Columbia City Loses Creepy Shopping Center

Big changes keep coming for Landmark District of Columbia City, the latest of which is detailed in this recent Seattle PI article by Aubrey Cohen. The crime-frequented Columbia Plaza, an old grocery store divided into indoor market stalls, will be the site of new condos and retail space.

HAL Real Estate Investments announced Monday that it paid Kin Properties of Florida slightly more than $6.6 million for the 74,500-square-foot Columbia Plaza property, which is bordered by Rainier Avenue South, South Edmunds Street and Columbia Park, down the street from the Columbia City library and a few blocks from Sound Transit’s Columbia City Station.

Honestly, this seems like it can only be a good thing for Columbia City homeowners and business owners. But, as evidenced by the firestorm of comments on the Seattle PI site, concerns are already being raised about the push for gentrification and the loss of diversity. Although I can understand where some of the backlash is coming from, it just seems nutty that crime magnets such as the Columbia Plaza should be tolerated in order to keep our neighborhood dynamic. We’ll see what HAL Real Estate cooks up for the site; hopefully it’ll have a good portion of community flavor with one hundred percent fewer shootings.