After Abraxus Books announced it would be closing just 20 months after moving to Lower Queen Anne from Ballard, its home for seven years, neighboring store Mother Nature’s has said that it too is closing its doors this month.

Mother Nature’s, a natural health store that has been a staple of Lower Queen Anne retailers for 35 years, is closing up shop at the end of the month, according to owner Stephanie Gilbert.

This drawing was created by Mother Nature’s employee Sara Spidell, depicting Sara, Stephanie and Elaine (Stephanie’s mom and prior owner). The date is inaccurate, according to Gilbert, who says the store has been open since 1974.

The store, which has been in Gilbert’s family since the ’70s, has seen declining business for some time now, she says.

“I grew up in the store—since I was 12 I’ve worked here. In the ’80s and ’90s it was a rocking store. We’d get 160 people in the store a day. Now we get 60 people a day,” she said. “Business has been pretty crappy, to be frank, for the past couple years… it’s just hard to be an independent retailer in the city. If we were in Cle Elum, we would probably be fine.”

Though the mixed-use development planned for 100 Republican Street spurred the decision to close, Gilbert says the saturation of the market (with customers coming into the store, finding what they want, and then buying it from larger suppliers who can offer cheaper prices like Costco, Super Supplements, or online) has ultimately led to the store’s choice to close down, rather than relocate.

“It really bums me out that people don’t make a conscious effort to shop local,” Gilbert said. “It’s destroying our communities.”

The property owners of the building that houses Abraxus and Mother Nature’s, the Burkheimer Family LLC, plan to turn the Seattle Center and KeyArena-adjacent site into a residential/retail mixed-use development that will span from the current storefronts to the edge of the empty lot at 100 Republican.

The six-story building will house 275 units–studios, 1-2 bedrooms and 10 town homes–parking, 17,725 square feet of street level retail space, two rooftop courtyards, and a 2,000 square-foot outdoor plaza on Republican that will serve as an entrance to the building. After a series of public hearings on the project, developers have been given the go-ahead to move forward with the project. Developers expect to complete the project in 2012.

While the new development will house ground-level retail, Gilbert says the rent would have been too high for Mother Nature’s to re-open in the new building. But despite the fact that Abraxus and Mother Nature’s will be closing to make way for the development, many in the community support the project. In a negotiation with the city to allow the development to use part of the alleyway bounded by Mercer Street, Republican Street, 1st Avenue N and Warren Avenue N, developers added plans for a public plaza (equipped with a rain garden) to the plan.

On top of that, Uptown Alliance co-chair John Coney shared his support of this proposal with City Council’s Transportation Committee this past fall, noting that he believed the project would revitalize a “dead block” in the neighborhood.

“It’s an important redevelopment on what is now a substantially dead block of Republican,”  he said.  “It is going to bring housing onto Warren Avenue North.  We believe that is important because that is another dead block in an urban center.”

For the time being, Mother Nature’s and Abraxus are making preparations for closing.

Gilbert says her lease is up on the 28th. She plans to keep the store open until just a few days before then (though no final date has been set yet), to clear out its current stock and say goodbye to longtime customers. Everything in the store is currently 30 percent off. Gilbert says discounts could go as high as 75 percent as the end of the month nears.

Abraxus will be closing in just a few days, on Saturday, February 12. “Our building is being torn down and we’re calling it a day on this chapter,” the owners Carol and  Tony wrote on the store’s Facebook page. The last month since announcing plans to close has been a “pretty emotional time” for them, Carol wrote to us.

Everything in the store is being sold at 50 percent off, and bookshelves and other fixtures are also up for sale. The store will be open from 12 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on its last day Saturday.

After announcing that it would be reviewing the Seattle Department of Transportation’s new pay parking rates around town yesterday, the city and SDOT released adjusted rates today that will be rolling out across Seattle over the next two months.

See a larger version of the map here. (.pdf)

The new rates originally announced two weeks ago were set to bring down prices from $2/hour to $1.50/hour in Lower Queen Anne’s Uptown neighborhood, and to $1 to $1.25 in the area known as the “Uptown Triangle”—between Denny Way, Aurora, and Broad Street. (The $1 rate was set for short-term parking between 2 and 4 hours, while the $1.25 rate was for long-term parking up to 10 hours at a time).

