QFC submits plans to build apartments at U-Village

QFC wants to build about 300 apartments, a parking garage and more retail around its University Village supermarket.

The grocery chain and Seattle developer Lorig Associates submitted preliminary plans to the city earlier this month. Most of the new construction would take place in what is now a parking lot north of the 60,000-square-foot supermarket.

QFC's application comes as Seattle city planners are considering a major expansion proposal from neighboring University Village. The upscale, open-air shopping center wants to build three new buildings and expand two others to increase total retail space and parking by about 25 percent each.

QFC's preliminary proposal calls for a two-story garage with parking for 585 cars, topped with three or four floors of market-rate apartments. QFC and Lorig submitted three possible designs ranging from 270 to 338 units.

A two-story, 10,000-square-foot food court would be built between the new building and the grocery. An additional 21,000 square feet of single-story retail is proposed along the south side of the QFC and the west side of the new building.

The supermarket, whose interior was recently remodeled, would remain mostly unchanged, QFC spokeswoman Kristin Maas said.

QFC plans to collaborate with University Village, and expects the two development proposals will be complementary, Maas said.

"We certainly will have to coordinate, because the perception of the customer is that it [the QFC and University Village properties] is all one project," said Susie Plummer, University Village's general manager. "I look forward to working with them."

Jeannie Hale, president of the Laurelhurst Community Club, said Lorig has contacted the neighborhood group. "We just have questions at this point," she said. "It seems like an awful lot of housing at that site."

But Hale said people of moderate means are having trouble finding homes in the area, so she's pleased the proposed apartments apparently would be targeted at that income level.

The two-story building that now houses QFC's supermarket was built in 1955 as a dairy plant, according to county records. QFC bought it in 1991 and converted the ground floor to a grocery in 1996. A ministorage complex occupies most of the second floor.

The city's Northeast Design Review Board, an advisory group, has tentatively scheduled a meeting Dec. 15 to consider QFC's plans. It's too soon to say when construction might start, Maas said.

But QFC, a division of grocery giant Kroger, has considered redeveloping the property for years, she added, and this seemed like the right time to start the process. The application says the 8.8-acre property is "underutilized."

Lorig, retained by QFC to handle the project, has built several large mixed-use projects in Seattle, including Uwajimaya Village, Wallingford Center and Thornton Place, now under construction near Northgate.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com