30 Central District units grind closer to MUP

Plans first emerged some five years back to redevelop an old commercial complex at 2518 E. Cherry St. The neighborhood bar Twilight Exit looks to be the last remaining tenant. Tana Market appears to be permanently closed, though there’s no sign yet of a demolition permit for the two buildings.

Landowner Dunn & Hobbes is proposing a four-story apartment building with 30 units over retail/commercial space. The plan has passed through administrative design review, and the developer recently applied for a master use permit.

Architect Allied8 is now leading the design effort, working with an earlier scheme by Build. The team also includes Bush, Roed & Hitchings, surveyor; Davido Consulting Group, civil engineer; Swenson Say Faget, structural engineer; and Pacific Landscape Architecture of Bellingham.

There’s no sign of a general contractor, and that selection may lie with a future owner if the project is sold with a MUP in place.

The unnamed proposal includes 5,592 square feet of retail/commercial space, indicated in three bays. One of the bays will face the west alley. There, too, will be the tenant lobby. That unconventional layout will give the other two commercial bays all the frontage on Cherry. (A prior iteration of the design had three live/work units on the alley.)

The developer’s stated intent is to invite Twilight Exit back to the building, in the alley commercial bay, which has a very small outdoor courtyard. The architect writes, “This proposal provides the opportunity to invite Twilight Exit, a beloved local business, to return to its current location and to continue to provide the neighborhood with much-desired outdoor space.”

There will be no parking, but a bike room at grade will have 32 stalls.

Units will run from studios to two-bedrooms. Sizes look to range from 392 to 728 square feet.

A small interior courtyard on the second floor will have nearly 400 square feet. That contributes to a total project size of about 25,085 square feet. The pre-Mandatory Housing Affordability project will evidently be an entirely market-rate building.

Possible rooftop solar panels are also indicated.