The new rates didn’t lower parking citywide however, with many neighborhood retail districts seeing rates increase as high as $4/hour. This, alongside SDOT’s plan to extend pay parking hours from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in a number of the city’s thriving nightlife districts–Uptown, the Commercial Core, Belltown, Pioneer Square, Chinatown/International District, Broadway, Pike-Pine, and the University District–fueled a strong backlash from community groups and neighborhood and city business associations calling for a review of the plan before implementation.

In response the city made modifications to its initial rate change plans. From SDOT:

Based on a thorough review of the City’s rate-setting approach, rates for 2011 will go up in four neighborhoods, down in 11 neighborhoods and will stay the same in seven others as compared to 2010 rates. This will result in 73 percent of paid spaces having either no change or a rate reduction.

The new rates in Uptown will stay at the initial decreased price of $1.50/hour, however in the Uptown Triangle area SDOT opted to further drop rates to $1/hour for both short-term and long-term parking stays.

The city says the new changes should allow it to achieve its goal of having one to two open parking spaces per block on average.

Two weeks ago we reported on SDOT’s announcement that it would be implementing changing parking rates and extended pay hours all around Seattle, including a $0.50 to $1/hour decrease (paired with an increase in pay hours from 6 to 8 p.m.) in Lower Queen Anne. Many around the city, and here in QA, were displeased. And you weren’t alone.

A number of residents and community groups citywide have spoken out against the parking rate changes, particularly in the areas where hikes will push rates to $4/hour. On Monday a collation of local organizations wrote a letter to City Council voicing their concerns and urging them to revisit the methodology behind the rate hikes.

We do not believe that increasing meter rates to $4.00 per hour Downtown, or $2.00 per hour in neighborhoods such as Fremont and the University District, is consistent with the policy objectives established by the City Council nor do we believe the proposed increases are supported by SDOT’s study. Further, charging for on-street parking until 8 pm in some neighborhoods will directly impact many restaurants that bring pedestrian-scale vitality to our business districts.

The results of SDOT’s study demonstrate that occupancy levels in most Seattle neighborhoods fall below the threshold of 78% established by SDOT for a majority of the day. SDOT has indicated that their recommendation to increase rates is based on the occupancy levels at the point in the day when demand is greatest (“peak period”.) Setting all day rates based on the one hour of the day when demand is greatest is the equivalent of the Seattle Seahawks charging Super Bowl ticket prices for regular season games. We believe this approach is fundamentally flawed and will discourage people from parking in neighborhood business districts.

We urge the Council to look closely at the study methodology and the basis for raising rates. The proposed increases in meter rates are not in keeping with the letter or spirit of your policy direction and will have harmful impacts on the viability of small businesses in Seattle. Consider for a moment that under this proposal Seattle would have some of the most expensive on-street parking of any city in the country.

Groups represented in this letter included the including the Downtown Seattle Association, Fremont Chamber of Commerce, Belltown Business Association, Greater University Chamber of Commerce, Washington Restaurants Association, and Seattle Business Association. Read the full letter here (.pdf).

It seems the city was listening to these groups and neighborhoods, many of which would be facing a new $4.00/hour parking rate. According to a report by The Seattle Times, the city is putting these revised rates under review before making them official. From the Times:

At a lunch-time forum at City Hall, Councilmember Tim Burgess said the City Council has asked for a review of a parking study used by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to set the new rates.

Mike Estey, SDOT manager, said staff were “scrubbing the numbers, the data and methodology” in the wake of criticism that the rates would hurt small businesses and were based on peak-occupancy, not typical parking availability.

No word on what changes might be in order and whether or not this affects Lower Queen Anne/Uptown specifically, which was facing decreased rates in the new plan. At least for the time being you can expect parking to stay at the same-old $2/hour rates  at the foot of the hill.

The area bounded by Denny Way, Broad, and Aurora, squeezed between the Seattle Center and South Lake Union, has been called by many names, but is probably most known as the “Uptown Triangle.” Some like to call it the “the lost triangle.”

The 36-acre area just southeast of Queen Anne, highlighted in pink above, is currently filled with wide roads and industrial buildings. But over the last year the Uptown Alliance and representatives from the Queen Anne Community Council have been working to get the city to redevelop the area, alongside development plans already in the works for the nearby Mercer corridor and deep bored tunnel projects.

