Belltown Messenger

Seattle First United Methodist Church is still planning to raze its 98-year-old sanctuary at 811 Fifth Ave., and sell its half-block to an office-tower developer. But the church has changed its original plan to occupy a smaller space within the new building at the old site.

Instead, the church now wants to swap properties with major developer Martin Selig. Selig would get all of the Methodist parcel; the church would get the half block on the east side of Third Avenue in Belltown, between Battery and Wall.

This site's now occupied by a parking lot and a long-vacant one-story building. The church would build a new two-to three-story building with underground parking, which would help preserve the waterfront views from Selig's Fourth and Battery Buildng across the alley. At a Feb. 13 meeting of the Belltown Housing and Land Use Subcommittee (BHLUS), church spokespersons Dave McNeal, Mike Hansenger, and Paul Niebanck said they didn't yet have any drawings of how the new building would look, but promised to listen to neighborhood concerns at every phase of the project. The church and Selig are currently halfway through a six-month "due diligence" process. The new church building might open as soon as mid-2008.

They also described the church as drawing members from 40 regional ZIP Codes, with about 300 people attending the two Sunday services. It also provides meals and other services for homeless men and women, and has provided meeting spaces for AA groups, the Seattle Men's Chorus, and the Literacy Council of Seattle.

Meanwhile, a group called Friends of First United Methodist Church (friendsoffumc.org), led by local preservationist Jennifer Emerson, still hopes to see the old building saved, whether or not the church organization wants anything to do with it.

At the same BHLUS meeting, representatives from the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation discussed the idea of buying the parking lot on the west side of Third and Wall (across from the potential Methodist site) for a small open park space, perhaps also with below-grade parking. The department would like a parking-garage developer to help pay the difference between the city's budget for new park space (about $2 million) and the cost of the property (perhaps as high as $7 million).

Some attendees at the meeting suggested the city's money could be better spent building wider sidewalks and other "green streets" amenities than on acquiring additional properties.

The saga of Seattle's last downtown hardware shop continues. Rainier Hardware, 1910 Pike Place, is nearing the end of its lease. The Pike Place Market's Preservation and Development Authority, Historical Commission, and Constituency have held meetings to discuss the tiny family-owned business, which isn't grossing the per-square-foot income the PDA likes to see. (It draws roughly one-third the sales of some neighboring merchants.)

Owners Tay and Kieh Ha signed a legal contract in 2004, stating the store's lease would end this Sept. 30. Having been in their location for roughly two decades, they were hoping to extend their current lease; instead, they are being offered the Market's next available store space (possibly the former Paper Moon, in the Stewart House building). The PDA is offering to help with new signage and renovation of the new space, among other incentives. Neighboring Market Optical, one of the Market's top-ten grossing merchants, looks to expand into the current Rainier Hardware space.

The former Planet Lulu boutique at 1907 Second Ave. has become the Space Gallery of Art and Design. Owner Guy Warren Borgford acquired the storefront just after New Year's, and managed to get the business up and running by Feb. 2. It houses works by local contemporary artists, plus design accessories. How long the storefront will remain Space's space is iffy; the building, which is mostly used as a parking garage, is set to be replaced by a condo project. In other visual-art news, rumors earlier this year had Roq La Rue entrepreneur Kirsten Anderson and partners would be setting up a second storefront in Belltown. Still no official announcement, however.

Antioch University Seattle now offers affordable counseling services to the area at the Antioch Community Counseling and Psychology Clinic. The facility opened Jan. 27 at 2326 Sixth Ave.

The nonprofit clinic is a training site for Antioch's clinical-psychology graduate students, as supervised by faculty members. It offers therapy for individuals, couples, families and groups. Art therapy, play therapy, assessments and clinical consultation for groups and businesses also are offered. The clinic also will operate a satellite facility at the YWCA. Appointments are available 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday; call 206-268-4840 for further info.

BELLTOWN'S OWN OLYMPIC HERO Apolo Anton Ohno emerged from the 2006 Olympic WInter Games with three more shiny metallic discs. Ohno easily won Gold in the 500-meter final, and achieved Bronze Medals in the 1,000-meter solo race and (as one of five Team USA members) in the 5,000-meter relay. - Messenger staff