First on PhinneyWood: Fred Meyer Public Affairs Director Melinda Merrill just told PhinneyWood that the department store plans to do a major remodel of its existing Greenwood Fred Meyer store, rather than redevelop it into a retail and residential project.
The Seattle P.I.com broke the news on Monday that Fred Meyer had told the city that it was looking at remodeling instead of moving forward with the massive development that would have covered the entire site between 85th and 87th streets and 1st and 3rd avenues. In that article, Tom Gibbons, Fred Meyer’s Director of Real Estate, said the retailer hadn’t decided what to do.
Merrill tells PhinneyWood that Fred Meyer had planned to hold community meetings first to announce the plan, but that someone leaked the information.
“We’re very sorry that the information came out this way,” she said. “We really wanted to meet with the community first.”
Merrill said the latest design of the new store, which would have been built on a series of pilings to minimize disturbing the Greenwood Peat Bog, put the project about $13 million over budget. She said brand new stores – such as the one they built in Snohomish a few years ago – typically cost about $30 million. She said the price tag for the new Greenwood Fred Meyer was budgeted at about $54 million. (That doesn’t include the cost of about 250 housing units that developer Lorig & Associates planned to build, which would have brought the total amount to about $95 million for the entire development.)
The current Fred Meyer store will have a down-to-the-studs remodel and will house apparel and groceries. The building currently housing the Greenwood Market – whose lease ends in a few months at the end of 2011 – will also have a major remodel to house a Fred Meyer home and garden center. The remodel will cost about $15 million.
“We’re going to remodel the current store and look at this (redevelopment) again in eight to 10 years,” Merrill said. “It will be the coolest Fred Meyer around. It will have a lot of high-end products, a lot of cool things.”
Merrill said Fred Meyer will notify the community soon of public meetings about the project, as well as a remodeling schedule. She said Fred Meyer wouldn’t begin remodeling until at least the first of the year (which would give it a November 2011 opening), but that it could begin as late as the beginning of 2012, with an anticipated opening date of June 2012.
52 responses so far ↓
1 Mike // Aug 19, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Ah, so after a lot of public input what we get is the worst of all possible worlds, no Greenwoood Market and still a sea of asphalt parking. Seattle process wins everytime!
2 dusty // Aug 19, 2010 at 2:10 pm
I have an idea. . . how about we remodel the current Fred Meyer into a home apparel, garden center, and home store and make the Greenwood Market into a local independent grocery store. . .
C’mon, we are so almost there guys!
3 JM // Aug 19, 2010 at 2:11 pm
I am disappointed to hear this, but considering the recession and sluggish economy, I can see the smaller scale project happening.
4 snoopy // Aug 19, 2010 at 2:53 pm
what a bummer. thanks for killing this complainers.
I hope that a remodel will include a seismic retrofit. that precast pos building is one tremor away from rubble.
5 Mark // Aug 19, 2010 at 2:55 pm
People, did you not get what was just released, Greenwood Market is going, the lease is up and they are leaving. You can support Ballard Market if you so choose. The fact that both buildings will be remodeled is much better than having two large buildings and an empty parking lot.
Sounds to me that most of you would have been much happier with Greenwood Market staying and be left with a HUGE old Freddies building and a large parking lot. What would have been your answer to fix that problem?
The new plan will be better than nothing, Fred Meyers Corp needs to stand by their 10 year redevelopment plan. We as neighbors can try and get them to stick to this.
If you do not like Fred Meyer or the large parking lot, Then go somewhere else for your home groceries and other goods. I will be one of the first to walk in those new doors and experience what Fred Meyer has to offer.
We all know that the parking lot will stay the same size, but maybe if there was an interested party out there, they could negotiate some square footage and build a new business to fill the void.
I am very happy with this new situation. Whatever it takes to keep my home value up works for me and I would bet for most of you.
6 MB // Aug 19, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Way to go development protesters and Greenwood Market freaks. Your attempts to force a private landowner on who their tenants should and should not be, and delay a project with multiple ‘interest’ meetings killed the best chance we had to connect the sea of asphalt with the Greenwood Ave neighborhood core.
Fred Meyer was never going to keep Greenwood Market. Their intentions for redevelopment were good, but they met the Seattle special interest blockheads and ‘delay, delay, delay’ and now we are left with a ‘remodel’ and a continued disconnected neighborhood.
You people need to join the real world. Change like this happens by supporting investment in our community, not your stupid multiple interests and community meetings. This can join the monorail in the litany of ‘doing nothing’ we are so good at facilitating here in Seattle.
