Sound Transit walkthrough for Delridge businesses leaves unanswered questions – Top Seattle

On Monday, 25 March 2024, Sound Transit staff, staff of Sound Transit Board members, local elected officials, representatives from Seattle’s Department of Transportation and Office of Economic Development, and local business owners met in the Youngstown /North Delridge neighborhood to discuss the West Seattle Link Extension project and its impacts to businesses, organizations, and community resources in the vicinity of Delridge station as proposed in the preferred alignment (DEL-6).

This Delridge station alternative would replace the existing Frye Commerce Center, owned by the Charles and Emma Frye Art Museum, with the first of three light rail stations on the West Seattle peninsula. The Frye Commerce Center is one of five properties owned by the Frye Art Museum, the lease revenue from which is used to keep the museum free to the public. Of the more than 90,000 square feet of commercial space in the Frye Commerce Center, the largest tenant, Alki Beach Academy, leases roughly 24,000 square feet and is executing expansion plans that will bring their licensed capacity to an estimated 310 children.

The list of impacted businesses, organizations, and community resources near the Delridge station includes: Nucor, Alki Beach Academy, ILWU Local 52, The Skylark Cafe, Mode Music and Performing Arts, Mode Music Studios, Ounces Taproom, Sound Physical Therapy, Subway, Uptown Espresso, Delridge Deli Mart, PNTA, Campfire Girls, West Seattle Health Club, and Transitional Resources.

In addition to a few guests from the community who were invited by other attendees, the group included the following:

• ●  Sound Transit Staff

  • ○  Faith Roland | Director, Real Property

  • ○  Leda Chahim | Acting Deputy Executive Director, Government and Community Relations

  • ○  Jason Hampton | West Seattle Extension Lead, High Capacity Transit Development

• ●  Sound Transit Board Member Staff

  • ○  Calli Knight | Infrastructure Initiatives Director, King County Executive Dow Constantine’s Office

  • ○  Carly Pena | Legislative Aide, King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay’s Office

  • ○  Elliot Helmbrecht | Transportation Policy Advisor, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Office

  • ○  Naomi Lewis | Legislative Assistant, Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss’ Office

• ●  Other Elected Officials and Staff

  • ○  Teresa Mosqueda | King County Councilmember, District 8

  • ○  Erin House | Chief of Staff, King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda’s Office

  • ○  Christopher Lampkin | Deputy Chief of Staff, King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda’s Office

  • ○  Rob Saka | Seattle City Councilmember, District 1

  • ○  Leyla Gheisar | District Relations Director, Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka’s Office

• ●  Seattle Department of Transportation

○ Nicole Kistler | Sound Transit Engagement and Partnership Advisor

● Seattle Office of Economic Development
○ John Persak | Maritime, Manufacturing, and Logistics Advocate

● Businesses, Organizations, & Community Resource Representatives

• ○  Steve Scott | Commercial Broker for IRES, Property Manager for the Frye Commerce Center

• ○  Rollin Fatland | Corporate Public Affairs, Liaison for Nucor

• ○  Jordan Crawley | Director of Policy and Operations, Alki Beach Academy

• ○  Kesa Sten | President, ILWU Local 52

• ○  Matt Larson | Owner, The Skylark Cafe

• ○  Erin Rubin | Owner, Mode Music Studios & Managing Director, Mode Music and Performing Arts

• ○  Laurel Trujillo | Co-Owner, Ounces Taproom

• ○  Andrew Trujillo | Co-Owner, Ounces Taproom

  The group did a walking tour of the area to visualize the path of the light rail alignment and its impact on the area. Beginning at Uptown Espresso, the group headed West to the intersection of 26th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Andover Street. The group then returned to the Frye Commerce Center to stop at the ILWU Local 52 office before proceeding to Alki Beach Academy, The Skylark Cafe, Mode Music Studios and Mode Music and Performing Arts, and concluding the tour at Ounces Taproom.

26th Avenue Southwest & Southwest Andover Street

Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda began by explaining her interest in the project and its impacts in Delridge specifically. As a mother, Youngstown resident, and elected representative of the neighborhood, she feels deeply connected to the community and understands how greatly the area will be impacted by the loss of resources. Mosqueda provided some background regarding the conversations which had led up to this walking tour, but made mention of the fact that still too few people truly understood what light rail will look like in Delridge. While she emphasized her support for mass transit, she also highlighted her desire to retain essential resources like child care, arts and cultural education, and healthcare and fitness facilities in severely under- resourced neighborhoods like Delridge.

