The 1 Hotel & Residences? You can now call it the “No 1.”

The Starwood hotel chain (owners of the Westin, Sheraton, and W brands) planned the 1 to be the pilot for a new chain of hotel/condo/retail projects that would combine ultra-luxury with “green” construction and operating practices. The half-block highrise project at Second and Stewart broke ground in June 2007. Construction work stopped that August, leaving a big hole in the ground.  

During the two-plus years of nonwork, Starwood issued statements saying the project was being revamped to alter its ratio of hotel suites to condo units. Now, real-estate arm Starwood Capital says the excavation will be filled in, and the land will be returned to its previous use as a surface parking lot.  

•

In other real-estate slump news, the two-story building at the southwest corner of Second and Blanchard will be sold in a “courthouse steps” auction. The sale will be held Nov. 16, 11 a.m. outside the King County Administration Building, 500 4th Ave.

The auction was ordered as part of a legal settlement between James Aiken and Bruce Fine, the two attorneys who co-own the building (and have their respective offices on its top floor). The lease of its ground-floor tenant, Restaurant Zoe, expires at the end of the year. More info: Secondandblanchard.com.

•

The online-news business may still be a struggling fledgling, but Belltown and vicinity are emerging as its local center.

Crosscut.com, ex-Seattle Weekly publisher David Brewster’s attempt to bring New Republic-style tasteful analysis to Seattle computer screens, has moved both to nonprofit status and to new offices on Cedar Street. (Another nonprofit site, SeattlePostGlobe.org, is housed at KCTS’s offices in lower Queen Anne.)

The for-profit city hall watchdogs at Publicola.net are now ensconced in the Terminal Sales Building (where Brewster’s Weekly had been many years ago).

SeattlePI.com is still in the old Post-Intelligencer Building on Elliott. Newsvine.com, the MSNBC-owned “news aggregator” site, is nearby.

•

Your next chance to sound off on the Bell Street “park boulevard” project is Tuesday, Nov. 10, 7-9 p.m. in the pavilion at the Olympic Sculpture Garden, 2901 Western Ave. Seattle Parks staff will explain the project’s guidelines. Based on citizen input at this meeting, a design team will create initial park concepts. Contact Patrick Donohue, patrick.donohue@seattle.gov.

Art Beat: Dan Corson’s “Grotesque Arabesque” installation continues through Dec. 18 at Suyama Space, 2324 2nd Ave. Using electroluminescent strips on bent steel bars, Corson creates the illusion of a glowing cave ceiling above a glowing reflective pond.

Roq La Rue, 2312 2nd Ave., presents paintings by Brian Despain and John Brophy. The show opens during the monthly Belltown Art Walk on Friday, Nov. 13.

“Rock the Terminal,” a group art sale with works by 30 local artists and four live bands, occurs Saturday, Nov. 7, 6-10 p.m. at Art Not Terminal, 2045 Westlake Ave. The event’s cosponsors include Form/Space Atelier, Halogen Gallery, Cornish College of the Arts, and the Art Institute of Seattle.

•

Performance Beat: Macha Monkey presents Nancy, Frank and Joe, an original play showing through Nov. 21 at the Freehold space (2222 2nd Ave.). Written by troupe cofounders Kristina Sutherland and Desiree Prewitt, the play’s set in “the female-led juvenile fiction empire that brought Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys to generations of young readers.” Tickets/info: MachaMonkey.org.

Ex-Chumbawamba lead singer Danbert Nobacon is among the readers at the second Literary Death Match, a “competitive reading event,” occurs Nov. 11 at Re-bar, 1114 Howell St. Authors Stacey Levine, Aaron Deitz, and Kelleen Conway Blanchard will also compete for the approval of three judges. Todd Zungia of Opium magazine hosts. (LiteraryDeathMatch.com.)

•

Felony prostitution charges were made in mid-October against Kaiyana McCloud, 28. Prosecutors claim McCloud operated a full-time brothel out of an apartment at 210 Wall St., employing as many as 10 women. McCloud was arrested at her Renton home Oct. 2, and has since been released. She has pled not guilty to the charges.

•

Another month, another closing-time scuffle at a Belltown nightclub. This time, a Seattle police officer suffered minor injuries to his right hand while breaking up a fight between two men during the wee hours of Oct. 18 at Venom on Western Avenue. Both fighters were booked for investigation of felony assault.

The incident occurred two nights after security crews at Venom detained a man who brandished a stolen semi-automatic pistol. Police later determined the weapon had been stolen.