B&O approaching a terminus?
Word from the P-I today that B&O Espresso may be about to lose its building to the Condoification Plague.
B&O was the first Seattle coffeehouse I ever had a drink in (Earl Grey) way back in 1993. In a way, I always think coffeehouses have to be like B&O: dimly lit with a hint of indifference to your presence.
At some point the Condoification is going to stop, right? I mean, they have to run out of history to bulldoze eventually.
While I agree that it kind of sucks to lose all this history, many of these older buildings need serious rennovation to get them up to current code. While you refer to much of this as “Condoification” most of the buisnesses that were in the previous buildings are moving into the new buildings. Right now we have more workers downtown than people actually living there. These condos are “supposed” to help with some of that. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the whole thing plays out.
These ventures seem to be one hell of a gamble. Mortgage rates are rising; people who look at the national economy are starting to make noise about downturns. I’m no economist, but it seems like all it would take is one mildly potent recession to suddenly find ourselves surrounded by half-completed building sites.