Target is coming to Ballard next year

Geeky Swedes Ballard

Updated: For years there have been rumors of Target coming to Ballard, but now it’s official.

My Ballard has learned Target has signed a lease to take the first floor of the new office building at the corner of 15th Ave NW and NW Market St., according to real estate developer Martin Selig.

Target will join Polyclinic, WeWork and Equal Exchange coffee in the new 200,000 square-foot office building that’s under construction where the Shell gas station was located. It’s slated to open in the first quarter of next year, Selig said.

Given the available square footage, it’s unclear if the new store is a CityTarget — a smaller, urban version of the discount store, like the one in downtown — or an even smaller TargetExpress store. When we reached Target this afternoon, it provided this statement:

At Target, we continuously explore possible locations for new stores, including in the Seattle area. We are currently focused on new store growth with our small-format stores, which are smaller than our general merchandise Target stores and are located in dense urban and suburban neighborhoods as well as college campuses. I can tell you we are pursuing the opportunity to reach guests in the Ballard neighborhood, but at this time, we’re not at a point where we can share any new store plans.

The building is located on Ballard’s busiest corner, right next to the proposed location of the Ballard elevated light rail station. One of the few office buildings in the neighborhood, it has has underground parking for 253 vehicles.

“There really is no office space market in Ballard,” Selig told us, explaining they’ve had to work hard to lease the 5-story building, which is now 80% leased. “All that’s left is floor 3,” he said.

(Our thanks to K and Scott for their tips that led to this story.)

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

49 thoughts to “Target is coming to Ballard next year”

  1. Oh good. Sunset Bowl became doggy day care and now a Target. Progress, I say!

    Can’t wait for the security guard carnage as they get assaulted trying to prevent junkies from stealing sweatshop Jordans.

  5. I like Target, but Northgate is close enough.
    Do we really need a bog box suburban type store in a classic city neighborhood like Ballard? I think NOT.

  6. Think of how many local soccer moms are going to live happier now. …but no way will they have groceries. #BallardMarket4life ⚽️ 🍯

  9. Another business jumping at the chance to open a store in Ballard, and the cranky old men are bitter, because it makes them look like fools, with all their talk of doom and gloom. Could just admit you were wrong and put it behind you.

    Here’s something for you to get riled up about: Target doesn’t separate boys and girls toys. Did you know? Not like in your old days, when everything was perfect, thus you turned out perfect. Tell us about how much better it was when you were a kid. Your magnificent self is the proof. Brag. Don’t be shy! Talk about how you’re better than those darn millennials with their non-binaries. Everyone loves it when you do that. Don’t forget to say snowflake a lot because that’s proof that you really are better than everyone.

    Just kidding. Go back to talking about how you don’t want more grocery options. Brilliant.

  16. Weird how all that office space is filling up so fast. Don’t they know on daily basis they’ll be viciously inconvenienced by armies of very unattractivly dressed and not at all sweet smelling strangers? Don’t they read the vivid, totally not made up tales of heinous inconvenience posted daily on your MyBallards and Nextdoors? Surely they don’t scoff at these very very factual anonymous posts written by totally calm neighbors whose civic spit just oozes from everywhere. Don’t they read (and believe!) the definitely not fake Facebook groups that prove how much unreported crime goes unreported because, hello? How could you post it on Facebook if it wasn’t totally true. And calm.

    The fools. Just wait until they see how much uncouth it really is.

    Somebody email Target a link to that Seattle Times oped by the pharma shill whose moving to Bellevue because Northgate has become shockingly inconvenient. And because Lorena Gonzales refuses to arrest people for no good reason except the Constitution of the United States.

    Also, hobo filled Ballard is too gentrified and Target ain’t classy enough for classy people like us.

  18. Wendy’s, Walgreens, Safeway, Target, Five Guys and Jimmy John’s all within 45 seconds of each other. All we need now is a Sbarro!

  20. I pay 3k in rent. Time to leave this state. I have been here for 17 years. Time to leave this state. I lived in Ballard for 5 of those years.

