Thanks to a PCC neighbor for the pictures
The Madison Valley PCC grocery store opened this week. As CHS reported in April, the project was a decade in the making as some neighbors fought tooth and nail after beloved neighborhood garden shop City People’s sold off its property for redevelopment.
With the co-operative market this week finally serving its first customers beneath the 82 units of The Arbory apartment building, PCC is watching how some of the compromises required to push the development over the wall of Seattle process are playing out along E Madison.
The multi-year saga over the former City People’s site on E Madison pitted neighborhood coalition Save Madison Valley against developer Velmeir and its anchor tenant.
Even before the drawn out environmental appeal, neighborhood demands and the East Design Review Board chiseled away at the project. The biggest complaints settled on the building’s mass and its relation to the single family-style homes below the Madison slope on the backside of the project but neighbors also took issue with parking and traffic plans, tree loss, and, yes, even the project’s geological engineering.
While opponents demanded reductions across the board, the core metrics held.
The architectural firm on the project responded to the complaints and board guidance with a plan that maintained the planned 25,000-square-foot footprint for the grocery. Residential density increased from an initial estimate of 75 homes to 82 units. Instead of shrinking the building, the developer redistributed mass away from the single-family zone, stepping back upper floors and adding two-story townhome walk-ups and dense landscape buffers along Dewey Place.
There was also a key compromise.
Early proposals featured an exposed, outdoor loading bay, drawing protests over morning diesel noise, backup alarms, and the prospect of tractor-trailers navigating residential side streets.
To secure approval from the East Design Review Board and resolve environmental appeals, the development team altered the ground-floor floor plan. They brought the loading facilities inside the building envelope along E Madison, using interior space for a buffered dock and binding delivery freight to the Madison arterial.
Enclosing the freight bay allowed the project to retain the square footage PCC required for a full-service grocery store while addressing key livability objections from neighbors and the design board. Combined with split garage access sending customer traffic and delivery trucks to Madison while directing residential parking to Dewey Place, relocating and enclosing the loading dock served as a key design concession that carried the project through city review and appeals.
Those paperwork logistics are now reality. PCC Madison Valley deliveries must follow scheduled arrival windows using smaller single-axle or straight-body rigs that can pull straight into the enclosed bay, close the roll-up door, and unload — hopefully without staging or blocking traffic on the street. Thursday afternoon, a white box truck apparently early or late ended up parked along the curb outside the store.
The grocery is the 17th location for PCC, the largest consumer-owned food cooperative in the United States with more than 125,000 members.
The 73-year-old retailer says the new store offers organic produce, ethically sourced meat and seafood, house-made sushi, a prepared-foods deli, and an updated pizza program featuring organic flour from Skagit Valley’s Cairnspring Mills. According to the co-op, product selections emphasize organic farming, animal welfare, and fair labor standards, alongside lower-priced staples through bulk goods and store-brand items.
Seattle City Council President Joy Hollingsworth, whose District 3 includes Madison Valley, praised the store’s opening in a statement released by the co-op.
“As a multi-generational Seattleite, I’m proud to support a local, homegrown business that reflects the values of our community,” Hollingsworth said. “As a farmer who runs a family-owned farm, I deeply appreciate PCC’s commitment to supporting local agriculture. And as a city official, I recognize PCC not only as a valued employer and economic driver in our region, but as a true community partner, leading on issues from hunger relief advocacy to environmental sustainability.”
PCC reports that the location employs roughly 75 unionized staff members.
(Image: PCC)
Prior to opening, the co-op says it engaged with neighborhood groups, including the Madison Valley Merchants Association, Café Flora, and local schools, and backed a community push for a pedestrian crosswalk signal on E Madison.
PCC also is extending partnerships with local social service and food organizations, including the Jewish Family Service of Seattle, Bailey-Boushay House, FEEST, the Downtown Emergency Service Center, The Food Bank @ St. Mary’s, and the Black Farmers Collective.
PCC Community Markets #22 Madison Valley is located at 2925 E Madison. Learn more at pccmarkets.com.
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