South Lake Union

South Lake Union is undergoing major changes, but those changes have not yet made that neighborhood ready for most home buyers.

I have lived in the South Lake Union neighborhood for since August of 06. I also work across the street from my home so I am constantly in the neighborhood and this is where I find all my services and entertainment.

I have listed the positives and negatives for those of you thinking of buying here. I am not a real estate salesperson trying to get leads or trying to blow some smoke up your @$$ this is my best opinion based on experience.

Negatives
- The neighborhood is full of cars and roads it is urban and has an urban noise level.
- Trees are not as plentiful as many other places and the exhaust can be overwhelming.
- Storefronts are empty in the new alley 24 project.
- Grocery stores are several blocks away, the nearest is Whole Foods (expensive and their prepared foods at this one are terrible and very poor value)
- The next closest grocery is QFC in capital hill which I like to shop at but because of the significant hill I usually have to drive.
- The restaurants in the area are usually focused on limited clientele including the wealthy at the waterfront, the businessman at the fast food joints, and the youth at the new trendy South Lake Grill. Family friendly food establishments are hard to come by.
- Cafes are expensive.
- No bookstores, or libraries in the neighborhood.
- Constant construction
- Large transient population compared to quieter Seattle neighborhoods like Wallingford, Fremont, Ballard, Maple Leaf, etc.
- Mercer is really a mess, constant traffic, congestion.
- I walk most places and find the terrain is a bit hilly to downtown.
- The feeling of most of the neighborhood is one of a workers commuter businessman going to work.
- Schools are limited to private ones.



Positives
- Taco Del Mar has its regional headquarters here and has the friends and family free lunch on occasional Tuesday's.
- There is a block party held at the Denny park playground that has some good bands and is really fun, even for the kids. We always had something to go do, especially since we could walk to the Seattle Center which has the Pacific Science Center which is great for kids.
- The new projects going in are really changing the neighborhood for the better.
- Alley 24 is a great project with a comfortable alley that has mid block access and storefronts that wrap into the alley creating a comfortable feeling, it is also well lit and contains plants (bamboo)
- The use of plants could be more extensive and I would like to see some vertical garden walls but the fact that some planting exists give the pedestrian and comfortable separation between the cars and the buildings.
- The new Alcyone apartments building, http://www.alcyoneapartments.com/home.asp, are beautiful and create a really comfortable street scape. The stoops and patios in front of the units bring out the private and create a sense of ownership.
- The plantings in front of the Alcyone are nice I will post a couple of pictures I have taken to give you a sense of the place.
- The whole foods is a nice place, but again empty storefronts.
- The proximity to downtown is the best asset, close to all that downtown has to offer within walking distance.
- The kid friendly elements include the park in front of the Alcyone which has been redone and is really great.
- The REI flagship store has a kids play tree house in it that is great in the winter to take the kids there to romp around the place, there is a world wraps that is OK but a little pricey for the quality.
- Once the waterfront park is redone the neighborhood should be in a renaissance and would be ready to get into. I see several parallels to the neighborhood creation that several developers in Vancouver Canada have done. These include quality construction, landscaping, developing apartment and well as for sale housing. I also see the fixed sales center for Vulcan which is a standard Vancouver thing.
- People are starting to come in droves to the area once enough come I am hopeful that some of the necessary services will come too.
- The corner restaurant to the Alcyone is an Irish pub and it is really nice, I watched several Sea hawks games there last year and I thought it is well designed and operated.
- The best coffee in the area is Vivace's when their game is on otherwise it is Uptown Espresso.
- Vivace's is open till 11:00 pm and has Internet, that is where I am writing this post.
- The next big development for Vulcan is going to be the flower block directly north of the Alley 24 project and that is a pretty good location with retail and park on either side. The one draw back is the block looks onto the insurance company parking garage.


This list is not the complete definitive but a start to help potential residents understand what they are getting into.