Goodwill breaking ground on new building Wednesday

Goodwill will break ground on their new building at Rainier and Dearborn Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. The three-story building will house education programs as well as administrative offices for the Seattle Goodwill Headquarters.

Plans for the new building developed after plans for a large, mixed-use redevelopment of the Goodwill site on Dearborn fell through for financial reasons three years ago, prolonging the company’s search for a way to house their training program and administrative staff. Leaving the door open for future redevelopment of the space, Seattle Goodwill tore down three vacant buildings on the lot to make room for the new 49,562 square-foot.

From Seattle Goodwill:

WHAT:  Celebrate the ground breaking of Goodwill’s new Job Training & Education Center and Administrative Support Building. 

WHEN:  Wednesday, February 15 at 9:30 a.m.

 

WHERE:  1400 South Lane Street in Seattle

WHO:  Speakers will include Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, Seattle Goodwill CEO Ken Colling  and Seattle Goodwill Board Chair Wayne Lau. Community partners and staff will attend.

 

DETAILS:

This 3 story 49,562 square foot building will house a new Job Training and Education Center and our Administrative Support Services.

Job Training and Education (JTE) classroom space will increase by 20% and JTE staff capacity will double.  Together, these improvements will allow us to serve more individuals with our free job training & education programs.   Last year, the Seattle location served over 900 people.

The building is designed by Mithun and Foushée & Associates Inc.  is the general contractor for the project

Goodwill’s existing training center, store and donation center will remain open during construction of this project.

Occupancy is scheduled for April 2013.

8 thoughts on “Goodwill breaking ground on new building Wednesday

  1. Hmmm… sounds like forced participation :)

    “Community partners and staff will attend.”

    Tearing those old buildings down seems to fly in the face of what Jane Jacobs and the New Urbanists want. Not much density at 3 stories either.

  2. Butch, you really need to know what you are talking about before you spout out embarrassing drivel about urban design and the condition of those existing buildings. Are sure your not Jackson place member?

  3. You are right and correct in attacking my comments. I’m not a Jackson Place member therefore I can’t have a perspective that matters.

  4. yeah, that drivel was almost as bad as the recent embarrassing drivel spouted off to the property owner of Promenade 23…

  5. Jane Jacobs says it best in her seminal book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. In chapter 10, which goes into detail about this topic, she makes the case for old buildings:

    “Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them. By old buildings I mean not museum-piece old buildings, not old buildings in an excellent and expensive state of rehabilitation—although these make fine ingredients—but also a good lot of plain, ordinary, low-value old buildings, including some rundown old buildings.

    27) Preservation and renewal of historic buildings, districts, and landscapes affirm the continuity and evolution of urban society.
    Congress for the New Urbanism

    Not sure why you think this is drivel. Please elaborate.

  6. But I am glad those buildings were torn down. The corner has already improved without them. There are certainly better candidates for preservation in the city than the buildings that were there. They appeared to be in extremely poor condition and seemed past the point of rehabilitation without spending a lot of money. But then I was also disapointed that they previously proposed development did not go through. Happy that Goodwill is making progress on their new facility after such a long delay.

  7. Could not agree with you more “weller”. Looking forward to both Promanade 23 and Goodwill being redeveloped with retail that this community needs, and not allowing the nimby’s to continue to ruin this area of the CD with mindless egotistical obstruction.

  8. Pingback: City Planning Deadlocked – Goodwill A Bad Idea?