In September QACC Land Use Regulation Commission and Planning chair Craig Hanway presented the City Council’s Committee on Built Environment with a plan (.pdf) to fix up the space. From the report:

A 36 acre area in Seattle’s Uptown Urban Center [is] surrounded by a vibrant community, rich with jobs, public amenities and cultural assets. However, the Triangle remains neglected and underutilized. It’s time to heal the scars created by Broad Street and the “Mercer Mess”.

At 12 p.m. on Thursday, January 27 Hanway and Uptown Alliance and QACC transportation chair John Coney will present the recent planning recommendations for the Uptown Triangle in a public forum.

With ideas on everything from building bike lanes and parks, mixed-use retail and apartment complexes, and promoting connections between the urban centers of Lower Queen Anne, South Lake Union, and downtown, Hanway and Coney envision creating a more residential, family friendly, transit-served, bike and pedestrian friendly neighborhood with its own identity. The ultimate goal of the Uptown Triangle development project is to create a vibrant urban community that serves as a crossroads between the high-tech, telecommunications, and arts and global health hubs that surround it.

Some of the early ideas being considered for the Uptown Triangle include:

• Adding a major bicycle route to John Street;
• Running streetcar lines on Thomas Street, 5th, and Republican;
• Envisioning Thomas Street as a café-lined thoroughfare with ground-floor retail;
• Townhouses on John Street, Taylor, and 6th;
• Diversity of housing types and affordability;
• Transit and walkable links to Denny Park and the Seattle Center;
• Using trees and green space to offset the urban environment at the Harrison Street portal to the SR 99 tunnel.

Thursday’s meeting will take place at GGLO Architecture, at 1301 First Avenue, Suite 301 (located on the north side of the Harbor Steps, across from the Seattle Art Museum). The QACC and Uptown Alliance are eager to hear comments from the community about the plan. For more information, contact John Coney at 206-283-2049.

The optometrists office at 166 Roy Street, formerly known as Eye Doctors Ltd., changed its name to Eyeballs last week.

The new name and signage is just a small face lift for the practice, which is staying under the same ownership, according to an employee.

Longtime Queen Anne resident and optometrist Dr. James McCrum and his wife Paula Whelan remodeled the building themselves in 2005, creating a 1,700 square-foot urban home above the office. Read The Seattle Times’s large Pacific Northwest magazine piece on the project here. McCrum continues to operate the practice below.

Abraxus Books at 524 1st Ave. N. in Lower Queen Anne is due to close. The bookstore opened at the current location in June of 2009, transferring from Ballard where they operated for seven years.

The store is holding a  50 percent off sale for all their used books.

Photo taken from Abraxus’s Facebook page.

Owner declined to comment about the closing and the closing date, but we will update you when we have more information.

Update 1/19 9:30 a.m.: After hearing the news yesterday we reached out to local literary rock star and Library Journal 2011 Librarian of the Year Nancy Pearl (who is a fan of Abraxus Books on Facebook) for comment. “The closure of any independent bookstore – new or used – is a sad event for the reading community,” she wrote to us this morning.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) announced Friday that parking rates in the Uptown neighborhood will decrease from $2 an hour to $1.50. Pay hours in Lower Queen Anne, however, will increase.

As part of the 2011 budget, Mayor McGinn and City Council introduced a new policy that allows the city to set on-street parking rates and hours by neighborhood, “so that, on average, one to two spaces are available for visitor and shopper access.”

The new policy will see parking rate increases in nine neighborhoods where occupancy and demand are high. Rates in 13 other areas, including Lower Queen Anne, will either stay the same or decrease.

The new parking rates, which will be effective in February and March, will see hourly rates decrease to $1.50 in the majority of Uptown, and to between $1 to $1.25 in the area known as the “Uptown Triangle”—between Denny Way, Aurora, and Broad Street. (The $1 rate is for short-term parking between 2 and 4 hours, while the $1.25 rate is for long-term parking up to 10 hours at a time).

A number of the city’s thriving nightlife districts, including Uptown, the Commercial Core, Belltown, Pioneer Square, Chinatown/International District, Broadway, Pike-Pine, and the University District, will also see paid parking hours extended until 8 p.m. From SDOT:

Seattle’s center city and many neighborhood business districts are active destinations for customers and visitors well into the evening. Charging in the evening will enhance parking turnover and access in areas with an active nightlife and other evening businesses.

