Crown Hill Safeway site is sold, store will be remodeled this year

Geeky Swedes Ballard

The property that’s home to the Crown Hill Safeway store at 8332 15th Ave. NW has sold to new owners, according to the Daily Journal of Commerce.

The lot sold for $3 million to Rosenthal Crown Hill LLC, which lists Albert Rosenthal of Bellevue as its registered agent.

We contacted Safeway, and spokesperson Sara Osborne said the store is staying put.

“In fact, the store will undergo a remodel this year, including adding self-checkout,” she said.

Update: My Ballard reader Tony reminded us that the Safeway at Greenwood at 87th is closing soon. The decision was announced back in May, and Washington Holdings purchased the land.

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36 thoughts to “Crown Hill Safeway site is sold, store will be remodeled this year”

    1. Yeah, no different than the QFC down the street in Ballard here homeless low lives spend the entire day selling drugs in the conveniently hidden seating area.

      1. Yes, somehow our crack team of law enforcement are more concerned with twitter wars over Carmen Best being passed over than arresting obvious felons.

    2. Bobo, that is the sad downside of this. When so much concern is made over losing a ‘livable wage’ here in Seattle (and grocery might not even be considered livable), when “they” say that is a direct cause of homelessness, shouldn’t there be more outrage at that? Fewer employees also means fewer eyes on the store’s inventory. I personally won’t go to that Safeway, or the one on Market (although that one for a different reason).
      I know that’s how capitalism works, and you can’t stop a private corporation from selling their land if they want to but…if you want to know how the cycle works, you’re looking at it.

    3. No actually self check out does give us more jobs. This is a misconception that we loose jobs. I am a 30 + yr employee. More $$ generated through our self check outs actually GIVE US MORE HOURS to hire more people. Glad I could clarify this for you.

      1. How does having more hours enable you to hire more people? Wouldn’t having more hours mean you are expected to get more non-customer service work done? If you can explain how the availability of more per-employee hours equates to needing more bodies for labor, I’d love to hear the explanation.

        1. The poster meant there are more hours available to be scheduled, not that he himself works those hours. The hours allocated for employees to work is based on revenue.

        2. If the store revenue goes up, one could assume they spend the same % of that revenue on labor ie jobs. Except that it is Safeway and therefore we know customer service, ie people in the store to help out, is last on the list…

  4. All Safeways everywhere went way down hill when private equity group Cerberus Capital Management bought them. Classic P.E. move where they loaded up the firm with debt, and cut costs everywhere. Cerberus had no grocery store experience, then bought Albertsons and Safeway a few years ago. All the employees hate it there.

    I stopped shopping there when this happened. Weird promotions — buy a bunch of stuff to get scratch-off game like coupons, blue light specials with in-store selling for unrelated items. I also started noticing things rang up wrong all the time. Not just the things on sale, like 3-5% of the items you put in your cart. Plus, if you go at 5:00 PM there will be like 2 check out people and 15 people in line because they try to save money by being understaffed.

    If they really do remodel it, I’m sure it’s because it is an outlier in their statistics for stores in other parts of the country with similar population within 2 miles and average household income. Theft is probably 10x comparable stores, and sales are probably 25% less.

    1. Why would you go to the grocery store at 5 o’clock and expect to get out of there quickly?

      I shop at this store often and it’s totally fine. Decent produce and better meat/fish than Fred Meyer in my opinion.

      I really doubt all the employees hate it there. I’ve had encounters with some very pleasant people who would need to be fantastic actors if they truly hated their jobs.

      1. Emily, talk to the managers at any of the grocery stores in the city about the violence towards employees and security guards. The fact that many of them can smile after verbal abuse or sometimes even physical abuse is a testament to their work ethic, as well as our tolerance of felons and creeps who abuse the poorer of the workers to get their fix or steal items.

      2. You sort of made my point. At 5:00, you would expect more than 2 check out people working. The last two times I have been in there that was the exact situation.

        Plus, I don’t like being aggressively pan-handled when I walk into or out of the store.

        My guess is that either the parking lot will become a 6 story building with a garage, or the whole thing will be a large development like the QFC on 24th within the next 6 years.

        1. @CHFO

          Emily’s never worked at a chain grocery or she’d know they run as short a staff as possible. Besides the longer you wait in line you may go grab another item. The stress this creates for the overworked cashiers is not important, and forces people to use the self-check which is basically the customer doing labor for the store free of charge.

          But then again, these kinds of things are lost on people who tax soda to limit sales, then tax jobs thinking it will not hurt opportunities for people who lack the expensive credentials get cushy jobs send emails about imaginary racism to the HR Dept all day for six figures.

          1. You are wrong there– I did work at a grocery store when I was much younger. The job was a night-shift when the store was closed and I stocked shelves. Don’t think customers or robots will be doing that anytime soon.

            I just think it’s foolish to go to any grocery store right at rush-hour with people coming home from work getting foodstuffs for dinner. I always shop at odd hours and make it a point to avoid Fred Meyer on senior discount days.

            I’ve probably been to that store 300 times and never once been pan-handled, aggressive or not. The only time I saw something awry was about 5 years ago someone mugged a customer who was using the ATM at the front of the store. My Mom was visiting me and we were shopping together– I told her that sort of stuff happens everyday.

          2. Fair enough, I stand corrected on your work history, but once again would talk to the mgt at QFC on 24th, PCC in Fremont/Metro Mkt LQA and get the scoop on the rough stuff the employees deal with. Anyway, no disrespect to you. I lived near that Safeway a few years ago and sh*t was always going down.

          3. @Sockpuppet: I think it’s clear that YOU have never worked at a grocery store. Yet, you are hellbent on posting a bunch of sensationalist claims about grocery stores employee and customer experiences that neither matches reality nor can be backed up by evidence or facts.

            Why? Who knows, but it matches your mentally delusional MO.

          4. That’s not true. It’s getting old hearing you complain about things you know nothing about.

  6. the lot only cost $3 million? that can’t be right…its huge!

    also, i feel bad for the employees there, its not their fault but that store is like some sort of time machine where a 30 second errand can turn into a 15 minute frustration. the staffing and management is off. what is the point of all those checkstands if half never get used?

    1. That’s what I was thinking
      If single family houses on 5000 square foot lots are going for a million, this has to be way off, right? 30 million? Sounds too high…I wonder what the real number is

  7. I hope the new owners do something about the panhandlers who hang out. I pay almost 2 grand of very hard earned dollars a month to live across the street and have to see these eyesores outside my window. They’re not even actually homeless as they just beg during the busy dinner hours then take off.. come back the next day in a different outfit..and they all have cellphones.

    3. Boo hoo you have to spend so much money on rent to look at other people who can’t afford your rent. Hope you enjoy your nice cushy Amazon office.

  8. Grocery prices, already some of the highest in the country, will increase after head tax.
    “Let them eat Amazon Go!” – Seattle Virtue Signalling Revenue Squad

    https://smartasset.com/mortgage/what-is-the-cost-of-living-in-seattle

    “Economic research found that a typical basket of Seattle groceries is about 11% more expensive than the national average cost for the same goods”

    https://crosscut.com/2018/03/if-seattles-business-tax-passes-expect-higher-grocery-bill

    “A business tax on grocery stores does not target the wealthy. Whether you’re rich, middle class, working poor or indigent, grocery shoppers will be the ones paying this tax. Remarkably, it’s “progressives” who are turning away from the tax exemption for food sales – one of the few provisions of our tax code that truly is progressive. Granted, the proposed business tax is relatively small compared to sales tax, most significant to people whose income is low enough to need to count their pennies.”

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