Totem Lake Mall

Sledgehammer asks the burning question: How would you redevelop Totem Lake Mall?
here
and here


Hell-o! Check out the puffballs. Not good.


Trader Joe's? Check.


Labelscar? Check.


Plenty of free parking? That would be a yes.


Warm and friendly welcome? Could use a little tweaking.

Who Owns Trader Joe's?

Do you know who owns Trader Joe's? Check out this short piece from the NY Times
here

When Good Puffballs Go Bad

Rumble in Overlake: It was reported last weekend that the Trader Joe's gang tore up several parking bumpers. They seem to be taking a more aggressive stance. When questioned they were characteristically silent on the matter.

A Meeting with the Mayor: Wanna Buy a $6.5million Red Apple?

FOR SALE: BGN Properties Inc. Stod's. Built in 1969. 1.72 acres/75,100 square feet. Appraised value: $1,180,000.00






FOR SALE:
Newport Hills Shopping Center plus two "line stores" and "DQ" drive-in. Rainier NW University LLC. Built in 1963. 5.24 acres/228,400 square feet. Appraised value: $6,543,900.00





A PROJECTED TWO-YEAR planning process got underway last Thursday night at a meeting at Newport Hills' Bank of America. Mayor Grant Degginger was in attendance, along with the City's Neighborhood Planner Cheryl Kuhns and Economic Development Director Bob Derrick as well as Bellevue City Council member Conrad Lee. In the audience were about 40 or 50 concerned neighbors and merchants. Newport Hills Community Club ran a great presentation, with special credit going to President Cheryl Nygaard and Vice President Julie Rossman for encouraging inclusiveness by asking for written questions from the audience and using a large aerial map of our neighborhood business area to keep our focus in mind.


In his opening remarks, Mayor Degginger cited the new Newport Heights Elementary as a "game-changer," It puts Newport Hills on the radar and gives us a central focus. The City of Bellevue, he said, will now facilitate the neighborhood's community-building efforts by involving the community in future development decisions.



Degginger goes on to say that Newport Hills is now at the "top of the list" of six or seven similar neighborhood business centers in desperate need of an overhaul, and "now is the happy time" for Newport Hills to achieve theirs. One model to watch is Lake Hills' neighborhood business center,pictured below, nearing the end of a lengthy planning process and the subject of a previous entry in Red Apple Elegy. The developer there is Cosmos, and the record of ups and downs the neighborhood has gone through with them is lengthy, and instructive.





A lot of questions were answered at last week's meeting and will be answered in the Newport Hills Community Club website blog. A lot more remain unanswered.

Chiefly, how will the city assist in this planning process? As voiced by the Economic Development Director it appears to be to lure developers with promises of density allowances. He says there are four serious proposals on the table, now that Stod's is on the market as well. All of these involved mixed use, four stories of residential above base retail and office.


This is what would pencil out for the developers. Is this something like The Renton Landing? (See photo, right) We don't really have any other visual model to go by. He pointed to developments in the Bellevue CBD (Central Business District) and proposed development in the Bel Red Corridor, both of which inhabit a much larger footprint.

The neighborhood's focus is much more on tenants: Trader Joe's, PCC, hardware store, etc. as well as programming: swapmeets, community events, farmers market and sustainable gardens. In short, a Main Street model. Even thriving Crossroads Mall is set up on a "Main Street" pattern.


At busy West Seattle Junction, a classic model for Main Street, there is only one floor of residences above a row of shops.


Step 1: The mayor's first suggestion was to come up with a neighborhood working group who could identify a shared vision to present to prospective developers. The city is more than ready to work with us at this time.


This means that in a couple of years we'll have the beginnings of a plan.

Say it ain't so, Joe!

It's official: Trader Joe's has no plans for opening a store in Newport Hills at this time, according to company spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki. According to the Bellevue Reporter dated Feb. 18, she says: "Right now it's not on our two-year plan, but things change all the time."

Written by Joshua Adam Hicks, the article states that residents of Newport Hills are looking for "a selection of organic, imported, vegetarian, and gourmet products, as well as the Trader Joe's label itself, which includes every thing from soap to unusual frozen foods."

Like other residents, I find myself making the commute to Overlake once a week to pick up groceries at the nearest Trader Joe's stores.

"Myself and many of my neighbors are serious when we say 'We want a Trader Joe's in our neighborhood'" says one resident.

Another notes, "It has a lovely organic selection. It provides an excellent alternative to the other mainstay chain grocers."

Based on these comments, I wondered why the Puget Consumers Coop has no Bellevue store, and whether they'd be interested now that TJ's has spurned our pleas. Several commenters in this blog have echoed this, so I thought I'd find out if we could get on their radar.

First, I had a look at the flyer I received in the mail yesterday. I've been a member for over 25 years, but haven't figured out how to find the Kirkland store and though I know there's one in Issaquah I haven't been there in a while. Their flyer offers recipes, as well as natural extra lean ground beef and Rosie Organic whole chickens for $2.99/lb A deli, latte stand/seating, books and kitchen accessories. A lot of starts for your garden. Soaps, vitamins at a "great price".

It sounds good--best of all, they don't seem to require the large traffic volumes that TJ's requires for all of it's stores. They thrive in small neighborhoods throughout Seattle.

The board will be at the Issaquah PCC Saturday March 21 from 11 am to 1 pm for a "talk to the board" session. Think I'll check it out.

In Search of Damu

Top o'the Hill
Newcastle Fruit and Produce



Magic happened yesterday east of Renton Technical College.

I have spent the last two weeks trying to find Damu. I thought he was in Mexico on a well-earned vacation after managing Newcastle Fruit and Produce last summer.

But look who I found yesterday while driving lost through the Renton Highlands! I was actually 12 minutes from my house but because I arrived via 405 and the verges of the Renton downtown area (completely mind-numbingly difficult for me to navigate in my 15 years of living here) I had nearly come back full circle to Newport Hills. I had no idea how close I was. I got out of my car ready to ask directions, and then a little magic happened.I didn't even have to close my eyes, click my heels or wear my ruby slippers.

My old friend Damu was my Wizard of Oz. He kindly put me back on the right backroad after I purchased oranges, apples ($2.00 for two large bags), clementines, poppyseed cake and cream among other yummy things . First good piece of news: He is returning to Newcastle on March 1st under their red and white circus tent and (this is the amazing thing) his partner is looking into leasing Red Apple for a Newport Hills operation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Their grocery store, at or near 5325 NE 4th Street, is a wonderful melange of all kinds of produce from Yakima and beyond, very reasonably priced pastas, pestos, homemade tomato sauces, baked goods, cheeses, and an actual butchers. And much more. As Cheryl says, it's Trader Joe's-y. It's like a local Trader Joe's. But without the traffic.

Meanwhile, the neighbors have voted (informally of course and please don't consider this a legal, binding and in any way official election) and the Number 1 most-requested store to replace the Red Apple in Newport Hills is (I need a drum roll here but it's not a huge surprise)Trader Joe's. Please feel free to take a few seconds and nominate Newport Hills for the next Trader Joe's

>http://www.traderjoes.com/location_requests_form.aspx/

Several interim possibilities for our Red Apple parking lot:

These are photos taken of the Lake Hills produce stand open in the summer. They have the most beautiful floral bouquets you've ever seen--even nicer than Pike Place Market, which is saying a lot.

Click below for a list of all the local farmers markets, all of which started in parking lots just like ours!

http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/
http://www.bellevuefarmersmarket.org/