Currently paid parking hours end at 6 p.m. The new, extended hours will roll out beginning in April and continue through September 2011.

Along with the coming changes to on-street paid parking, the city will also be initiating a new way for people to pre-pay for parking. Beginning in February and March the hours that pay stations collect payments will also change. Currently pay stations do not accept payment between closing at 6 p.m. and 4 a.m. Under the new system pay stations will close at 6 p.m. (or 8 p.m., depending on the neighborhood) as usual, but will re-open at 10 p.m. to allow drivers to pre-pay for the first two hours of the following morning.

It’s a sad day for neighborhood film buffs. This morning Seattle Times moviegoing musings writer Moira Macdonald broke the news that Queen Anne’s Uptown Theatre (AMC Uptown 3) will be closing its doors for good come November 28.

An AMC representative confirmed the closure with Macdonald, adding that the company systematically updates its theatres by upgrading and adding new screens, and “disposing of older screens through closures and sales.” The representative added:

Unfortunately, the AMC Uptown 3 has been identified as a theatre that no longer competes effectively in the marketplace and will close at the end of business on Nov. 28.

“Losing the theater is a real loss to the neighborhood. Any word if a buyer will keep it a movie theater?” Queen Anne-er John Carter told QueenAnneView this morning. He hopes that another local organization will get involved to save the historic theatre, which originally opened with a single screen (with two more added later) in 1926.

“Maybe SIFF would get involved?” Carter wrote. “Even though SIFF has that downstairs theater I know they want more (no money of course) Maybe Vera Project? (no money of course)…Mayor’s Office of Film & Music comes to mind… Save the Uptown!”

I contacted SIFF to see if they, indeed, would be interested and have the resources necessary to take over the Uptown. I received a response almost immediately.

“It really is unfortunate that Uptown theater is closing. I used to go there many times and even when I was growing up so personally it’s a shame that it is closing,” SIFF representative Tod Steward wrote. “Maybe Paul Allen or someone like him would finance it to stay open…just like what he did with Cinerama.” Unfortunately Steward says that SIFF currently is not in a position to take over the theatre.

Although the Uptown plans to close in ten days, what will become of the landmark theatre with the quirky pink marquee is still up in the air. A note to AMC asking about its plans for the property was answered as follows:

“The landlord may be able to answer your questions and/or provide information about the future plans or use of the theatre space,” wrote AMC representative Justin Scott.

We haven’t been able to reach the landlord of the Uptown yet, but will keep you posted as we hear more.

With little time until closing day, some in the community are hoping to find a suitor to not only save the building, but keep it in the business of screening films. Since the news broke this morning Carter has been busy posting notes all over Facebook—on the walls of the Office of Film and Music, Community Cinema, Seattle Area Filmmakers, and others—asking community members to gather in support of the theatre and voice their opinions in our forum and in the comments to this post.

The Than Brothers are opening a new location in Lower Queen Anne.

The local pho chain has locations all over the Seattle-area. The owners say this new outpost could be open as early as next week. Reader Erin had this to say about the restaurant:

Just saw signs last night that the Than Brothers are opening up in the old martial arts space on Mercer, around the corner from Toulouse Petit.  Not be best pho in town, but certainly cheap – and you get a cream puff!

Now I’m no pho expert, but having frequented the location on Market Street in Ballard several times, I’d venture to say there’s nothing wrong with this tasty, extremely affordable pho house. Welcome to the neighborhood!

Seattle City Light has been working to rebuild the electrical system at Seattle Center and around Lower Queen Anne (especially after all of the planned and unplanned outages over the last year). The work, however, requires a planned outage in the area from 11 p.m. tonight, Thursday, September 9, from to 7 a.m. Friday morning. Here are the details from City Light:

New cable will be pulled in and connected along a Thomas Street section of the system.  The area affected by the outage is bordered by Mercer Street on the north, Denny Way on the south, 5th Avenue North of the east and 1st Avenue North on the west.  The electrical system serving the Seattle Center campus is aging.  This work is part two of three phases in a systemic replacement of the system.   Three additional outages will be needed to complete phase two.  The dates of those outages are still being confirmed.

Please contact Kelly Enright at (206) 684-3111 or email her at kelly.enright@seattle.gov for more information.