I just attended a fantastic event here in Bellevue about food robotics, with a discussion of Moto Pizza (which you can try at Bellevue Square) and how area innovators enabled them to automate and are taking the next steps to create even more flexible food handling automation. With this inspiration, here’s an overview of some food-related items around Bellevue .
In December, the Seattle Times reported that Amazon may run an Amazon Now site at 12368 Northrup Way that provides 30 minute gig driver delivery to zip codes 98004 in Bellevue and 98033 in Kirkland. Unfortunately, I don’t see an update on their progress, but it looks like a great location for speedy access to many parts of Bellevue. I will note that this article preceded the recent changes in direction on Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, so I don’t know if Project Peregrine is intended to partially replace them or will also be swept up in the cancellation.
If you’re interested in Amazon’s food delivery, you may be interested in certain episodes of The Feed podcast that I found enjoyable:
In Bellevue, we’re fortunate to have options close to the former Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, so I’m not concerned that this decision will create food deserts. There’s always some level of turnover; the T&T Supermarket opened just over a year ago, and others appear to be on the chopping block. The QFC on 8th in Downtown will be bulldozed for the Pinnacle South project (and replaced with a smaller store in Pinnacle North), and H Mart is set to become Main Street Place.
Once the HOMA upzoning Bellevue is working on now takes effect, the QFC in Northtowne and the S-Mart in Newport Hills seem likely to be redeveloped. In Crossroads, the India Metro Hypermarket, La Superior, European Grocery, and Grocery Outlet could all be redeveloped to 10 stories. The Walmart by 150th could be replaced by 8 stories, the T&T Supermarket and Target in Factoria (and the former Amazon Fresh) could be replaced by 16 stories, the QFC there could be replaced by 5-6 stories, and the Southgate Oriental Grocery by 10 stories. Eastgate Plaza’s Safeway and QFC, as well as the ExtraMile and Jacksons Food Store could be replaced with 10 story buildings. IFB Market by the Lake Hills Library could be replaced with 8 stories, and I’m not sure what height will be allowed at the QFC in Lake Hills (it’s included on some maps too, but the StoryMap with details you can zoom in on has been taken down). Note: the maps (here and here) are from a October 8th Planning Commission meeting, so they say 7 stories, but that category was upgraded to 8 stories in the January 28th meeting.
Part of the HOMA discussion is how significant the incentives for including grocery should be, and how long the dedication to that use will be required to remain in place. On January 28th, the Planning Commission amended the HOMA plan to provide a 25 year limit on the grocery covenant, provided that at the end there is a transition to use with a similar level of public benefit, or fee payment. Developers were also requesting a 3:1 ratio instead of 1:1 as the incentive to put in a grocery store in the first place, but that sweetener failed on a 3:4 vote.
The other item of note is SB 6026 to promote housing, which is one of the six bills the governor specifically requested, has lots of prominent backers, and just crossed over from the Senate to the House in Olympia. I’d be surprised if it doesn’t pass, so it’s a relief to see that there are some changes in the engrossed version from Feb 13th that could make it less of an issue for Bellevue. We’d still be allowed to require ground floor commercial in 20% of our land area, and there’s the option of other compliance options if based on an empirical study.
Note: Picnic Works of Seattle that made the pizza robot is different from the Picnic company featured in the podcast episode that designed a supermarket on wheels in Europe.
Note 2: There was definitely developer interest in a grocery covenant shorter than 25 years. I’m not sure whether the 25 year “limit” technically excludes the possibility of a 10 year covenant, for instance, since it sounds like some lease agreements are in that ballpark.
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