nwasianweekly.com
Jan. 5, 2008

Image provided by TRF Pacific

An architect’s rendering of the proposed Dearborn project features lots of housing units. The Dearborn Street Coalition is pushing for low-income housing, and warns that the developer is planning only market-rate units.

Dearborn Street project renews pledge; activists skeptical

By James Tabafunda
Northwest Asian Weekly

Since the last renovation of the Seattle Goodwill building in 1965, broken water pipes and the lack of air conditioning have become problems to those who work there. Now, however, Goodwill is about to acquire a brand-new 120,000-square-foot building, to be built by Dearborn Street Developers, in exchange for a sale of land.

“We have studied many development options over the last 10 years, and now, we have found an innovative way to trade our land for a new building,” said Ken Colling, president and CEO of Goodwill.

The site at South Dearborn Street, about 10 acres total, is currently co-owned by Goodwill and two others. Goodwill owns about 8 acres and “the city (of Seattle) owns 2 acres, and those are city streets,” said Darrell Vange, president of Ravenhurst Development. “And Herzog Glass, who is on the corner, they own a half-acre.”

Ravenvurst Development and TRF Pacific, another Seattle-based developer, are members of the Dearborn Street Developers.

DSD is planning a multiuse, commercial development made up of seven buildings, and totaling 600,000 square feet of retail, for the site. The development is known as the Dearborn Street Development project.

The developers plan to construct a Target store, 50 shops and restaurants, and about 550 apartments and condos at Dearborn Street. For its patrons and residents, 2,300 parking stalls will also be installed.

At a media briefing held at the Saigon Bistro Dec. 13, DSD renewed its pledge to be “a community ally and strong business partner to the Little Saigon and Chinatown/International District communities.”

The opening of Goodwill’s new building is scheduled for 2008, Dearborn Street’s second phase. Vange added that their October 2005 application with the City of Seattle, requesting the city to vacate and sell its 2-acre portion, “still hasn’t been approved.”

At the moment, the site is zoned as industrial, according to Vange. He said, “If we want to do a project that has a significant housing component, we have to get the zoning changed … so we asked for a contract rezone from the city.”

In 2004, Vange started planning Dearborn Street. “We have been meeting with numerous community groups for more than two years, and we will continue to do so,” he said. Colling noted, “One thing that’s the most interesting to me is there’s been a whole lot of great community input. Darrell has made a lot of design changes and adjustments.”

In order for its developers to receive a master use permit from the city, public hearings were held starting in 2005. The final one — a total of nine Design Review Board meetings were held — took place four months ago.

“(They were) held in the community so the community members can have input as to the size and shape and character of the project,” said Quang Nguyen, co-chair of Downtown Street Coalition for a Livable Neighborhood, a group representing more than 40 organizations, such as the Vietnamese American Economic Development Association and the Jackson Place Community Council.

However, Nguyen criticized DSD’s receptiveness to community input. He said the Downtown Street Coalition supports the construction of a new building for Goodwill. But, he said, it does not support the project’s size and character. “From the very beginning (in 2005), we expressed concern about this type of large-scale, retail development,” Nguyen explained. “And at that time, we were told that this wasn’t the venue to talk about that.

“What is the right venue? There is absolutely no venue for us,” he added. “We essentially started this coalition (in 2006) because they ignored these issues.” The coalition helped organize a protest march on April 21, 2007, that drew about 400 people who objected to the project. The march shut down traffic from the Central District to the proposed development site on Dearborn Street.

“We feel that (South Dearborn) has no relationship whatsoever with the Chinatown/International District and Little Saigon,” said Nguyen. “It’s going to displace the small, family-owned businesses.”

Dearborn Street Coalition has contacted Mayor Greg Nickels’ office about what Nguyen said is a “huge buildup of discontent.”

Another grassroots group, Go Dearborn Street!, supports the development. The group was founded by five community members who are all residents of nearby Jackson Place Community, according to Carrie Kim, one of the founders. She said by e-mail that contrary to the Dearborn Street Coalition’s claims, they are not backed by the developer or its public relations firm. “We formed our group on our own accord as citizens who were frustrated by the coalitions exaggerated and ‘alarmist’ messaging surrounding the project,” she said.

According to its Web site, Go Dearborn Street! feels “this project will connect … diverse communities and add vibrancy to an industrial, pedestrian-unfriendly area that has suffered neglect.”

Nguyen countered, “We want to see more development in the neighborhood, too. But, we want to see responsible development. We want to see healthy development, and this definitely is not healthy development.”

For more information about Go Dearborn Street!, visit www.godearbornstreet.com. For more information about the Dearborn Street Coalition for Livable Neighborhoods, visit dearbornstreetcoalition.org.

James Tabafunda can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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