    Wait, is it time to leave this state?

  21. I love the cognitive dissonance about “unique Seattle” while parts of Ballard become bland urban strip malls.

    It’s on par with the “we’re in a 2nd Great Depression!” excuses they make for the junkie hobos RIGHT after bragging about the “wealthy Blue cities” and how we have nearly full employment.

    Please stick to just one false, but coherent, narrative.

  22. Box stores are the death knell of local culture and small businesses because they:

    Occupy more than 50,000 square feet of space (sometimes as much as 250,000).

    Require large sales volumes, so they often use predatory marketing strategies to take sales away from existing retailers.

    Rely on shoppers who arrive at the store by car, so they need large-capacity roads.

    Include acres of parking and occupy a large footprint.

    Create site development that neglects any community or pedestrian amenities.

    Seek to dominate markets and provide no unique culture, products, or identity.

    https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/smart-growth-working-families/harms-big-box-retail

  23. So you want your Shell station back? For the unique culture. And it doesn’t rely on people who arrive in cars? Yeah, good old Shell, that quaint bit of Old Ballard, founded by Sven Jorgenjorgejorg in 1899, selling handmade artisan gasoline just like his grandmother back in Norway used to make every Christmas.

    Only MyBallard could fill up with self-pity and alarm that the sky is falling because of a… Target. A Target store. Of course if a Neiman Marcus moved in you’d all grouse about gentrification, and if it was cute artisan shops you’d complain about hipsters and if nobody moved in you’d be sounding the alarm that Ballard is dying.

    The fact is that this neighborhood blog thrives on negativity and the regulars here thrive on hate. It’s not healthy.

  24. Very few of you mouthy people have any pride in your neighborhood. Also, those that whine about Seattle no longer being the Seattle of the 90s, can’t you find anything better to do? Get over it and do something productive with yourself. Death knell of local culture. ROFL.

    Yay target, a store that allows me to afford the stuff I need to live. Yay for new jobs for people.
    Yay for having one closer than Northgate so I don’t have to sit in traffic just to get my groceries (and waste my gas).

    And MO, you should probably shop around for cheaper rent, it does exist. Or leave. We don’t care either way.

    ELENCHOS: 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼

  26. @Elenchos
    “The fact is that this neighborhood blog thrives on negativity and the regulars here thrive on hate. It’s not healthy.”

    Yes, we all know all criticism is “hate speech” – and we must silence all who disagree with the Californication of Seattle.

    Speaking of “unhealthy”, Elenchos, I would be interested in the details of your fitness regimen. I could take a few guesses but that would probably be rude.

  28. Dude, what?

    Don’t lash out at me after you put your foot in your mouth. You’re making a fool of yourself. You can’t blame me for it. Terrified of unsavory street activity, but you’d rather have an all-night gas station convenience store than a new office building with a Target? Listen to yourself. Complaining for the sake of complaining.

  29. @Elenchos
    They served snacks at the gas station. Doritos, soda pop, mystery meat sticks. Surprised you dislike the old Shell.

    Also, it was frequently robbed by our “community neighbors”. I’m sure the McTarget/McSafeway corridor will be a cultural boon. World Star Hip Hop!

  33. “What do you use to post with, Simon? Laptop? Phone? Where’s it made?”

    I’m all for cheap sh*t made in China, especially I’ve never much cared for the working class and was perfectly happy to see manufacturing leave the US (bought AAPL in 1999 you see).

    That simply makes me honest, though, not some virtue signaling bleeding heart who claims to care about he lower classes.

  34. Nobody said you are a virtue signalling bleeding heart, Simon. But thanks, I guess, for clearing that up anyway.

    You’re sneering at people who buy things made in China, but you buy things made in China. Maybe the reason you really wanted to chime in was to tell us you kind of hate yourself. It’s not easy to live with, is it? But you shared with the group. That’s something. We’re not ready to call you honest yet, but you’re taking steps.

    Lot of drama for the boring news that somebody is building a Target store. Inner demons getting revealed to the world. Good times. Thanks, Simon.

