure on our terms’ — Cafe Pettirosso to close after 27 years on Capitol Hill — UPDATE

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(Image: Cafe Pettirosso)

2022 is the tenth anniversary of the rebirth of Cafe Pettirosso. It will also be the year the much loved Capitol Hill hangout closes down as owners Miki and Yuki Sodos say a planned redevelopment of the building has come as a final blow to an already struggling business.

“Pettirosso loves you Seattle, but the path of small business is crushing right now,” the cafe’s owners said in their goodbye announcement for the 27-year-old 11th Ave business. “We would have stayed forever but are exhausted and frustrated on all fronts. We stayed open every day during the pandemic, the protests, snow storms, years of construction, and gentrification, but it is now our time.”

The thought of having to keep fighting through Covid only to go straight into having to pay for yet another build out of Café Pettirosso after the building is slated to be gutted in the near future, and then straight into a massive raise in the rent, is too much.

Cafe Pettirosso’s last day will be February 6th.

The closure makes for a sad trio of popular restaurants shutting down across Capitol Hill. Continue reading →

What a nine-story, Capitol Hill auto row era-styled building at Pike and Belmont will look like

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Designs by Meng Strazza

New apartments and new businesses could rise in an auto row era-styled building at the corner of E Pike and Belmont if a plan before the East Design Review Board is approved.

The existing building, home to Kaladi Brothers Coffee, Gay City and a small parking lot, would be torn down, though developer Hunters Capital and architects Meng Strazza plan to maintain the existing façade along both streets. In its place would rise a 9-story, preservation bonus-boosted building with 92 residential units atop 7,500 square feet of commercial space. The building would have 53 parking spaces for cars and 89 for bikes. There will also be 750 square feet of office space.

Gay City, meanwhile, has lined up a new Pike/Pine home it plans to open this winter.

The new building would be adjacent to Hunters Capital’s Dunn Motor Building, which opened in 2016, after engaging in a similar façade preservation. CHS reported on the early plans from developer Hunters Capital and longtime property owner Chip Ragen to redevelop the corner in 2020. The Capitol Hill-based developer is also moving forward with plans for another auto row-inspired mixed-use project on 15th Ave E at the site of a former service station.

The E Pike Rowland Motors Building was built in 1910 and occupied a place in the heart of what was Capitol Hill’s auto row. It’s been re-purposed a few times over the past 111 years, and some of the work has been unkind to the original façade. In a draft design review document published in July, the developer stated their plans to restore its character. Continue reading →

Design review: First look at proposal for preservation incentive-boosted project that will rise above 110-year-old E Pike Rowland building

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Wednesday night will bring two virtual design review meetings that could help set the course for new developments on Capitol Hill in 2021 including a project planned to preserve the E Pike facade of the 1910-built commercial building that has been home to Gay City and Kaladi Brothers as part of an eight-story, incentive boosted mixed-use project.

CHS reported on the early plans from developer Hunters Capital and longtime property owner Chip Ragen to redevelop the corner of E Pike and Belmont.

Wednesday night, the Studio Meng Strazzara-designed project will take its first step in front of the East Design review board. Continue reading →

Plans moving forward for eight stories of affordable housing, homeless youth ‘education and employment academy’ at Broadway and Pine

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(Image: Community Roots Housing)

Homelessness activists continue their efforts to occupy and transform the Cal Anderson Shelterhouse into a facility to provide services and resources to the area’s underhoused community. The need is clear. Just a block away at the corner of Broadway and Pine, a major project is moving forward to redevelop the historic Booth Building and a neighboring auto row-era structure into roughly 100 units of low-income housing and an “education and employment academy” for homeless young people.

“We really felt like it was a stand to say this corner is a place of learning and hope and justice for young people who have often been very much left behind by the progress that this city has seen over the last two decades,” YouthCare spokesperson Jody Waits said.

YouthCare is partnering with Community Roots Housing on the project for an expected 2022 start and 2024 opening. The final construction details and price tag of the project are still on the table, according to Waits, although the nonprofit is expecting to serve 250 to 300 individuals ages 18 to 24 per year at the training academy. Continue reading →

500-block E Pike home to Gay City, Kaladi lined up for mixed-use development

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A new generation of Capitol Hill is experiencing its Bauhaus moment this week as word spreads about plans for a new mixed-use development destined to replace the block currently home to LGBTQ+ nonprofit Gay City and the E Pike Kaladi Brothers.

Capitol Hill-based Hunters Capital confirms its is entering into an agreement to develop the property at the corner of Belmont and E Pike into a new eight-story apartment building with street-level retail. As with most developers, a spokesperson for Hunters who confirmed the plans with CHS emphasized the long-term and said construction is still years away.

But for those who consider the 500 block of E Pike a second home, once the development clock begins ticking, it’s difficult not to worry about what the future will bring. Continue reading →

Once the Seattle Automobile Company, 11th and Pike building home to Retrofit, Cafe Pettirosso up for landmarks vote

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Thanks to 2020-era videoconference technology, Pike/Pine could have a new landmark this week celebrating Capitol Hill’s auto row history.

The 1916-built Baker Linen building at 11th and Pike is set to go through the final stage of the city’s landmark preservation process Wednesday afternoon in an online session necessitated by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading →