The property of the newly opened Wonderland Gear Exchange and Lazy Dog Crazy Dog has just sold for $3 million.
According to city records, the existing structures will be demolished to make way for a 4-story mixed-use building with 54 apartment units and 2,858 square feet for ground-floor retail. Parking for 27 vehicles is proposed (click here for the full project plans).
Wonderland Gear Exchange, which opened just last weekend, has a lease that will allow them to stay at least until 2020. Store co-owner Ben Mawhinney says they knew the property would be eventually turned into an apartment building, but that it was just too good of a location to pass up, despite its finite lease period. And, given typical permit processing times in Seattle, they could end up staying longer than two years.
Lazy Dog Crazy Dog doggie daycare has operated in that building been in business since 2009. No word yet on their plans — we’ll update with any new information.
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
15th – now a tunnel of walls.
The artist’s renderings discriminate against our tent-dwelling junkie neighbors by leaving them out of their illustrations. Clearly this is bigotry of the highest order. I believe the social justice loonies call this “erasure”.
troll
54 apartments should have 54 parking spaces.
Why?
As a business owner in Ballard, I find that my customers are having a harder time finding parking. I know that we need to move toward a less car intensive lifestyle, but until public transit catches up, people won’t. My SO lives in N Seattle and it takes her almost 2 hours to make it to the Seattle Center and a bit longer to get home. You won’t be able to get people to give up their car with times like that, and as a business owner you need for customers to be able to park if they choose to drive to your shops. I know what the concept is and the attempts to modify behavior by making it difficult to find parking, but it hasn’t worked yet and I don’t see it working in the near future.
2 hrs walking, maybe.
The 2 hr time period is on a bus. She makes it much quicker in her POV.
No one believes that, I can get to Tacoma in a bus in way less than that
She should get a car. Takes me 35 minutes to get from my home in Ballard to work in Bellevue
Ok. So when you end up living in an apartment in the New Ballard and there isn’t anywhere to park your car because the place that you rent doesn’t offer a parking space for your car and you can’t find street parking, what do you do if you want to keep living here or can not afford to move? The model that is being imposed is that you would either give up your car and bus to Bellevue or move closer to your job and live in Bellevue. How long does it take to ride the busses to Bellevue from Ballard in order to get to work in the mornings? What do you do when your automobile is in the shop for repairs for a week?
Wealthy people moving into the mostly super high cost new condos/apartments/etc in Ballard are people that own cars. It’s absurd not to require parking spaces and it’s not having the intended effect of lowering vehicle use/ownership. I don’t know why we keep ignoring the reality of the situation.
Remember this when you are voting for people. People keeping voting in someone who believes in no parking, then complain
Your SO is doing it wrong! I live at 145th. It takes me, on average 35-45 mins to get to city center. Is your SO on horseback?
Are you coming from the Northgate Transit Center or ?? It takes me 45+ on the bus to get to Pioneer Square from Ballard. I do it every, that is how long it takes. That is just ON THE BUS, not counting additional time waiting (and hoping) the bus actually comes.
Take the #40 during rush hour. ENJOY YOUR WAIT TIME
Or only be rented to people without cars.
I live in Whittier Heights just a few blocks away. There is tons of street parking around here. I park directly in front of my home every single time that I need to park, without fail. Most of my neighbors have driveways for at least one car and many of the driveways go unused because street parking is readily available.
So will there be a little bit of a crunch in the blocks directly around this development? Possibly, but even then I don’t see anyone needing to walk more than a block to get to their car.
As to business parking, aren’t most of the street parking spots down in the business district metered? People can’t leave their cars their indefinitely during business hours so I don’t think the folks living in the apartment blocks are using those spots during the day. Lack of parking has never dissuaded me from visiting a business in central Ballard.
I’m not sure why we can’t just have a market-based approach to this problem. If developers can sell parking, let them build it. But in a city with relatively high housing costs I’m against forcing anyone to pay a few hundred bucks a month for a parking spot that they might not need and might not use. And if there is such a huge demand for parking then why hasn’t anyone gotten rich by building a parking garage in Ballard?
I know people like to complain, but from my vantage point the perception does not meet reality.
It’s hard to carry all your groceries a block and up the stairs to your house. Also, if I am thinking of going shopping the stores with easy parking are usually the ones I shop at unless I am trying to buy something special. I would be surprised if stores on Market Street and Ballard Ave get as much traffic as stores at the mall.
The space worked better as Love Zone
Turning into a eastern Europe designed canyon. Sad. To many people here already. Friend still lives in old craftsman home and can’t have family get togethers anymore cuz there is nowhere for anyone to park. That’s right, lots of seniors and small children aren’t riding the bus from all over to attend, they would get their the old fashioned way. It’s all geared for the millennials whom don’t want family they just want dorm style pod to habituate. Nice, no yard, no parking, no nothing but people in a big frigging hurry.
I will really miss seeing our sun. Our corridors of insanity continue on. I see gigantic voting blocks chock full of skulls full of mush. I’ve been hit twice already at that intersection. Do you all like trying to turn going east of west there now? Infrastructure? I got no stinkin infrastructure.
Living in Seattle the last 5 years has left me feeling depressed at times.
Of course it sold. These poor guys are going to be getting their small buisness off the ground just in time for rent to skyrocket in a new cookie cutter building which won’t offer enough parking for the residents.
How is this model going to work for these businesses. Developers want people to move here, no doubt trying to leverage the amazing part of the country we live in. However they expect these people will move here with no vehicle despite needing it to get out to enjoy anything outside the city. Yes, you can get to work without a car, but you can’t easily get out skiing, kayaking, climbing or whatever other adventure passtime you want to pursue.
If you want high density figure out how to account for the lifestyle of the region you’re developing in.
Not to mention the fact that people fleeing the East Coast want the relative peace and quiet Seattle used to offer. Whelp, now they can enjoy shrieking hobos, dangerous urban cores, and sirens every 5min. Don’t forget if you complain they’ll tell you to a) “move, bigot” or b) “this is just like NYC/SF/LA etc why are you such a hick get over your Nimby mentality.”
We’re “world class” now! Hooray!
Let the free market decide how much parking to add
Let the free market pay for other people’s bastard kids.