Sound Transit staff then described the path of the track around Pigeon Point and the station location at the Commerce Center. They explained the refinement approved late last year which shifted the station

somewhat southward to allow for improved station amenities and a dedicated freight access and egress road at the North end of the Commerce Center, freeing up the South entrance to be a dedicated transit access and egress point. Some of the representatives of businesses present asked questions about how Sound Transit weighs impacts on housing versus commercial properties and to what extent that weight influenced the decision to name DEL-6 the “preferred alternative”. Sound Transit staff responded by saying they as staff do not give any type of displacement greater or lesser weight and, instead, report to the Board their findings and allow the Board to make the decisions. Further discussion centered around the involvement of Seattle’s departments in the planning, design, and implementation of Sound Transit projects, and what influence the departments have over the final project. The relationship was left at a description of it as a partnership, where the City helps Sound Transit make informed decisions based on other factors, for example, the Comprehensive Plan insofar as it takes into account Neighborhood Development Plans and promotes holistic neighborhoods.

Before moving on, Mosqueda asked Sound Transit staff whether an alternative which placed the station on the South edge of Southwest Andover Street was feasible and, if not, why not. The station placement would have required the acquisition of the West Seattle Corporate Center sits as well as three large parking lots but, Mosqueda said, could have potentially avoided the Frye Commerce Center. Sound Transit staff explained that the engineering requirements for the track would have also required further impacts to Pigeon Point, Longfellow Creek, and nearby housing, including the Youngstown Flats development on 26th Avenue Southwest. Because of the elevated environmental impact and the engineering complications, a path such as that was not considered feasible.

Nucor & ILWU Local 52

In front of the ILWU Local 52 office, the liaison for Nucor mentioned the potential impacts to freight mobility which have been somewhat mitigated by the station refinement but are still very much present. These mobility issues were emphasized by Kesa Sten, the union’s President, who talked about how the refinements sought to alleviate the concern of a common access point for freight and transit but seem to create a new traffic dilemma on Delridge near the on- and off-ramps for the West Seattle Bridge.

Alki Beach Academy

Beside Alki Beach Academy’s program site, Director of Policy and Operations Jordan Crawley spoke to the growth of the program over the last ten years and its anticipated growth in the near future. Planning to more than double in size over the next two years, their goal is to serve as many families as they can before they are forced out of the Commerce Center. Crawley specifically mentioned that providers in West Seattle meet less than forty percent of the current demand and population growth far outpaces that of the industry. The fact that few programs in the area actually serve all children younger than six years, as theirs does, is even more problematic. He also made it clear that he and the owners are, in fact, pro-light rail — describing how amazing it will be for West Seattle to have access to a regional transportation network apart from the bridge, which we will have to replace at some point in the next few decades. However, the lack of clarity around how much financial support businesses can anticipate from Sound Transit is causing stress and anxiety among the businesses who simply want to continue serving their community.

The Skylark Cafe

Matt Larson, owner of The Skylark Cafe, has been running the venue for the last eleven years since he purchased it from the previous owner. Skylark is one of very few all-ages music venues in the city and works closely with their neighbors, Mode Music Studios as well as Mode Music and Performing Arts, to give young musicians opportunities to perform. Larson mentioned the complexities the restaurant industry, like the child care industry, faced trying to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and the bridge closure. He also stated how disheartening it is to have made it through those hardships just to be confronted with what seems to be an inevitable displacement by Sound Transit. He also spoke to the broader ecosystem of community support they have developed alongside Ounces Taproom and Alki Beach Academy, sharing a lot of the same customer base and doing as much as they could to support each other through the last four years.

Mode Music Studios & Mode Music and Performing Arts

Erin Rubin serves in two roles: as founder and owner of Mode Music Studios (“MODE”), and another as the Managing Director of the nonprofit she founded, Mode Music and Performing Arts (“MMPA”). MODE provides all-ages music education through private lessons and works with venues like The Skylark and The Sanctuary, located in the Admiral neighborhood, to offer opportunities for their students to perform. MMPA offers innovative programs to address disparities in arts education by providing free and discounted opportunities for public school students to participate in music and performing arts classes and camps. Rubin talked about an agreement between the current property owner and her wherein she would eventually purchase the building from them. When Sound Transit released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement in 2022, however, that agreement fell to the wayside along with Rubin’s dreams of building another story on their building to provide her two businesses with additional space to serve folks from the community.

