A month ago, we reported that PCC was coming to the west end of the Ballard Blocks II project, at the base of the Ballard Bridge (across from Edith Macefield’s old house.)
Today the city has given the go-ahead for work to begin on east end of the project as well, ruling it “has been determined to not have a significant adverse impact upon the environment.”
Sometimes called “Lake Ballard,” much of the land is covered with water (this is the view from the eastern side looking west.) Workers will excavate 50,000 cubic yards of material from Ballard Blocks II to make room for underground parking, and “some localized structural fill may be placed under the building foundation” in areas with “unsuitable soils,” according to the land use ruling (.pdf).
So what’s going into the east side of Ballard Blocks II?
We’ve already reported that Bright Horizons child care and West Marine are tenants in the new space, and now we’ve learned that 85C Bakery Cafe is coming, too. With over 1,000 locations around the world, 85C prides itself on “premium coffee, bread, and cake at affordable prices.”
In a posting by the architectural firm Weber Thompson, there’s a lot of retail and office space still available. Here’s the first floor, and there’s more on the second floor:
The plans refer to a “restaurant space,” which looks like “G” above in the SE corner. The sketches for the project show outside seating in a courtyard area:
Bright Horizons takes up the third floor, and an elevated walkway leads to the roof the other building, where there’s an outdoor play area planned:
The project includes parking for 166 vehicles underground in addition to the ground-level parking lot next to the PCC in the middle. The plans also call for 12 dedicated parking spots for parents and care-givers to drop off and pick up their children from Bright Horizons.
The timeline for the project has slipped over the years, and we’ve reached out to Ballard Blocks for more information. We’ve also asked about any future plans for the Edith Macefield house, which remains untouched behind chain-link fence. We’ll update as we learn more.
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
Sincerely hope that the restaurant we get there will jive well with the Trader Joe’s and PCC. Something natural/healthy/veggie-driven, I’d love to see something like Veggie Grill, True Food Co, or Lemonade in that space.
Does this mean that 45th is going to go back to having both east/west car traffic on it?
Andrew, yes 45th will become two-way, but that’s actually part of the Burke-Gilman Trail project, not this development.
“You’ll never fixth me!”, cried the Lisping Mink
So once it’s complete they will tear PCC down for the Sound Transit rail alignment? You would have thought they would have put some parking on the West side to protect against what will likely be a future rail line, although running a train through PCC could also be fun. You could install crossing gates in each aisle.
Brendan: That’s “jibe well.”
I like the open courtyard concept. Hopefully they are fully aware they are designing what will be the biggest tent encampment in Ballard. Unless they want things to be very very smelly, they better install a lot of public restrooms with needle disposal…especially with the Bright Horizon kids running around. Although most kids in Ballard are exposed to needles in the park at a young age and know what to do.
What’s the poop on that new restaurant?
The artist’s representation is missing the Real Change hustlers, random junkies, some insipid vanity protesters, and a homeboy waving around a handgun – you know, “realism”.
The area is kind of a seismically unsound region of Ballard. Hope they are not cutting corners on that.
The property management company will need to have a security guard on-duty early, and throughout the business day, to clear-out the bums (yes, bums) prior to businesses opening in the morning. As a private property owner, they can keep the grounds fairly needle, feces, and refuse-free by enforcing their own set of civility rules.
I always called them the Ballard Blight and across the street (this project), the Ballard Blog…soon to be the Ballard Blight II.
How does PCC get away with developing a large single-story building in density-driven Ballard? It’s such a waste of developable land, and it’s certainly not very environmentally friendly from an organization that should know better.
Just try to get out of Ballard using Shilshole ave
You can’t go wrong with “premium coffee, bread, and cake at affordable prices.” :)
Re posting at http://babiesmall.co.il
So West Marine will have two stores just 2 miles from each other? Or are they moving their store from Interbay to Ballard Blocks II?