Pat yourselves on the back you bunch of blockheads.
7 Whopper // Aug 19, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Well at least the dopers, thugs, bums, gang banger wannabes and meth heads will be happy…..along with the whiners.
8 Whopper // Aug 19, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Quite frankly, I’d rather see hookers out front of my house than ‘neighborhood activists’; they’ll do less damage to the neighborhood and unlike ‘activists’, they know when to shut the **** up.
9 anankaf // Aug 19, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Dang, I love Greenwood Market. Ballard Market here I come.
10 Josh // Aug 19, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Unfortunately, it will now have a crappy grocery store to replace the wonderful Greenwood Market. Now I have to find somewhere else to shop because it won’t be at Filthy Fred groceries. Maybe Greenwood Market can relocate nearby?
11 Josh // Aug 19, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Ha, ha, ha! Blaming the “neighborhood activists” for Fred Meyer’s decision. Do you really think they care what the public thinks? It is only the money they care about.
12 Trix // Aug 19, 2010 at 4:06 pm
+1 for what Josh said. Do any of you think the public opinion matters to any developer? They took one look at the empty apartments and storefronts across the street and decided it was not a good time to build.
13 Whopper // Aug 19, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Right, FM spend 10 years listening and reshaping the project to satisfy these so-called ‘activists’….I guess you think the ‘public comments’ requirement for a project like this is optional?
14 Whopper // Aug 19, 2010 at 4:38 pm
But hey, what do I care, I don’t live in Green’hood with the crackheads, dopers, hookers and tweakers.
Maybe they should have a Dopers and Bums Olympics on that sea of asphalt every year to celebrate your fight against progress?
15 SM // Aug 19, 2010 at 4:54 pm
I for one LOVE Greenwood Market and am very sad to hear that we are getting the worst of both worlds with this solution. If GM had to go then I at least wanted to see a nice new solution that got rid of the ugly parking lots.
Any chance of organizing a “Support Greenwood Market” protest to show Fred Meyer just how much we want to keep it? They hold the lease on it after all, so perhaps they’d consider leaving it alone and remodeling the current FM store sans groceries? Anyone with me on fighting to keep Greenwood Market?
16 Trix // Aug 19, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Yeah, and I live in Ballard. I’ve seen what can happen. So, I bet, did Fred Meyer. Development by itself is a good thing. Overdevelopment leaves a lot of shiny new empty buildings and fenced in empty lots.
17 Iron City Mike // Aug 19, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Not me – went there once – small selection, run down, over priced – seriously, other than the fact that they are local why all the love for Greenwood Market? Even produce didnt seem any better than you can get at lots of other places around the city.
Sorry new development is not happening, but better FM pulls out now than builds an apartment complex that stays vacant, or worse creates a couple of holes in the ground that never get filled due to lack of money or the economy.
18 Feed Us All // Aug 19, 2010 at 5:52 pm
I’m just glad Fred’s is going to offer groceries for the neighborhood. It should make everyone VERY nervous when companies decide to shut down grocery stores in neighborhoods. Where ya’ gonna get yer food people?! Travel farther and farther? Again, we’re lucky that FM is still going to retain a food store as part of the plan. the rest of it is just fluff as far as I’m concerned.
19 Kris // Aug 19, 2010 at 6:37 pm
I know a lot of people are upset about Greenwood Market going away, but they’ve had nothing to offer (except Central/Ballard Markets cast-offs). I’m glad to see Fred Meyer investing in our neighborhood, even if it’s toned down due to the recession. I’ll likely continue to get my groceries from Safeway, but Fred Meyer will get my business for socks, school, and gardening supplies. I really look forward to a remodeled couple buildings.
Good riddance Greenwood Market, I’m sick of their poor produce and horrible selection. While I love Ballard and Central market, the offerings at the Greenwood location have been abysmal.
20 Matt // Aug 19, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Wow, Whopper! You’re misconceptions are unduly noted. While your discontent with the project is appreciated, and agreed with, your comments only come off as a person that can’t articulate the pro’s and con’s.
Would you like to try again?
21 Matt // Aug 19, 2010 at 7:44 pm
I remember replacing a water pump on a Toyota a decade ago under the protection of the FM garage in winter. It was nasty outside. The manager came out, realized that it was actually happening, and going to be finished, and let us finish. We moved along that night. I’ve thanked Freddies since.
22 20feet // Aug 19, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Crappy, Crappy, Crappy news. I was so looking forward to this waste of land being developed into something that raises our property value, in addition to fostering a sense of community by providing a more walkable area with placed to gather.