Ounces Taproom

Co-owners and spouses, Laurel and Andrew Trujillo, opened Ounces Taproom in the fall of 2016 and were received with a lot of enthusiasm in the Youngstown neighborhood. The Trujillos talked about a lot of the same experiences and concerns shared by the other businesses’ representatives, calling into question the amount of transparency in decision making and the lack of clarity around financial assistance for commercial tenants. Laurel stated that it has felt, since the preferred alternative was switched to the DEL-6 to WSJ-5 alignment, that a decision was effectively made. No conversations they have with Sound Transit seem to change any minds, and she is deeply concerned about the lack of awareness around the project. While Sound Transit has held open houses and published their documents online, the Trujillos feel very little has been done to illustrate the scope of this highly-impactful project. They, like the other business representatives, made it clear that they support light rail — Andrew specifically said he bike commutes every day and light rail would make his commute a lot easier. Still, they have invested their life into a business and want to make sure it survives displacement.

WRAPPING UP THE MEETING

Because of the repetition of the concerns around financial assistance for commercial tenants in the wake of displacement, Councilmember Mosqueda asked Sound Transit staff to clarify what resources are available to business owners when it is decided they will be displaced. The process was explained as follows:

1. The Acquisition Process

   1. Sound Transit will contract with an appraiser to assess the value of the property based on similar properties

      recently sold and, when applicable, the property’s income potential.

   2. Sound Transit then makes an offer to purchase in writing, which is sent to the property owners.

   3. Unless the property owner disputes the valuation, payment for the property is released upon signing of the

      purchase and sale agreement and the property is transferred to Sound Transit.

2. Relocation Advisory Services

   1. Eligibility for relocation advisory services and entitlements begins on the date sale negotiations begin for the property on which the tenant operates.

   2. Advisory services provided include information on the availability, location, and cost of suitable replacement properties. The decision on where to move is left to the business owner.

3. Entitlements for Commercial Tenants

1. Moving Expenses

   1. A business will be reimbursed for all actual and reasonable moving expenses; or

   2. A business may opt to receive a fixed payment equal to the average net earnings of the last two

      taxable years up to $40,000.

2. Reestablishment Expenses

   1. State law limits displacing entities performing public works projects from paying more than $50,000 in reestablishment expenses (RCW 8.26.035). These expenses include, but are not limited to:

      1. Property repairs, improvements, or modifications;

      2. Signage and advertisement; and

      3. Two years of the difference in lease costs, taxes, insurance premiums, and utility charges.

   2. Sound Transit staff claims they can almost always reclassify certain reestablishment expenses as moving expenses, covering them under the umbrella of unlimited funding for moving expenses.

After some discussion of the details, Jordan Crawley (Alki Beach Academy) asked Sound Transit to confirm the accuracy of his restating of the entitlements for commercial tenants. Crawley phrased it as follows:

“There are two primary categories of funds that comprise the total cost, or “T”, of relocating a business: moving expenses and reestablishment expenses. We can call those “M” and “R”, respectively.

For “M”, any actual and reasonable moving expenses are covered in full by Sound Transit.

For “R” there appears to be three subcategories: (1) the $50,000 entitlement available to all businesses, (2) the funds with which Sound Transit is able to get creative and reclassify as moving expenses, which we can call “C” for “creativity”, and (3) any remaining reestablishment expenses which could not be reclassified and are in excess of $50,000. Let’s call the third category “X”.

In other words: T = M + ($50,000 + C + X)

Sound Transit has been clear that “M”, the $50,000 entitlement, and “C” are fully funded by Sound Transit. However, when it comes to “X”, it’s difficult to get a straight answer.

Is it true that, if “X” is a non-zero number, the business is responsible for that amount?”

Sound Transit staff was reluctant to give a yes or no answer, instead explaining that we can’t know if “X” is a non-zero number until we are able to find a new location, dig into the details of the business’ unique circumstances, and determine the actual costs of reestablishing the business in the new space. Once it was made clear that the value of “X” is immaterial, rather the concern is where the burden for funding “X” lies, Sound Transit staff admitted the business is responsible for covering that expense.

This is the primary concern for the businesses that will be displaced.

The businesses’ representatives expressed their shared concern that, for planning purposes, they have to prepare for the best- and worst-case scenarios; one where they have no financial obligation, one where they have next to no financial support, and everything in between. It is for this reason that the businesses are frustrated — not because light rail is almost assuredly coming to West Seattle, but because there is no guarantee they will survive to serve the community after their removal from Youngstown. On this point, Sound Transit staff encouraged the businesses to connect with the members of the Sound Transit Board, make their voices heard, and see what can be done at that level because, ultimately, what happens with light rail in West Seattle is up to the Board.

While businesses like Alki Beach Academy have been actively engaged in the process for over two years, and more recently The Skylark Cafe and Ounces have become more vocal about their situation, they and the others in the meeting got the feeling that there is too little time to enact change and preserve their business.