Construction crews have closed a section of N 36th Street as underground utility work gets underway, signaling that two major redevelopment projects are inching closer to reality. According to workers on site, the permit runs through Feb. 27, and the same contractor is handling utilities for both blocks, suggesting demolition and construction timelines may be coordinated.
What’s coming at 508 N 36th St. (the Harvey Funeral Home site)
The Fremont Neighborhood Council has been tracking this one for years. The FNC held community outreach on the Harvey Funeral Home redevelopment a few years ago and generated considerable neighborhood interest. A demolition permit was issued in December 2025 and a construction permit for shoring and excavation was issued Jan. 16, 2026, with the project expiring in July 2027. The developer, Prometheus Real Estate Group (operating as Fremont 508 Seattle LLC), is building a 7-story, 169-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail and parking for 65 vehicles. Demolition of the existing 2-story building could begin as soon as March.
Meanwhile, next door at 452 N 36th St. (the Ballroom block)
This is the block that has been emptying out for a couple years. Roxy’s, the Back Door, and Norm’s have been gone for a while. Baila Bar, long known to Fremonsters as the Ballroom, is recently closed. Caffe Ladro will be out by the end of March. Holland Acquisition Co. LLC has a land use permit issued in April 2025 and a demolition permit already in hand for the existing commercial buildings. Plans call for a 7-story building with 185 units, ground-floor retail, and 85 parking spaces. A construction permit for shoring and excavation is ready for issuance as of Feb. 12.
This block has a rich history. According to the Fremont Neighborhood Council, the Ballroom was once a baby-diaper laundry service, and the Art Deco building most recently home to Roxy’s was originally built as a Safeway, then used as a grocery checker training facility. The block was a multi-generational family-held property; a family member still owns the Nectar Lounge next door. More neighborhood history can be found in Bill Crossman’s book 18 Windows to the Center of the Universe.
What to expect
Workers told a neighbor that utility work will continue through at least Feb. 27. Based on permit timelines, demolition on the funeral home site could begin in March, with the Ballroom block potentially following in April, or both could proceed simultaneously. Neighbors can expect noise, detours, and disruption on N 36th Street in the months ahead.
You can look up permits for any property using the City of Seattle’s Shaping Seattle interactive map.
19 responses to “Big changes coming to N 36th Street”
Yuck
LOVE IT!
I hope these developments will include their own parking garages. Finding parking in that area is already a challenge.
Sorry about my previous comment – my brain didn’t register the line about included parking. However, I’m guessing that 85 parking spaces won’t be enough for 185 units. I think many developments hope that having less parking will dissuade people from having cars, but in all my years living in Seattle, I have noticed that this logic never actually works out in reality.
This part of Fremont is so walkable and transit accessible that I think the garage will have more than enough room for the number of units! In my experience in LQA and Capitol Hill, neither building I lived in had a full garage, even with a similar parking ratio.
A good portion of that parking will be for retail as well.
It doesn’t. Developers don’t like parking spaces because they can get more money by jamming buildings full of tiny, cheaply-built “luxury” apartments that charge a lot of rent. City council members meanwhile have long tended to live in houses where they already have their own designated parking spaces and don’t recognize what a huge issue parking is for regular people, so they enable developers to forgo parking under the ignorant belief that it will create a more eco-friendly, walkable Seattle. However, the plain and simple truth is that we’re never going to be like East Coast cities, which can forgo parking easily because they’ve been super dense for centuries and have abundant public transportation running both within them and between them. We’re in the Pacific Northwest, relatively far from other large cities, and we’re surrounded by national parks and forested areas where local residents very much want to drive to on days off. The East Coast does not have that, and you can literally take the train to hiking areas from NYC.
Audrey- Parking is only a worry if you have a car–maybe you could consider freeing yourself from your car?
There won’t be enough parking for sure. Especially since a good chunk of parking will be for retail. This neighborhood is already stressed enough without enough parking. Are they going to ban issuing street parking permits for anyone who lives in these buildings? They should.
My biggest complaint is that these buildings are tall… and REALLY ugly. They’re SO vanilla and plain, and…. basic. Fremont isn’t basic, nor should it ever be. I could have lived with this if they’d designed something that was more in keeping with the neighborhood’s funky vibe. But NO, the developers are building suburban, milk toast, BORING buildings. There’s a building in sterile Redmond that looks almost identical to the one going in at the Ballroom site. Even in Redmond it’s a total yawn fest. They look cheap and cookie cutter. And that’s what I’m most mad about. It didn’t have to be that way.
This is going to ruin downtown’s vibe and cause more crowding and traffic than we already have. People love Fremont not for the huge housing complexes, but for the unique downtown. Big bummer that this is happening. Corporate greed at its finest
Disgusting! We do not need more overpriced, ugly crap with insufficient parking in a city with crap transit!
This is going to increase traffic and diminish the charming downtown vibe. Corporate greed wins again.
I have mixed feelings about all of this. We have a very weak historic preservation system in Seattle. The Funeral Parlor in particular could’ve been renovated as a community center with say 10 units of housing, reflecting, overall, something creative and innovative, WITHOUT sending so much material to the landfill! Additionally, of the 300+ new units coming, how many of those are actually affordable? And I mean truly affordable, not 80% of median, but 50% or less?
It’s adding 300 units which means that 300 units elsewhere won’t be bid up. This adds affordability by removing those renters willing to pay more from the rental pool
Our choices are: Pave land in Snohomish Valley, Nisqually, and other ex-urban locations or build density in Seattle. I’ve been in Ballard for over 30 years. The density here has downsides, but this is a city. It’s the right place to build. I arrived in Seattle in ’88. The idea that a city should freeze in place when I moved here doesn’t make any sense to me.
Yes to this!! Building density comes with growing pains, but they are necessary to avoid environmentally detrimental sprawl. Fremont is lovely, walkable, quickly accessible via bus to downtown and desirable. Parking for every unit in these buildings would only clog the streets and create unsafe road conditions for the hundreds of pedestrians moving in. Time to adopt public transit and the new rapid 40 bus improvements! More car-free neighbors in the vicinity means more foot traffic for local businesses!
Thanks for saying that! I see and hear people complaint about how much things have changed. But the city has never not been in some state of flux
Are the new units going to be multi-bedroom units that can support something like, idk, a family? Or are we just jamming in a ton of ‘luxury’ studio apartments? The need for density is obvious enough, but will these buildings support long-term residents and people who want to have families in the city?
I followed neighborhood density for a long time. The one thing these big buildings going up especially in Fremont (but really everywhere ) should be expected to do….more to contribute to public spaces and art, the artful history of Fremont seems to play no importance to the developer.s. More parking is just not gonna happen. But more public spaces and playful art connection to nature, would keep the vibe in the neighborhood. Should be required to make those spaces reflect local neighborhood. They are capturing much benefit ($) from locating in Fremont, let them contribute something back besides expensive housing units. How about some affordable art spaces, and someplace for general public to hang out. The Design Review boards are not responding to this.