Losing Greenwood Market, and keeping the sea of concrete, way to go naysayers, did you get what you wanted? I think it is the worst news I’ve heard in a long time for the development of greenwood.
23 Jon // Aug 19, 2010 at 8:18 pm
I was excited for the TurboMall project. I just wasn’t so jazzed about a ‘single floor’ Fred Meyer that is 100′ tall for no reason. Why do they make those buildings so hilariously tall if it’s only one floor?
The idea of having two buildings to jump between is really quite stupid. What a shame.
24 mamalicious // Aug 19, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Jon, I’m pretty sure there won’t be two buildings to jump between. They will connect them, and it will be one large store.
It would be a huge inconvenience to have to go to two separate buildings and stand in the checkout twice when Fred Meyer prides itself on “One-Stop Shopping.”
25 mamalicious // Aug 19, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Am I the only person who isn’t really bothered by the “sea of concrete” that others have mentioned? Sure, it would be nice to have some decent landscaping (trees, bushes, etc.) enclosing and softening the harshness the lot, but it is nice to have a decent sized area to park in when you go to shop at either of the stores there now.
And yes, I can see how they came to the decision to merely remodel and not build a huge new store as they had envisioned. All you have to do is look to the east and view the almost completely vacant but brand new retail/ apartment complex that was just built.
26 nwcitizen // Aug 19, 2010 at 9:11 pm
I will be very sorry to see the Greenwood Market go. I’m hoping they will relocate somewhere in the area so I can continue shopping at a locally owned market. If that can’t happen then I will likely shop at the Ballard Market.
27 TWS Garrison // Aug 19, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Okay, nice to see there will still be something resembling a real Fred Meyer and I won’t have to go to the Shoreline or Midway Fred Meyers for my grocery shopping but there is another place besides Fred Meyer that one patronizes at the site. What’s happening to Pacific Lock and Key?
28 Zinck74 // Aug 19, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Glad it’s at least gonna be remodeled.
Can someone please explain the Greenwood Market love? Seriously. I want to understand it. WHY do you love it so? I went there once because of comments on this blog. I was thinking it might be similar to the Central Market in Shoreline. That woulda been great! But I found it small, run down and with very limited selection. It felt like I was back at a supermarket I went to in the 80′s. Is there even a deli there? I didn’t see one, but perhaps I was just anxious to get out of there.
I’m more than happy at driving an extra 70 blocks to the Central Market. Now THERE’S a store.
29 RR // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:05 pm
I love Greenwood Market because of the staff–Valerie, Music, John, they’re all super nice to me and my kids.
They have great sales–2 lb blocks of Tillamook cheese for $4.99, microbrews are always on special, they have a great bulk section and meat that’s packaged for small families, not just huge mega packs.
It wasn’t the activists who killed the project, it was the economy. Check the numbers in the original article.
I don’t like Fred Meyer groceries. I guess it’ll be Ballard Market.
30 Neighbor57 // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:15 pm
There are a lot of people questioning the love for Greenwood Market. I am going to take that as a serious inquiry, and give a serious reply. If you are just being snarky, please don’t bother to reply…I don’t care if you disagree. MY experience is:
- I shop at GM a few times a week. I live close and shop in small doses to carry my groceries home.
- Everyone in there knows me and my family. They have little carts that my daughter LOVES to push and she has become a great helper. Everyone says hello as she goes through the store. They give kids hand stamps at the end…because they can, not because corporate told them they have to. (Is it just me, or does anyone else cringe when you are trying to get out of safeway and the checker stalls, holding your receipt, forced to thank you by name, only making you later and butchering your name anyway?)
- I find they have great produce. Their produce section is not huge, but often I find this is because they sell what is in season. You can’t find a butternut squash in there in June. That’s OK by me. Some of their fruit and tomatoes this time of year are on par with farmer’s markets. It is not all plastic containers full of Driscoll’s strawberries from SoCal or wherever.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY- to the people who think that Fred Meyer has better prices on everything- FALSE. If you buy organic products, vegetarian-friendly products, foods that you can pronounce, or non-food items (cleaners, paper goods, etc) that are biodegradable or non-chemical, Kroger prices are higher. The QFC on 45th in Wallingford used to drive me insane. You’d go upstairs to a “special” section where every single thing was 30% higher than the same product at Town and Country. They mark up the natural items more because they don’t buy as much of them nationally. Then in turn, the mark-ups fulfill their prophecy for low demand.
-I love the GM people, the store, the products, and even the lack of (often crappy) products. I will miss them entirely. FM’s promises of having “the biggest organic section” in the world just show that they miss the point.
