by Kirby Lindsay, posted 12 August 2013
At the southwest corner of the intersection of Fremont Avenue and N 36th St, stands a masonry building. With entrances facing Fremont Avenue, N 36th St, and an alley off Fremont Place, the ‘Fremont Hardware’ building could be one of the most fluid of commercial buildings in Fremont.
Fluid? Well, so many businesses operate here that regular (and oblivious) customers could remain unaware of more than three or four of the others by coming and going from one side of the simple three-story brick building.
Fremont Hardware Lived Here
The building has no history of being so multi-purpose. For the ‘Historical Survey and Planning Study of Fremont’s Commercial Area,’ published in 1991 and available for review at the Fremont Branch of the Seattle Public Library, Carol Tobin noted only two businesses located on this site. She also mentions that one of these had just left.
Fremont Hardware operated from this site for many, many years – providing the right part for every need in this neighborhood. At that time, most residences that surrounded the store were built, some nearly 100 years ago, by the millworkers or other laborers that lived in them. Customers could step into Fremont Hardware, describe a problem, and walk out with the part, large or small, that fixed – or at least patched – the plumbing, electricity, or structure of their home, no matter what generation had installed it.
By 1991, Fremont Hardware closed and City People’s Mercantile – a hardware/house wares/gift shop – had taken over the space and began an extensive remodel. The remodel encompassed two floors since Fremont Hardware, and then City People’s, occupied both the ‘street level’ storefront, along Fremont Avenue, and the ‘basement’ – as well as the basement courtyard of the building.
What the inventory does not mention is Frame Up Studios, begun by local artist Irene Ingalls (who designed the distinctive blue-and-orange color scheme for the Fremont Bridge,) in 1986. Soon after, she sold the business to current owner Rob Bradley, and today Frame Up still occupies the southeast corner of the building, at street level.
Hotel To Apartments To Hotel
Built in 1911/12, this building started as a hotel – back when shared bathrooms and hauling luggage up stairs were considered standard. By 1991, the second floor contained the ‘Lake Union Apartments,’ with the guest rooms converted into a collection of efficiency/SRO living units. Occupants still shared a bathroom, located down the hall, but they did each have windows with views of downtown Fremont.
In 2000, City People’s Mercantile closed its Fremont store (the business still has two other Seattle locations.) Shortly thereafter, the building provided sanctuary for a displaced yet popular Fremont business. The Dubliner Pub, established in 1991 down Fremont Avenue in the ‘Fremont Tavern’ building, found itself verging on homelessness when the landlord there leased the property beneath the building – and started work on relocating building. The Dubliner had to find a new home, and it relocated to the northeast, street level storefronts at ‘Fremont Hardware.’
A few years ago, the ‘Lake Union Apartments’ had tenants causing problems for the Pub, and the surrounding neighborhood. Reports of drugs and prostitution had led to discussions at the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and with the Seattle Police Department – and then the building sold.
Better Than Ever?
Approximately three years ago, the ‘Fremont Hardware’ building underwent a gradual renovation – and rejuvenation – that continues today. Gibraltar Property Management quickly demonstrated its intentions to clean up the property – and have retained many of the original commercial tenants.
“When we take on a building,” explained Lee Kindell, a partner in Gibraltar, “we fix it up, and we create more value for the community.” According to Kindell, the company deliberately purchases buildings in disrepair and looking disreputable, with the intention to restore unique buildings around Seattle to their former glory – or a glory never before achieved.
“Mixed use is a real favorite,” Kindell reported. Here Gibraltar assisted the retail tenants by cleaning the outside of the building, replacing the water supply (and thereby repairing leaks in several spaces,) installing a new fire system, and increasing signage. Kindell also put a bench around a street tree on Fremont Avenue, “as an experiment,” he said, “and it’s a huge hit.” He hopes to do more, and thereby help the small, food based businesses that now populate the storefronts, such as Bluebird Microcreamery & Brewery.
However, the most dramatic change made by Gibraltar, and Kindell, is on the second floor. Kindell, who also operates City Hostel in Downtown Seattle, has done extensive work converting the apartments back into hotel rooms, and giving the whole establishment a charm and splendor that it very well may never have had before. Hotel/Hotel opened in 2011, and rarely has had a vacancy since.
“I love subtlety in design,” Kindell acknowledged. While Gibraltar continues to update the building in some very subtle ways, they’ve also worked with tenants when they want to make improvements. Kindell mentioned efforts at The Dubliner to clean up the Pub, but he also acknowledged the largest tenant improvement, done when they first took over the building, to split the space occupied by Frame Up to allow the landmark Fremont store to stay while bringing the delectable Pie to the other side.
“On my wish list,” Kindell said of future improvements, are a possible roof top deck for the hotel guests, and a public coffee shop inside the hotel. For now though, he plans to restore the basement courtyard for the tenants and customers of Pel’meni Dumpling Tzar, Hidden Hand Tattoo, Sweat Hot Yoga, 27h Studio and Wax On Spa.
“We’ve got the great businesses in there,” Kindell said, of those tenants who started with Gibraltar and those they’ve welcomed into the fold, “I think they do a great job.”
In her ‘Inventory,’ in 1991, Tobin reports on the building being, “relatively intact,” so it, “reinforces the distinctive identity of the Fremont business district. It relates to the study unit theme of commerce.” Today, Gibraltar and the near dozen other businesses that occupy this structure reinforce, in so many ways, the identity of modern Fremont – as a thriving, and industrious, commercial district.
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©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.