One constant of living in any city is change.
Move away for five years and when you return to Queen Anne at least one store you loved is gone. Just around First Avenue North and Mercer, Tower Books is no more. Larry’s is the Metropolitan Market.
One block away on First Avenue North that sense of change appears to be accelerating. The city’s small, billboard-sized sign on one wall advising more condos are coming has been standing for so long it is covered with graffiti.
But the sign, posted in 2008 isn’t a lie. Things just took awhile.
Regular customers of Abraxus Books and Mother Nature’s on the east side of First Avenue North between Warren and Mercer are getting a last shopping fix because both owners have been told to vacate by the end of February. Queen Anne Office Supply, the block’s anchor for decades has been gone for almost two years.
The two-story white building that housed stores and a few apartments at least since World War II is coming down.
Elliot Bay Auto, located in the old Lower Queen Anne QFC’s building since 2008 and taking up most of the south end of the block, from Warren Street to First and fronting Republican, is also leaving.
According to project manager Larry Flack of Brian Runberg’s architectural firm, construction begins in the second quarter of this year on a six story building, featuring 17,725 square-feet of retail space and 10 units at ground level. The building will contain another 265 apartments above. There will also be 291 parking spaces.
Flack said construction is slated to be completed sometime in 2012. The project is being constructed by Excel-Pacific.
Flack refused to say much more, even when teased about his reticence.
“You’ll have to talk to the developer,” he said, sounding a lot like a junior officer advised to give the enemy only his name, rank and serial number.
The property is being developed by Robert Burkheimer whose father built the QFC grocery stories in Lower Queen Anne on Broadway Avenue on Capitol Hill 60 years ago. Burkheimer bought the building adjacent to the Queen Anne QFC site in 2009 from Chris Biharry, for years the owner of the aforementioned Queen Anne Office Supply.
Burkheimer may have felt he was hammered by the press in 2003 when he began redeveloping the Capitol Hill property. He complained about the “Seattle” process in The Stranger newspaperthat year in the last interview this reporter could find. He was also involved in the redevelopment of the Sorrento Hotel on First Hill in 1981.
Burkheimer was praised by Jean Sundborg, a well-known local mover and shaker and the founder of The Uptown Alliance 12 years ago.
“He went through the city’s design and review process for the project at 100 Republican. From our standpoint the process allowed all the neighbors to comment. He’s a little bit unique for an owner and developer and I’d say the entire process was above average. It was a good public process. This is a key change in Uptown (Lower Queen Anne to some traditionalists) because when this rolls over, it is going to show people it can happen in Uptown. I do hope every business space will be vetted so that it meets the needs of the area residents. We need a florist shop, a shoe repair and a hardware store,” she said, naming three long-time businesses which have closed in the neighborhood in the past decade.
But of course not everyone is as pleased as Sundborg.
Eve Appleton a MAP therapist (vibrational medicine) has been sending clients to Mother Nature’s for many of its 35 retail years. She has also worked in the store recently.
“We welcome the Gates, Amazon, Allen invasion,” Appleton said, tongue firmly wedged in her cheek. “Change happens, but I don’t believe it has to tear the community apart. This (LQA) looks like a depression area. The residents of the community don’t know what’s happening.
They feel betrayed.”
Elaine Gilbert, who has owned Mother Nature’s Natural Health Store since 1984, naturally has mixed feelings as she and her daughter, Stephanie oversee the final two weeks of their store.
“Sales have been down the last couple of years [due to] competition (from chains) and the recession, so we won’t be going anywhere else (to keep the 35-year-old venture) afloat,” Gilbert said. “I’m going to retire and my daughter is going to stay home with her young children.
As the economy is now, we may not have stayed opened (much longer) anyway. I just want to say thanks to all our loyal customers who stayed with us all these years. We do really appreciate them.”
Sara Spidell, a health activist who has worked for Mother Nature’s for the entire five years she’s lived in the neighborhood took a longer view than anyone else.
“I feel pretty comfortable with the change,” Spidell said. “Change is the only certainty we have. I feel this whole thing has given me a bigger perspective on how integrated and interdependent this community is. I think situations like this happen to teach us lessons.”
But nobody will really know how this change shakes out and what the lessons will be until sometime in 2012 when the project is up and running.