Condos for a new kind of pioneer

Not far from here, Father Francis Xavier Prefontaine established Seattle's first Catholic Church in 1869.

Now, 138 years later, city fathers are praying that this one block of Third Avenue will be a place where people will still want to settle. Mayor Greg Nickels just announced plans for a $300 million civic square to be built in what is now a hole in the ground between Third and Fourth avenues and Cherry and James streets.

The project, by Seattle developer Triad, will include condominiums selling from under $500,000 to the millions.

"For just one?" asked Imka Pope, 36, as we stood in front of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, looking across Third at the development site. "Why would they put it down here? This is a drug area."

I scanned our surroundings. Loitering. A bail bonds place. People lined up for free bag lunches. A man sat in a doorway, folding and unfolding a blanket, talking to himself. And then there's the Frye Hotel, where Seattle police have been called 85 times in the past six months. Noise complaints, thefts, several DOAs.

"Pretty much the same old thing," one SPD officer sniffed.

And yet, developers are undaunted. The owners of Smith Tower just announced that they want to turn the office building into condos. The historic Arctic Building is being converted into a hotel. Even Donald Trump is looking to do a Seattle comb-over.

Soon, this will be the intersection of Have and Have Not, where white-collar types will walk their dogs in a park long known as Muscatel Meadows.

"We are big believers in the neighborhood," said Brett Allen, Triad's director of new business development.

The city plaza, he said will be "heavily programmed" with events like lunchtime concerts and a Saturday book swap.

"Once you bring a lot of people into the neighborhood, the problems tend to be diluted."

Yes, but aren't your marketing problems just beginning?

"I don't think so," Allen said. "Downtown living isn't for everyone. Maybe 25 percent of the population would consider it. But in a metropolitan area, 25 percent is a lot of people."

Rebecca Rivers and Virginia Woller opened the nearby La Familia gallery in 2005.

"When we first opened, walking home was, 'Oh-God-oh-God,' " Rivers said. "I'm not saying there aren't problems, but it seems a little better."

Woller is pleased to be a part of the area's thriving art community (they're just below the Tashiro Kaplan artist lofts), but she said she wouldn't buy here.

"If I was going for that kind of living, I might," she said. "But I would make sure I wasn't living in the sparkling citadel amid horrible ruin."

Don Dittmer used to live at the William Booth Center. Anyone with money for a $500,000 condo, he said, should also have the stomach for street life.

"Depends on what a person is willing to put up with. I live in Kenmore and I still have to deal with ignorance." Here in this neighborhood, he said, "I watched my back all the time."

The future is coming to Third Avenue. But, as in the past, there's a lot of praying going on.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday.

Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She wishes her friend Arit well.