31 MikePhoto // Aug 20, 2010 at 12:00 am
I’ve been shopping at the Greenwood Market since I moved to the area, almost 20 years ago now. Love the people, the produce, and the beer and wine selections. They used to do a “Meat Day” when they had SUPER deals on freezer-stockers for us.
Fred Meyer has been trying to get the site for at least 10 years now, doing whatever they could to get Greenwood Market out of the way. (I would have LOVED to have been the ‘fly on the wall’ when Kroger was talking to the landowner in the leadup to Greenwood Market being denied a lease renewal.)
After they first pushed through the proposed mega-project I decided that I would no longer give Freddie’s any more of my money (I had been shopping regularly there for close to 20 years, also). Now my hardware/housewares dollars go to Greenwood Hardware and other local stores.
I’ll continue to patronize the Town & Country markets we do have. Central Market is fast becoming our store of choice to replace Greenwood Market. Fred Meyer will never get a nickel from me again.
I’m definitely not against some type of redevelopment of the site, as long as that project INCLUDES our Greenwood Market. Forcing them out so that Fred Meyer can add a grocery section just rubs me the wrong way.
32 Judith Wood // Aug 20, 2010 at 7:02 am
I know I’m in the minority, as usual. Fred Meyer is not a monster, here. I am still looking forward to a FM grocery store within walking distance of my house so that I won’t have to drive to Ballard for my great selection of well-priced groceries (many of them organic or specialty products) and the convenience of other items I want to purchase. A better FM home and garden center is also something I look forward to having, as their plants are good quality (grown in Oregon, mostly) and often priced much better than more prominent nurseries in North Seattle.
My only hope for this new redevelopment effort is that the plan will still include some pedestrian and bike enhancements to improve the “sea of parking” which is definitely a blight.
33 Jenny // Aug 20, 2010 at 7:37 am
Man, I REALLY do not understand why so many people profess to “love” the Greenwood Market. It’s just another grocery store with higher than normal prices.
34 Tiktok // Aug 20, 2010 at 7:50 am
Reasons I like Greenwood Market:
1) Can walk to it from my house. Higher prices worth the convenience factor.
2) Large enough to have all the groceries I need
3) Organic produce
4) Small, friendly staff
I used to live right by the Ballard FM, so it was my grocery store, and it was too big. I don’t need a store that has a hundred varieties of each item, and I got tired of walking so far within the store to pick up a few items.
GM is a little run down, but it’s just a cosmetic thing. For me, the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. But, if it goes away, I’ll shop at the new FM–there’s no way I’m driving to Ballard Market for groceries.
35 DFH // Aug 20, 2010 at 9:11 am
I am looking forward to being able to buy groceries at the Fred Meyer here. It will be so convenient.
Right now I go to three grocery stores: our Safeway, Holman QFC, and Ballard Fred Meyer. This is because certain items are specific to certain stores. Having Freddys here will make things a lot more simple.
36 AMC // Aug 20, 2010 at 9:14 am
I love Greenwood market because I’ve never had to wait in line for more than 3 minutes or so. If there is a line, they open up another register right away.
Compare this to soviet Safeway, where the lines are long and there is never any bread.
I’ll miss GM for sure.
37 anon // Aug 20, 2010 at 9:26 am
Huh? Never had more than one person in front of me in line at Safeway,and they have an entire AISLE of bread
38 Su // Aug 20, 2010 at 9:52 am
I don’t shop at GM too often because I can’t afford it, but if I had more money I would be there every time. They have such high quality stock, I get food envy every time I go in. It is lovely, interesting, GOOD food and cleaning supplies, baby stuff, etc. They are buying with thought and knowledge of the community. I am sorry they are going to go. But they are going to go, and so I wish the FM redevelopment were going through; that particular block in Greenwood could certainly use a lift, and a one-level, one-building store would be much easier to shop.
39 MonkeyPilot // Aug 20, 2010 at 10:22 am
Greenwood Market will be missed. It’s the closest grocery store, easily walkable. They have the best produce, especially compared to Safeway. Great selection of bulk foods, microbrews, and wine. Their prices are comparable to other stores- they’re definitely not a PCC, Whole Foods, or even Ken’s. Hopefully they’ll find another space nearby in the neighborhood.
Better that Kroger makes up their mind on the FM remodel now, than in a year or two after they’ve leveled that block and decided the economy isn’t turning around as quickly as they expected. If the project was over budget now, it was over budget when they first proposed it. The only thing that has changed is that the recession has carried on longer than anyone expected, with no end in sight. I don’t really understand their business model anyway, with so many of their own stores nearby.
