In a sign of the times (and I refer to our building boom, not our COVID-19 situation), Caron Architecture of Seattle has filed a site plan with the city to redevelop the space currently occupied by Murphy’s Pub at 1928 N 45th St. The 5-story, mixed-use, retail and apartment complex would occupy a large footprint comprised not just of Murphy’s, but the spaces occupied by the defunct Cutz Hair Salon, Fat Cat Records, Sushi and Amigo Ramen and the two-story building behind Sushi and Amigo which abuts 46th St.
The parcels are all held by Costas Antonopoulos, who has owned them since the turn of the century. Antonopoulos also owns the building occupied by Rugs of the World (they of the perpetual huge sale), but this parcel would not be included in the redevelopment. Rugs of the World is beside Harold’s Lamps and Shades, whose building is under different ownership.
While our area’s building boom has certainly been well underway for several years, it was fueled by the City Council’s passage of zoning changes in support of the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) in March of 2019. Last December, we reported that the Bartell Building was sold to a developer who plans to build to the 75-foot limit now allowed. If the Murphy’s development does end up being built to its planned 5-story height, it will tower rather oddly over the surrounding structures at 45th and Meridian — at least until they are all demolished and built up as well. The adjacent Rugs of the World, the CVS across the street, the Chase Bank and the buildings from Silver Tray Thai eastward are all low rise.
Caron Architecture is behind an expansive portfolio of buildings—both large and small—in Seattle. On the large side are the 8 Tower, a 42-story building currently under construction in the Denny Triangle that is devoted largely to residential units, and a proposed 18-story hotel at 2121 5th Ave in Belltown. This latter project was brought through the initial stages of development by Caron before being offered for sale in the middle of last year. The Murphy’s development could well follow this same course.
I reached out to Caron to try to find out more about the plans and timeline. After initially being told by their point person that he would have to “check with the client,” I was later told that there would be more information in “maybe a couple of weeks.” The project is still in very early stages. Among the steps that the developer will need to go through are community engagement leading up to formal Design Review. So think years not months before the dust flies.
Discover more from Wallyhood
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
This is great news, especially if they can minimize or eliminate parking. It’s within walking distance of restaurants, grocery stores, parks, and on two frequent bus routes. It’s also less than a mile from the new light rail station at 43rd & Brooklyn so in reasonable walking distance for many people, assuming 45th can be turned into less of a car sewer (reducing parking everywhere will help).
Dedicated bus lane all the way on 45th.
I hope you enjoy riding the bus with coronavirus carriers. They are now being officially encouraged to take the bus to go get tested if they feel sick.
They’re everywhere, Phil. I’d advise you to shelter in place. Perhaps for awhile.
:-D.
Let me ask you, Doug. Does it concern you at all that Metro has shown such disregard for the safety of its drivers with this crisis? Not to mention it’s passengers?
I have no idea what you’re referring to. I’ve taken the bus in the past week. Metro has good safety policies in place.
Try to imagine being a bus driver in the Age of Coronavirus. You spend hours every day trapped in a confined environment, with the air flow circulating all throughout the coach. Metro, for some reason, has not sealed off the driver’s area with a plastic shield. As a driver, you are much more susceptible to the virus, and yet you are being told to work under those conditions. How would you feel if you were one of them?
I’ve seen a bunch of reports about this issue, including on (trigger warning) Safe Seattle:
https://www.facebook.com/125500501152193/posts/1092165314485702/
https://www.facebook.com/125500501152193/posts/1093979707637596/
https://www.facebook.com/125500501152193/posts/1093987754303458/ https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b795c620c8d10cbc9d0bd7581f40260df0944b168e3f829772089939734d737.jpg
You’re linking to Safe Seattle? Come on, man.
The way the buses are set up now, drivers do not get into direct contact with the public. Passengers enter through the backdoor and the front portion of the bus is roped off in some manner. Most (all?) buses have plenty of room for the passengers to keep a distance from one another.
That sounds just like what management has said to them. So I guess you’re not grasping the point I made in the first part of my post. And just because you don’t like a source doesn’t mean it’s wrong. This isnt Moms for Seattle. They didn’t photoshop those documents.
The link you provided did say “photo from archive”, meaning it’s not realistic photo of what’s going on.
I’m aware of that. That’s not one the documents I’m referring to.
