The Bell Tolls For Old Bellevue -- What Little Remains Of The City's History Architecturally Could Be Erased By Development

When James Shannon looks at Old Bellevue's future, he sees a big blank where his livelihood used to be. Shannon is the proprietor of the Blarney Hut Tavern, which may soon fall to condominiums. He sees the remainder of the city's earlier days being destroyed. He sees red. ---------------------------------------------------------------

"They're tearing me down. They're kicking me out," Shannon says. "They're going to use my little tavern as an entryway."

When Stuart Vander Hoek looks at Old Bellevue's future, he sees the beginnings of a bustling neighborhood, full of people walking, shopping, eating and heading to their condos. The Vander Hoek family is one of the largest landowners in the district and the developer of one of three multifamily buildings proposed for the next year. Vander Hoek sees green.

"To me," he says, "after our family being here 37 years, we know the buildings don't have any inherent quality. Consistent growth, vitality: That's what everyone wants."

But both men agree on one thing: If you have a nostalgic streak, it's probably a good idea to take a long last look at Old Bellevue, the area along Main Street west of Bellevue Way. Because after years of staying much the same - a funky hodgepodge of pedestrian-friendly shops in one- or two-story buildings dating mostly from the 1930s and '40s - the district could be changing fast. Plans at some stage would bring at least three major projects and more than 440 residential units to the neighborhood:

-- Vander Hoek hopes to put up a 110-unit apartment building south of Main Street on 102nd Avenue Northeast, getting rid of four small buildings.

-- Ahead of Vander Hoek in the planning is a 100-unit condominimum project Intrawest Co. plans to build on Main Street, where the Blarney Hut and several other shops are now.

-- About a block away, facing the downtown park at Northeast First Street and 100th Avenue Northeast, Steve Skony and Bob Wallace are planning a 233-unit apartment building and have already applied for a building permit. Replete with penthouses, the apartments will replace the Holiday Court short-term efficiency apartments.

AMBIENT CHANGE, TOO?

"If the financing comes through, you're going to see some real changes," Vander Hoek says. "There will be a difference in scale and mass. The look's going to change. The question is, is the feel going to change?"

Well, that's one question.

Another question is, Why now? The answer, in large part, is: Because of the downtown park.

"The only two places where anything is happening in the city is where the city's made substantial investment," says Mark Hinshaw, former Bellevue city architect who now runs a consulting business from offices in Old Bellevue.

"In Old Bellevue, it's the park. Which follows a classic concept in 20th-century city-building: You have to have both public and private commitment to effect change."

Change isn't always for the best, perhaps, which brings up the next question. Some people ask whether it's wise to tear down the oldest part of town.

"They're not great buildings, but they're all Bellevue has," says Karen Klett, president of the Bellevue Historical Society.

"I think there's going to be no way for our future generations to identify the way Bellevue looked. I think that's very sad. Maybe no one will care, but I think the city loses some of its character and its personality if everything is brand-new."

Historical-society members wish most of the humble old buildings could be preserved as heritage and tribute to times past - times when Main Street, near a ferry dock on Meydenbauer Bay, was the center of town, before the center shifted north when Bellevue Square opened and banks and offices drifted along with the shoppers.

Main Street was where the first bank was, and the site of the first school on the Eastside. That school - Union S High - was, several years ago, the subject of a similar debate as the downtown park was developed at the school site. Preservationists wanted to save the old brick building, architecturally undistinguished and expensive to move as it was. The preservationists, one of whom was City Councilwoman Margot Blacker, lost.

CHARACTER, NOT BUILDINGS

Although Blacker thinks one or two of the Old Bellevue buildings should be saved - the old farmhouse next to Bloomingals, possible the City of Paris building - she can't get too excited about the rest. "Some of them, I think, do need to be replaced, and that area needs to be revitalized. The replication of the character is important to me.

"But if I had my druthers, I'd keep it one story all along (Main Street)."