40 sezdog // Aug 20, 2010 at 10:43 am
Maybe Town & Country will open a new grocery store in the neighborhood? Please.
41 MikePhoto // Aug 20, 2010 at 11:59 am
Looks like there is plenty of empty space in the Piper Village Shopping Center right across the street! Perfect location for the new Greenwood Market.
42 nater // Aug 20, 2010 at 1:26 pm
FM is abandoning the project because of the cost of building a (too) big development in a bog.
FM isn’t interested in “investing” in our neighborhood; their interest is shutting down our local grocery (with local supply chains), so they can open a massive, mis-scaled, car-dependent, crappy national chain behemoth in our midst.
43 WC // Aug 20, 2010 at 3:36 pm
As far as Greenwood market goes, their produce and meats are way better than anything I’ve had from Safeway or any Kroger store. Prices weren’t always the best, but they’d have some good deals on stuff. I’m gonna miss it. Sure beats getting robbed at QFC.
44 Whopper // Aug 20, 2010 at 4:34 pm
” car-dependent”
How would FM be any more or less car dependent than Green’hood Market?
45 mamalicious // Aug 20, 2010 at 7:31 pm
“crappy national chain”
Fred Meyer was started in the early 1920s by an Oregonian, Fred G. Meyer. It was a northwest retail store for nearly 70 years before it was bought by Kroger in the late 90s.
Fred Meyer was the first and only grocery store for a long time to offer nutrition-oriented products and bulk foods in their Nutrition Centers. Now all grocery stores offer these products do so it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it was 20 year ago.
46 Whopper // Aug 20, 2010 at 8:29 pm
“crappy national chain”
Some grownups think they are still ‘fighting the man’ when all they’re doing is punching themselves in the face.
47 Gordy // Aug 21, 2010 at 12:59 pm
I just am despondent about the loss of Greenwood Market, and the retention of that ugly sea of asphalt….
48 peggy // Aug 21, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I, like many folks who have commented, walk to GM several times a week. I don’t do my grocery shopping anywhere else (except, when I’m a bit more in a hurry, at Ken’s) because they always have a great selection of organic, local and in-season produce, have great prices, and have the most personable staff in the world.
I am also all in favor of getting rid of the sea of concrete, but not at the expense of re-developing the property so we have a duplicate of the FM in Ballard.
I would love to support the idea of petitioning FM to keep GM and then . . . encourage them to
dig up at least half of the existing shared parking lot (it’s NEVER full, anyway.) How about a pea patch? Or some public green space with tables, as Metropolitan Market did with the old Albertson’s parking lot over on 40th NE? I mean, if FM is willing to remodel rather than redevelop, perhaps there’s hope!
But, if GM goes, I’ll definitely be in the Ballard Market camp. I hate to give up the walking, but the quality local produce is really important to me.
49 Love Greenwood // Aug 22, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Without Greenwood Market I have no reason to be on that block. I could care less what happens after Greenwood Market is gone. Oh and “Whopper” is a trolling repuglican. Activism is a staple of The United States. Activism = Patriotism. You are in the wrong city you old codger. May I suggest Bellevue?
50 Cobra // Aug 24, 2010 at 8:48 am
Looks like a few people have to read up a bit more about this story. Fred Meyer owns that land, and Town and Country lease the Greenwood Market building from them. The comment that FM has been after the Greenwood market building for 10 years is ridiculous. It’s their building, and their land. If anything, you’ve been lucky that FM has kept up the lease agreement with Greenwood market. I live 5 blocks from Greenwood market, and I don’t ever go there unless it is a Weekend morning and I am desperate for a jug of milk for my kids. The place is unbelievably expensive. As far as the staff being personable, both Safeway and QFC Holman has great staff too. I am on a first name basis with the new wine steward, fish manager and meat counter guys at Holman. I also go up to Central Market, which is the best wine dept. in the city.
Greenwood market simply overpriced and too small.
51 MonkeyPilot // Aug 24, 2010 at 10:36 am
Actually Cobra, that is incorrect. Check previous posts:
52 Neighbor57 // Aug 24, 2010 at 11:05 am
@ Cobra-
You are incorrect. Fred Meyer does NOT own the land. Greenwood Shopping Center, Inc. is the land owner for this entire property from Greenwood Market site through to the new Piper’s Village development. They have chosen to left FM call the shots, as a huge lease with FM generates the most $ for them. The community is rightfully questioning whether this FM-oriented decision making, on behalf of the landowner, could change.
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