  36. Pro tip, Simon: if you want people to to recognize you, and remember you, don’t sock. Running a dozen fake identities and having other people know (or care) who you actually are are two different things. You crave attention. You want recognition. You want others to know you. Fair enough: pick a name.

    You’re not fooling anybody and it’s making you look all the more pathetic. Hating yourself for being a consumer of Chinese goods, and broadcasting it so loudly, is pathetic.

    And now you’re loudly telling us all you’re an “incel” too. You want everyone to know you’re not getting laid and it’s killing you. Too much information, Incel Simon! Too much information. This is a family site and the emotional fireworks over the installation of a stop sign are bad enough. Your sexual frustration is a bridge too far. No THANK you. No thank you, sir.

    Pick a name. No more with the incel bits. And get some new material, because you’re not fooling anybody.

  37. Come back to Slog Elenchos. Let me bit*h slap you in Ancient Greek too. Not enough soy boys there anymore, they all fled back to their overweight wives in their Prius.

  38. Slog is deleting your nasty racist posts, and before too long all your sock accounts there will be blocked. You not fooling anybody.

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  40. Wwwweeeeee a Target , I guess a DQ or Popeyes chicken will never come…..yip I am really moving back to real America east anywhere if the Cascades. By the way Target sucks and only caters to your new yuppy neighbors Ballard ! , metro sexual clothing etc…if your a angry white male and work construction you can’t shop there and not for you or me buddies !

  41. Hate on the Target all you want, but it’s likely a marriage of convenience. This ‘office space’ was supposed to be filled by a business that could no longer afford the rental costs in Ballard. Target likely can. Would you rather have an empty office tower, or at least something occupying that space? The builders need a tenant to help offset the costs of construction. And nobody is forcing you to shop at Target. Plenty of places on Old Ballard Ave. will still be more than happy to accept your money. I myself don’t shop at Target, so I’m able to see the reality of one moving into Ballard – it’s progress, and it happens. Just like all the townhomes replacing single-family dwellings – it happens. And that gas station was sketchy as heck, yo. Always some bums drinking in the parking lot, which, I told Bobby the owner, was bad for business. He didn’t care, and now, it’s not his problem. If it’s such a problem for you, well…time to reassess your priorities. Like, develop a hobby.

  42. @Ballard Needs Eats
    Why stop at Target? Where are the plans for the Ballard Walmart?
    Traffic is bad enough at the intersection already without adding some goober suburban chain. If you’re so fond of Skyway or Northgate, move there, don’t play the “muh nimby’s” game on people who love(d) the fact Seattle had so few strip malls and corporate warts.

  43. @Cheap Crap Box Stores
    As I said, you don’t have to shop there, any more than you have to eat at 5 Guys, or the Subway that’s on the other side of 15th by the tire store, or the O’Reilly’s auto parts…all corporate businesses, by the way.
    I’ll admit that intersection sucks, but it has for years and Target won’t help it, but neither would anything else going in on that corner. Pedestrian overpasses might alleviate some of the traffic on those corners…maybe. And hey, I miss old Ballard too, but I’m not able to stop the progress any more than you are. I just choose to not view every expansion as a deficit.

  44. @Ballard Needs Eats
    Referring to any and all development as “progress” is flat dumb. Aren’t you guys the types that freak out about oil pipelines and refineries and massive shopping malls going up on farm land?

  45. @Cheap Crap
    Nope, not me. If you’re resistant to progress a la Target, I’d have pegged you the progressive liberal scared of oil and shopping malls. Me, I just try to find the positive within the negative (the negative that Ballard is becoming Federal Way, which is the worst place on the planet, the positive being…it’s not my fault we’re getting a Target. I just choose not to worry about it.)
    If you really hate it so much, please, picket outside once it opens. Or, you can just try to find ways to insult me, but I have thick skin so I can take it. I’ll just go workout with the MILF’s at Olympic Athletic Club, enjoy one of Ballard Avenue’s many fine independent dining spots, and then buy some records at Sonic Boom.
    See how easy it is to keep money in your community?

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