The possibility that the King County Juvenile court/detention facility could move to the PacMed building on North Beacon caused a lot of conversation yesterday both here on the BHB and on other media outlets. KOMO (BHB news partner) covered the story, including quotes from neighbors Curtis Bonney and Craig Thompson.
Further coverage of the PacMed story comes from Eric Scigliano at Crosscut:
“At least one other prospect may still be in the picture: the Bellevue-based City University of Seattle, which, true to its name, has been trying to move to Seattle. ‘We have looked at their building, as well as a dozen other sites in Seattle,’ says City University spokesperson Christopher Ross. ‘We’re not far enough along in any of our negotiations to comment.'”
Wright Runstad markets the building only for three things, according to their website: educational use, medical facility, and office building. I guess that is their portfolio. If you look at the floor plans and descriptions, including the additional 250,000 potential square footage, it is clear it would be incredible for housing. It could be mixed condos, rental and senior facility. Unfortunately WR doesn’t develop those kind of uses.
So, what happens when the wrong developer gets a building? You can’t get the right use. Educational would be great too, but wouldn’t you like to retire in that building? Wow! Close to medical facilities, nice grounds.
Wright Runstad is blowing it big time. It seems like with our population aging, opportunities like this would be welcome. Housing is the right fit for the neighborhood too, with multi-family all around. It would help increase the value of surrounding homes and apartments instead of decreasing it.
I like the residential retirement home idea, Freddie. That makes a ton of sense.
And if you want to talk density, turning PacMed into housing is real density. I would love to see 300 people move into that place and walk, bike, eat pizza, in our neighborhood.
Incarceration is an expensive dead end road and doesn’t solve any social problems. It just sucks lots and lots of money. I think our residential neighborhood is about raising and taking care of healthy families of all kinds so people don’t end up in custody. Let’s be ambitious! No jails on Beacon Hill. Remember, once it is zoned for jail use, adults can be housed their too in the long run! If it becomes a jail, it will always be a jail.
Besides, the County already has a site they can build on. Let them take care of their own building instead of ruining that beautiful art deco building in our neighborhood.
Write your City Council members. Because it would require a change of zoning (jails not allowed in commercial space) the power is in the hands of Sally Clark, Tim Burgess, Sally Bagshaw and others. Not to mention the Mayor. Write today.
Freddie, I love your positive ideas. I will start to write to the mayor and city council members to take care of their own building and never zone Beacon Hill for jail use. Thank you for your very informative post. The Times article has jolted me into action.