"In an ideal world," answers developer Steve Skony, "I wish I could build 100 stories. Neither one is very realistic."

Skony and his partner attempted to build a 21-story condo project in Old Bellevue some years ago and met with the wrath - and litigation - of a neighborhood coalition. The project was killed, city codes were changed to dramatically scale down building heights to what they are today, and some say there was a chilling effect on building ending only now. "It was a painful experience," Skony says.

And a learning one. Skony says he talked to the same activists "before we even started on design this time." So far, there has been little public opposition.

"I think we're going to build something that everybody universally likes," Skony says. "Every community needs a sense of history. I'm not sure Bellevue's sense is engendered in its buildings, but more in its spirit."

Likewise, Intrawest consulted with the Bellevue Historical Society before designing its project. "Our position is how can we work with property owners to maintain as much of the character as we can," Klett says.

Intrawest's condos seem "villagy and European" to Klett. "It's beautiful," she says. "But it's certainly not going to look like Bellevue."

UP TO NINE HIGH

In each development, small shops will fill the ground floor. The condos directly on Main Street or south of Main may rise five stories, according to city codes, while those north of Main may go up to nine.

The city is pleased with the plans. "Clearly, residential projects are consistent with what we want to see happen here," says Matt Terry, director of design and development. "The plan contemplates a small-scale, community-oriented retail district with lots of residential development around it. Similar, I guess, in concept to lower Queen Anne Hill maybe or parts of the (Denny) Regrade . . . Strong pedestrian orientation, lots of little shops."

But Maria Cain, who fought the previous Skony project, says the plans are all wrong. "It's really very disappointing the city hasn't taken a stronger stand in preserving a historical area of town."

"One little area in the corner of the city should be protected. There's no reason to glass the thing over. If these developments go ahead, it'll be a hodgepodge for a while and then it'll be gone."

Old Bellevue is already something of a hodgepodge. Masin's furniture store, in a building built by the Vander Hoeks in the 1980s, isn't exactly in character with the older buildings, doesn't front directly on the street and wouldn't be allowed today. And Olde Main Square, a two-story development farther west built about the same time, is fronted by a parking lot, which also would be forbidden today.

"They haven't wanted to change the look of Old Bellevue, but it's not a real good look," says Arlene Rose, former owner of Brandt Photography at the west end of Old Bellevue. Rose and her family have been in Old Bellevue since 1971. She has no love lost for the buildings to be torn down for the Intrawest development.

Nor does Susan Scott, owner of Bloomingals.

"No one will be sad to see it go," Scott says. " `Historic' has to have charm, it doesn't mean an old house or an old garage."

Scott has had her specialty women's clothing store for more than eight years, and she takes a skeptical view of the proposals. She's seen building plans for the area come and go, she says. And if they do get built, it's too soon to say whether the apartments would hurt or help her business.

"If it brings people to the area, that's great," she says. "We need a grocery store and pharmacy. Everybody wants a good deli and a good restaurant. Those things follow the need, if the people are here and the apartments are full.

"But we have to work and maintain the customer base we already have and not lose them during a time of construction.

"It's walking a very fine line. If the buildings succeed and the growth is there and parking is handled well, it could easily become prime. But if it's not, I think you could easily wind up with a blighted area."

Karen Anderson Bittenbender, the Intrawest vice president in charge of the Bellevue project, thinks not. Buyers of her condos, she says, will be older residents with a weekend island home or young professionals who grew up in the city and work downtown. They'll be an asset, she believes.

"A lot of them will walk or take a bus to work," she says. "They're going to shop there, buy art there, eat in restaurants. People will be enjoying downtown and demanding more in the way of evening activities. You're going to begin to get to more of that urban residential feel where the sidewalks don't roll up at night.

"It's not going to happen overnight but it's a beginning. We think Old Bellevue is the best place to start. It has views and it's just a nice scale. There's the park. And you've got all Bellevue Square."