Yeah. Safe Seattle doesn’t even bother with Photoshop.
Here is a pretty measured interview about it on the Dave Ross Show. It’s about 6 minutes long, and he interviews a bus driver.
https://mynorthwest.com/1797099/bus-ridership-non-destination-passengers-coronavirus/
And another source:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/metro-transit-workers-anxious-about-new-role-as-first-responders-to-coronavirus-pandemic/
The further canyonization of Wallingford is “great news”? Wow ….
This is terrible news, especially if they minimize or eliminate parking. Go up 12th ave right now – you probably won’t find a ray of sunshine or light – that’s what Wallingford’s future is going to be. Only a real estate or developer vulture thinks this is a good idea.
Five stories is not bad on that corner (how tall did ‘we’ want CVS to be?). The Rug Store remains (does it pull the neighborhood together?)
Here it comes, more butt ugly Borg cubes to our neighborhood, same as we see ruining neighborhoods all across our beautiful city. The Ballardization of Wallingford has begun in earnest.
And for those of you say to yourselves, “Well, I’m safe where I live, I’m not in the Urban Village,” guess what? The YIMBY activists who claim to know what’s best for you are coming for your community next.
We really get into the shark jumping when folks start complaining about the aesthetics of replacing a concrete box and a re-purposed gas station.
If concrete boxes and re-purposed gas stations float your boat, go to the design review meetings and advocate for a cinder block box and on-site billboards!
(The former will likely be cheaper for a developer, although it might undermine their marketing, and they can monetize the latter.)
I happen to think that Murphy’s, a place that I and my neighbors and countless others enjoy, is much more aesthetically pleasing than one of your soulless aPodments.
If Murphy’s can occupy the ground floor commercial space and a bunch of new apartments upstairs? Win win! Build it!
Did it say somewhere that is the plan?
No I’m just practicing wishful thinking 🙂
Wishfull thinking? Oh yeah, you’re definitely a YIMBY 😉
Yeah, and if we look at all those condos on Stone Way, we’ll see all of them have drinking places downstairs. In fact, many of them are effectively hang out places of people living above.
Bar Charlie and Russell’s cannot be…
Planned: 180 housing units, 100 onsite parking stalls.
Without the parking, another 50-100 housing units could be built.
And you probably believe all those additional renters will be content to get around by biking and bussing everywhere everywhere and not bring their cars. 🤣
About 60% will bring cars, so this sounds about right. Putting aside the fact that this building will be significantly out of scale and not fit in with the neighborhood, at least the developers are recognizing their responsibility to not treat parking needs as an externatality to be shoved onto onto the surrounding neighborhood.
Just price the parking in surrounding streets high would help resolve that.
Lots of empty driveway spots a few blocks north in our part of the ‘hood. Demand for spaces driving up the value of my and others’ offstreet parking is a positive, not a negative externality.
I’m a Murphy’s regular. If this project does go through, it would be nice to see Murphy’s move into the new space, but it won’t be the same. Remember when Arnold’s burned down after Chachi left the grill on? Al rebuilt, but the original ambience was gone. Scott Baio ruins everything he touches.
Haha, good one. So Scott Baio burned down someplace cool and he ruins everything he touches? He sounds just like a YIMBY! And here I thought he was a conservative.
The work done by Chris Barnes to create Murphy’s as an authentic Irish style pub was immense – it would be great to build around and over it. The Sushi and Amigo space is in a building listed by the City of Seattle as a building of historical significance – I believe the terra cotta exterior was done by the same architect who did the preserved Arctic Building downtown.
Murphy’s atmosphere and decoration is great. There are companies that specialize in Irish pub supplies, and the Shawn O’Donnell’s in Fremont very obviously depends heavily on that, and the “instant Irish” feel was very strong when that first opened. Murphy’s doesn’t feel as forced.
It would be quite cool if the new building kept the exterior front facade.
Protect yourself and others around you by knowing the facts and taking appropriate precautions.
Masks can help prevent the spread of the virus from the person wearing the mask to others. Masks alone do not protect against COVID-19, and should be combined with physical distancing and hand hygiene. Follow the advice provided by your local health authority.
We had an apartment on west side of Central Park. The rent was very reasonable. We found out later that it belonged to a gangster called Legs Diamond and it was a front to his headquarters. It was fine.