Goodbye, Holly Park -- 10 Years From Now, You Probably Won't Recognize The Housing Project That Symbolizes Seattle's Poor

Sometime next summer, bulldozers will begin razing the rundown, cookie-cutter homes of Beacon Hill's Holly Park that for decades have housed some of Seattle's poorest people.

Over the next 10 years on the 102 acres, the Seattle Housing Authority - in what will be the largest housing redevelopment project in the city's history - will replace the bland and boxy buildings with a tidy mix of two-story homes, duplexes and townhouses with gables, porches, fenced back yards and other distinctive touches.

Planners say a new name is also needed for Holly Park, to shed its tarnished image as a drug- and crime-infested public-housing project, and to herald a new public-private community with gridded streets linking it to the larger neighborhood, a new image and - officials hope - a new mix of residents: homeowners and renters. Single people and families. Haves and have-nots.

It's a gamble.

"The concern is, if it fails, it becomes a larger public-housing project," said Scott Jepsen, SHA's project coordinator at Holly Park. "Certainly, that is not what anybody involved in this effort wants to have happen."

The SHA's $160 million Holly Park Revitalization Project has been on the drawing board for three years, and developer Henry Popkin says financing is being arranged.

Already committed is a $47.1 million grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Also in the package is nearly $15 million in bond financing, $24 million in investor equities and $23 million in other public funds.

The developer anticipates more than $50 million will come from sales of the project's private units.

Already, some households are being moved to vacant units in Holly Park, to other housing projects or to subsidized units elsewhere in the city in anticipation of the first round of demolition next summer.

The project's success is heavily dependent on the ability of the developer - Popkin Development of Seattle - to sell and rent homes at market rates that are next to homes for people living in poverty.

Backers say there are several reasons the project should work: For one, market rates have been lower in that part of town than in many other neighborhoods.

Also, planners see Holly Park's close access to the freeway, downtown and points south, along with its ethnic, economic and social diversity, as other reasons to own or rent there.

Area realtors say sound management of SHA's housing will be another critical factor if the project is to succeed.

"I think it would certainly affect property values if it's not managed properly," said longtime South Seattle resident Brian Fairchild, who manages the Windermere Real Estate office in that part of town.

Others could follow

If it succeeds, Holly Park could pave the way for new development in the SHA's three other so-called garden communities - Rainier Vista in South Seattle, High Point in West Seattle and Yesler Terrace on the edge of First Hill.

"Changing the stigma of Holly Park and bringing in a variety of incomes and different households from what's here today will be the impetus for redeveloping the larger community, and not just Holly Park," said Jepsen.

The project puts Seattle on the cutting edge of what seems to be the future of public-housing developments, teaming private ownership at moderate and market rates with public housing, says Orysia Stanchak, a project director with the nonprofit Housing Research Foundation in Washington, D.C.

HUD also has awarded what are known as HOPE VI - an acronym for Home Ownership Opportunities for People Everywhere - funds for similar projects in three dozen other cities.

1,200 new homes

At Holly Park, as many as 1,200 new homes will line new streets, replacing existing units that randomly face curved drives and are surrounded by open yards throughout the project. A third of the new homes would be reserved for public housing; the rest would be for sale or rent on the open market.

By mixing income levels, planners hope to raise the median household income level of Holly Park - now $7,044, less than 15 percent of the citywide median family income of $48,000 - and provide an economic boost throughout southeast Seattle.

The intent "is to break down the isolation and further integrate the Holly Park community into the rest of Beacon Hill," says Vincent Lyons of the city's Department of Construction and Land Use.

Built in the early 1940s as temporary World War II housing for people working in defense industries, Holly Park has served as subsidized housing for low-income families since 1955.

Except for some exterior cosmetics, residents say it hasn't changed much over the years.

Doris Morgan, president of the project's residents organization, the Holly Park Community Council, says new siding and fresh paint mask serious structural deficiencies.

"It looks great on the outside, but inside and underneath, it's a different story. The infrastructure is going," says Morgan. "In 18 units, the subflooring is rotting. Inspectors have come in and told us we have to move (residents) out now."

Designs for what Popkin Development, the Seattle firm that won the right to be lead developer, wants to build are being reviewed now by representatives from DCLU and the Seattle Design Commission.

Before the joint panel are designs that feature gables and front porches and other touches that would make the homes similar to those on Queen Anne Hill, in Wallingford and elsewhere, said company head Popkin.

Because of generic construction and circular drives, it's pretty easy right now to spot public-housing projects.

Seattle architect and urban planner Dennis Haskell, who chairs the joint design panel, wants that to change.

"I think the design team is really making a very serious and dedicated effort to try to make this a project that tries to blend into the surrounding community. I think that's what everybody wants," he said.

"The development itself will be of high quality, and the assumption is that if you build something nice, that given its location and accessibility to the rest of the city, the people will buy it or rent it," added Henry Hardnett, a Seattle architect hired by the Holly Park residents' organization to be a technical adviser for the project.

"The idea is that at a glance, one wouldn't be able to tell who's an owner and who's a renter, who's low-income and who's not."

The project will be built in three phases:

-- The first phase, the northwest corner of the complex, will include about 442 units of two-story, single-family homes; two-story duplex units designed to look like large homes; and townhomes designed to look like even larger houses rather than apartments.

In addition, developers have planned a new 4-acre neighborhood park in the center of Phase I, along with bicycle paths and a community center complex.

The first units are scheduled to be started next year.

-- The second phase, in the center of the project, is scheduled to start in 1999 and will include an estimated 414 homes, another neighborhood park and possibly an assisted-living center for 100 residents.

-- The final phase, starting sometime in 2001, will include about 242 homes, plus community gardens where residents will be encouraged to grow produce that can be sold at a farmer's market to be developed near South Othello Street, also as part of the project.

If present market rates hold, homes would sell in the $110,000 to $150,000 range, with market-rate rents from about $550 to about $850 a month.

Relocation for the first phase will affect 366 families. According to Doris Koo, SHA's director of development, "No one will be displaced as a result of this (redevelopment) effort."

At the same time, Morgan and the community council have been successful in negotiating assurances that Holly Park's present population, an ethnic mix of about 90 percent people of color, would not be left out in the cold by redevelopment.

"Most of the community at large is people of color, and that's what we will encourage," says Morgan. "We don't think the project will change the nature of that."

Jepsen cautions that the project is still undergoing revisions to adjust to changing market projections. "The first phase has to be big enough to make a statement, but not so big that we can't adjust to market absorption as we go," he said.

Jean Veldwyk, owner of VelDyke Properties, one of the most active realty offices in South Seattle, says there's no reason a new mixed-income neighborhood should not succeed.

"A lot of us have been advocating for years changing the overview of that very dense low-income project into something that would fit in better with the community. That concept will make the community more respectful of different income groups and more healthy for the community all the way around," she said.

"The property turnover record here is remarkable at the present time," she added. "There are much better buys (in South Seattle) than you could find anywhere else in the city, and that's what people are looking for."