Uwajimaya Sketches Out Expansion In International District -- Asian Store Plans 6-Story Retail-Housing Complex

Uwajimaya, Seattle's landmark Asian merchandiser, is preparing to build a six-story $35 million retail-housing complex in the heart of the city's International District.

The development would feature a new Uwajimaya Asian grocery and specialty merchandise store and 172 market-rate apartments, said Tomio Moriguchi, Uwajimaya's chairman.

The apartments would rise five stories on top of the 66,000-square-foot ground-floor retail space, Moriguchi said yesterday. To allow more light, the apartments would be terraced toward the southern edge of the project.

The retail-housing development would be bordered by South Weller and South Lane streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues South, just south of the current Uwajimaya store. It would include one level of underground parking.

Moriguchi said the family-owned business also controls the block south of the planned retail development. It will use that block, bordered by South Lane and South Dearborn streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues South, for additional surface parking.

Moriguchi released an artist's rendering of the planned development yesterday but said he has not yet secured a building permit. First, he must receive approval from the Seattle City Council to acquire South Lane between Fifth and Sixth. He said Uwajimaya would close the street to cars.

Moriguchi said he plans to lease the current Uwajimaya space to retail and commercial tenants who would be compatible with the new

store and with the International District in general.

"We have a lot of interest. There is a heck of a lot of development going on around here," he said.

In addition to the Uwajimaya project, high-tech billionaire Paul Allen and Seattle developers Nitze-Stagen and Patrick Mahoney plan office, retail and parking projects as part of a $250 million makeover of Union Station. And the new Mariners and Seahawks sports stadiums will be coming on line west of the International District.

Moriguchi said the Asian food-and-gifts store would take up 50,000 of the new 66,000 square feet. A Kinokuniya Asian bookstore would occupy an additional 6,000 square feet. The rest would be leased to other retailers, he said.

Moriguchi said he hoped construction could begin in August.