New construction harming existing Everett businesses

EVERETT ­— They welcomed the arrival of new neighbors to a traditionally industrial patch of downtown.

But road tie-ups from construction of a hotel and farmers market going up between Grand Avenue and West Marine View Drive have hurt nearby businesses.

A boat-repair shop in September sued the developer over access to a public alley. Two other neighbors — a hydraulics business and suspension shop on Grand Avenue — have seen walk-in business dry up with repeated road closures.

They also fault the city for doing a poor job coordinating the work.

“We need the alley to get the boats in and out,” said Tim Caudill, owner of Cascade Marine Service. “My major frustration was that I couldn’t get the city to do anything to verify what was going on with the alley.”

Everett spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said public works officials tried to balance the needs of the development and existing businesses.

Among other measures, the city required the developer to coordinate construction with neighbors. That was an explicit requirement of lane-closure permits.

“We recognize that any time you have major construction happening in an urban environment, you’re going to have impacts,” Pembroke said.

Caudill leases his building on West Marine View Drive, immediately north of a future Hampton Inn by Hilton. The 110-unit hotel is due to open this spring.

Across the alley in back of Cascade Marine is a block-long hole where workers are pouring the foundation for an underground parking garage with more than 200 spaces. Above the garage, there are plans to build a 60,000-square-foot farmers market and 220 upscale apartments.

After the expected completion date in the spring of 2015, the year-round farmers market will be the “largest of its kind in the western region of the United States,” Everett-based developer Path America says.

A Path America vice president, Joe Zlab, acknowledged the work has affected other businesses. He said his company is trying to work through problems as they come up and is speeding up the construction schedule to minimize disruptions.

“We’ve tried to be good neighbors,” Zlab said. “We fully realize that there are real impacts to real people and real people’s lives.”

Earlier downtown construction projects, including city street improvements on Hoyt Avenue, generated similar concerns, Zlab noted.

Path America is run by Lobsang Dargey, whose companies have been involved with several prominent Everett developments. The projects include renovating the Everett Public Market on Grand Avenue and the Cogswell College building on Colby Avenue, as well as building the Potala Village apartments and associated retail space at Rucker and Pacific avenues.

Longtime business owners on Grand Avenue said they enjoy a good relationship with construction crews who show up daily. They’d like to see the projects succeed, but they’re worried.

“We’ve had quite a bit of slowdown in our business,” said Cal Ferguson, who has owned the Aalbu Brothers suspension and steel- fabrication shop since the late 1960s.

The business was founded there in 1906.

He attributes the drop-off to street blockages, which sometimes leave nowhere to park. Customers have told him of circling the block two or three times.

“It’s hard for me to move out of here, because we’ve been here forever,” said Ferguson, who owns the building. “People know where to look for us. Some of our customers come every three to five years, every 10 years. When they need us, they come and get us.”

Serious construction work started tying up Grand Avenue in September, when crews demolished the old Motor Trucks Inc. building across the street from Ferguson.

Blockages became more frequent as crews arrived to pour concrete foundations.

Zlab said concrete pours should be done in a couple of months and that access should improve afterward.

Todd Cudaback has operated Everett Hydraulics for 15 years out of leased space next door to Ferguson.

“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to stay here,” Cudaback said.

It was hard for him to estimate how much business he’s lost.

“I receive numerous phone calls asking if I’m still open,” he said.

Cudaback views the farmers market and hotel as signs of progress in a changing city. He has no issue with the development itself. He just believes the city and developer did a poor job coordinating the work.

“It was sold as a bill of ‘It’s going to be a couple of days here and there,’” he said.

For future projects, he hopes some lessons have been learned.

While Ferguson and Cudaback’s problems are on Grand Avenue, Caudill’s center on a parallel alleyway a half block to the west.

To operate his business, he said he needs at least 24 feet of turning area in one spot and 14 in another.

Caudill said those widths have been cut down, in some instances, by a few feet, preventing him from working on boats. Zlab said only a few inches are in dispute.

Caudill also is upset that the city had a surveyor working for the developer measure the public alley when he challenged the widths. He would have preferred to have a city employee take the measurement.

“I don’t know why they couldn’t come out and do it,” he said.

The widths are spelled out in a written agreement the parties reached Aug. 6. The agreement also gave the landlord and the business thousands of dollars in compensation for temporary construction use of a parking lot that separates the Cascade Marine building from the hotel. The developer paved the lot and improved drainage afterward as part of the deal. Cascade Marine also got to use a vacant building for nearly a year before getting the lot back.

Caudill and his landlord filed a lawsuit in September alleging that the hotel developer failed to abide by the contract. As defendants, it names Path America Farmer’s Market and Everett Hospitality Co., its partner in the hotel project.

The suit asks for compensation related for breach of contract and construction-related nuisances. It also asks for a catch fence over the south parking lot to guard from falling debris. The case is pending in Snohomish County Superior Court.

A separate issue involving the construction site arose Nov. 29, when a man wandered into the unfinished hotel and fell about 20 feet down a stairwell shaft. Everett firefighters responded around 2:30 p.m. that day. The man, who was dressed in a medical gown, was taken to a local hospital with undisclosed injuries.

Because of medical privacy laws, the city and local hospitals were unable to supply details about the patient’s condition. Neither the state Department of Health nor the state Department of Labor and Industries had any report of the incident. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office also had no record of a death.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Southbound lanes on Highway 99 reopen after crash

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, blocked traffic for over an hour. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett to welcome new CEO

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.