White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Here’s the official reminder from the county – it kicked in today.

Several White Center Now commenters asked questions following our publishing the other day of the King County Council’s news release announcing a $6 million financing deal for a “retail plaza … near Greenbridge.” What’s the project, and what’s “White Center Investment Fund LLC”? they asked. Alcina noted that the state corporation files include no such entity. We put the question to King County Council Chair Dow Constantine‘s office, and James Bush explains:

“White Center Investment Fund LLC” is an entity set up for this loan by U.S. Bank. It’s a Delaware limited liability corporation, as are many of the local LLCs set up for development purposes. In this sort of federal tax credit arrangement the money moves around from entity to entity, but where it will end up is as a loan to Vongs LLC, a corporation owned by the Vong family. They have an Asian grocery store in White Center which will move into a much larger space in this project when it is completed.

The White Center Square site is at SW 100th/14th SW (Google Street View, above). The project’s total cost is expected to be around $10 million. Here’s the ordinance the council passed; we had spoken with the company working on the project recently, and they said they’re hoping to break ground around the end of this month.

ADDED WEDNESDAY NIGHT: KING 5 TV news was in White Center today to do a story about the project and the area’s revitalization in general (what? no Rozella/Full Tilt interviews?); see it here.

Much controversy and concern has been brewing around the prospect of King County selling parkland in North Highline, including Puget Sound Park, for “affordable housing” — here’s the full list of what the county put up for sale, five properties, with a request for submittals suggesting they would prefer that all five go to the same developer.

Three firms responded, according to online records: DevCo, Quadrant Homes, and Shelter Resources. The next step in the process is not clearly spelled out online. During a recent interview, we asked outgoing County Executive Ron Sims about this, and he said that the intent is for the county to replace the sold parkland with open space somewhere else. That’s not what North Highline opponents of the sale want to see happen, like Greg Duff of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council (which will discuss the sale status during its meeting this Thursday). He writes:

It’s time for the citizens of Burien and North Highline to say something to Mr. Ron Sims about his underhanded attempt to sell off Puget Sound Park located at 126th and 1st Ave. South to contractors for affordable housing (another word for low income). Anyone who watched channel 4 news this weekend saw that this area is part of the proposed annexation area of Burien. Mr. Sims wants to sell off this park and leave Burien with more low income housing. Mike Martin, Burien city manager, is opposed to this idea. We need this park and unless we speak up we are going to lose one of the largest open spaces left in North Highline. Write Mr. Sims and let him know you are opposed to it. Maybe he’ll read your e-mail because channel 4 tried for 2 weeks to reach him and he never returned any calls. Maybe he is too concerned with moving to Washington DC to actually take care of King County.

The park sale plan is under “old business” on the agenda for this Thursday’s NHUAC meeting, 7 pm, North Highline Fire District HQ.

This news release just in from the King County Council:

Council approves investment in White Center
HUD loan key to redevelopment and jobs in southwest King County

The revitalization of White Center received an economic boost today with action today by the Metropolitan King County Council to accept a $6.25 million federal loan for construction of a retail plaza.

“This is a great opportunity to finance an economic development project that directly benefits the surrounding mixed-income community, creating local jobs for local residents,” said Council Chair Dow Constantine, who represents White Center on the County Council.

“The next step in the transformation of the Park Lake neighborhood into Greenbridge is construction of the plaza that will be financed by this loan,” said Councilmember Larry Gossett, chair of the Council’s Budget and Fiscal Management Committee. “This complex will spur economic growth in both Greenbridge and the communities within southwest King County.”

The legislation approved by the Council authorizes the Executive to borrow $6.25 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and re-lend those funds to the White Center Investment Fund, LLC. The legislation also pledges the County’s Community Development Block Grants funds as additional security for the loans.

The investment Fund will use the loan to leverage the additional funding needed to complete a new 26,500 square foot retail/office plaza near Greenbridge. Greenbridge is a mixed-income community built on the site of the former Park Lake Homes, the King County Housing Authority’s oldest and largest public housing development

The project will also be eligible for a federal tax credit, which will help defray the overall cost of the $11 million project.

The new building, which has pre-lease commitments for 80 percent of its retail space, will provide goods and services to the surrounding neighborhood while creating about 60 job opportunities. It joins a plaza and renovated community center that were built as part of the Greenbridge revitalization project.

There’s word of a meeting this Friday, 11 am-noon, at North Highline Fire District HQ, regarding the future of Evergreen Pool — Pat and Bob Price forwarded the note through mailing lists with a plea for a big turnout to show that the pool shouldn’t be shut down to save money. They say Margaret Anthony from King County will be there to talk about the pool. 1243 112th SW is where you’ll find the fire station, if you haven’t been there before.

On behalf of West Seattle Blog and White Center Now, we interviewed King County Council Chair Dow Constantine the day he declared he was running for County Executive. One of his council colleagues, Larry Phillips, was already in the race – and we have just published our interview with Phillips on WSB – topics include annexation and a possible area jail — see the story here.

UPDATE FROM ORIGINAL POST: The King County Council is on “furlough” this Friday, but the rest of county operations will be running as usual.

