UNICO Properties, the Seattle-based firm wishing to build a six-story retail, residential and office building at 42nd Street and 15th Avenue Northeast, has issued new designs that address neighborhood concerns about the project, which is called University Square.
Next, the designs will be reviewed by the City of Seattle鈥檚 Design Review Committee with an eye toward being given a Master Use permit enabling the project to proceed.
The development company, which also manages the UW鈥檚 holdings in downtown Seattle, is teaming with property owner The Wesley Foundation, on the building. The foundation is the local chapter of a nationwide, nonprofit religious organization, and operates in cooperation with the University Temple United Methodist Church, the site鈥檚 neighbor to the north. A residence for women students called The Wesley House stood on the site for years, until it was demolished in the late 1960s and a 58-stall parking lot was created in its place.
UNICO and the Foundation plan to build the six-story University Square building on the 16,480-square-foot site with about 48 apartments above three floors of office and retail space and about 85 stalls of public parking. The company hopes to break ground next summer and finish in the summer of 2006. The 91探花is interested in renting a floor of the building鈥檚 office space.
Several businesses in the area have voiced concern about the possibility of the building shuttering the open feel of the alley alongside the site, parallel to University Way and 15th Ave., which holds the popular Caf茅 Allegro. Some also worry that the building will reduce shopping traffic on the corner or kill the impressive ivy growing on the west side of the Magus Bookstore, which faces 42nd St.
Patrick McCabe, UNICO鈥檚 vice president for development and public voice for this project, said the company has held a couple of principles constant in the revised designs.
鈥淥ne, our desire is to keep the Caf茅 Allegro vital, because it鈥檚 an important community asset and community gathering place,鈥� McCabe said. 鈥淭he owners were active in the community outreach program and participated in the design in workshops held about a month ago.鈥�
McCabe continued, 鈥淎nd our other constant is our desire to make the alley a pedestrian place, but enhance it 鈥� to make it more of a pedestrian place than it is now.鈥� He said the new designs feature a setback along the alley that will provide 鈥渂reathing room鈥� for the restaurant and needed daylight for the vines.
The project also includes two options for a mid-block passage between the University Square building and University Temple United Methodist Church, McCabe said, one being an open-air passage and the other covered by the building. He said the upper floors also are 鈥渟tepped back鈥� from the streetline to enhance the feeling of space in the design.
McCabe said UNICO is waiting to hear from the City of Seattle鈥檚 Design Review Board, which makes recommendations to the Planning Commission. Board members would then review the plans and suggest changes to the developer based on neighborhood planning guidelines. He said he has not yet heard back from the city, but hopes the process will be fairly short because of the work done beforehand.
鈥淚 think we鈥檝e done a pretty good job of hearing the community and understanding their concerns and reflecting those concerns in our designs,鈥� he said.