Just heard from from Dan Donohoe at the office of King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg: He says Satterberg has a family emergency and has to cancel his planned appearance at tonight’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting, but will reschedule. (However, the law/justice reps who are usually on hand at the meeting do include a prosecutor’s-office rep.) Everything else planned for the meeting, including updates on local crime trends and nuisance spots, is on as usual, 6 pm, St. James Place, 9421 18th SW.

Just posted at partner site West Seattle Blog: Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg — who has longtime White Center ties and lives in nearby Normandy Park — is the guest at this Thursday night’s White Center/South Delridge Community Safety Coalition meeting; read about it here.

From Dick Thurnau from Friends of Hicks Lake — a followup to the call for ideas that we published 3 weeks ago:

Friends of Hicks Lake did a lot of research to reach what we feel are the best and wisest decisions for improvements to utilize the $25,000 allotted in King County’s budget for Lakewood Park / Hicks Lake to make it a most enjoyable place for all.

We enlisted the aid of whitecenternow.com and White Center Community Development Association asking for the community suggestions.

The responses were limited but the # 1 was a water feature in the lake. #2 was a walking path around Hicks Lake, as a large share of the present pathways are on a hillside, making it difficult for older people and the disabled to use. A Boy Scout troop volunteered to do the labor portion of the pathway. #3 was to have a fulltime caretaker in the park to oversee and control the concerning, costly problems occurring in the park — graffiti, vandalism and illegal alcohol usage on these premises.

Our recommendation is a water feature consisting of an attractive floating fountain and underwater air diffusers (bubblers) which will provide aeration to help cleanse this unhealthy water in Hicks Lake. Pricing for this equipment from Absolute Aquatics would be under $10,000, including freight with a 3 year warranty. Other services required: $7,000 for an electrical Contractor, $2,000 for miscellaneous material, $1,000 for electrical power for one year, $2,000 for unforeseen developments. Total, $20,000, using volunteer labor to construct concrete anchors (2 required) and dig a trench from power source to the Lake and place equipment leaving a surplus for other projects. Another supplier gave a quote which was much higher in pricing but did give us a listing of many users of aeration features.

Sent an information brochure pertaining to this equipment described above to King County’s Surface Water Engineering for their evaluation — the question of a possibility of electrical shock, being the sealed motor is submerged in the water. Yes, that is a concern; however, manufacturers could or would not be able to sell these units for all these years if that were the case.

The above-suggested project of aeration is an interim objective until the White Center Regional Storm Water Improvement project, which is planned for 5 years down the road, is constructed.

Friends of Hicks Lake’s purpose and goal is to have clean, healthy lake water in Hicks Lake once again for the community to utilize this facility.

We’ll keep you posted on what happens next.

I interviewed Dow Constantine this afternoon in West Seattle for a West Seattle Blog follow-up to the announcement last night that he’s running for County Executive. One of the questions I asked was about annexation, and what happens now that a Seattle City Council vote has thwarted the Memorandum of Understanding between Burien, Seattle, and two fire districts. While we try not to repurpose material too much between the two sites, it’s been suggested we repost the entire story here, so here goes:

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor/White Center Now news editor

Instead of a once-planned family vacation on a sunny beach, King County Council Chair Dow Constantine is spending this partly sunny Seattle day — the first official day of his campaign for King County Executive — doing interviews, answering phone calls, e-mails, and text messages. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“This is fun,” he insists, as we part ways after a conversation at West 5 (WSB iPhone photo at left), in a space the native West Seattleite also remembers from spending many a day there in boyhood, when it was West Seattle Speedway, slot cars and all.

Read the rest of this entry »

That’s King County Council Chair Dow Constantine, who represents White Center and West Seattle (among other areas), announcing he’s running for County Executive. More details at our partner site West Seattle Blog.

Just a reminder, most county facilities will close this Friday (February 13) because it’s the next “furlough” day as part of the King County budget money-saving process. Here’s the list of the few places that will be open.

Just announced this morning, King County Executive Ron Sims has been nominated to become a deputy secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Detailed coverage, including comments from White Center’s King County Councilmember (and council chair) Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, on our partner site West Seattle Blog.

The county has just announced a VERY long list of programs and agencies getting $36 million dollars in all. Among them, the Homestead Community Land Trust, which will be working with eight first-time home buyers in White Center. Read the full list and details here.

As we reported late last fall, some of the most dramatic cuts proposed for King County public-safety services were avoided (the “storefronts” will all stay open, including the ones in White Center and Boulevard Park, for example) – but the budget ax hasn’t quite finished making its cuts yet – so this e-mail message from County Sheriff Sue Rahr may be of interest: Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s the last weekday before things start revving back up to normal on Monday – and there are two things to keep in mind today: Metro is on the “partial holiday” schedule one last day (changes listed here) and most county offices/facilities are closed because of the “furlough” day (changes listed here).

Most King County offices and facilities will be closed Friday (Jan. 2), the first of 10 “furlough days” that the county is implementing because of its budget troubles. Here are full details on what’s open and what’s not.

An alert from King County late today: Report storm damage ASAP. Here’s how.

From King County, more important words of warning – about your roof. And be sure any storm drains around your house are cleared, too – until this all melts away and we are back to “normal,” there’s still a chance of trouble.