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North Renton will soon be overwhelmed with cars and no parking on the west on Logan Ave, while to the east on Garden Ave they will have a four-story derelict, unusable parking garage
North Renton residents have been complaining for two years about the dangerous abandoned building complex on Park and 6th. Renton Council’s Public Safety chair issued a statement a couple months ago assuring residents that the buildings would soon be demolished, and hopefully bring an end to the neighborhood’s suffering.
What the Public Safety Chair didn’t say in her statement was that the four-story parking garage on the site is not part of the demolition plan, and will be left in place after the demolition is complete. The sky bridges that connected the garage to the office building will be demolished along with the buildings.
The demolition permit covers the building on Park and the building on 6th. The parking garage, which is the large square in the center, will remain, as shown in this traffic plan.
I’ve not seen or heard of any structural, plumbing, electrical, or fire permits to restore this garage to usability. If these permits are not applied for and issued, it will mean the garage will probably remain unusable, hazardous, and abandoned for years to come after the demolition is complete.
Per city code, a garage of this size is required to have fire protection, lighting, and ADA access. When it served the beautiful Boeing buildings, the ADA access was provided by wide, well-lit skybridge connections to the adjacent office buildings. Both buildings had multiple elevators. Without these office building connections, anyone parking on higher floors would need to walk down driving ramps that do not have the handrails needed for ADA access, or use stairwells that have had the electrical systems mined out of them by metal thieves.
The Electrical Service Entrance enclosure has been raided and destroyed
The fire protection plumbing has also been stolen from the garage, and the water needed for fire suppression has been disconnected after a flood occured in the garage as a result of metal thieves. Additionally, the electrical service entry has been vandalized, with all its metal torn out and used for scrap.
With the sky bridges removed, new railings will obviously be required to prevent falls. And the high floors of the garage will have lost significant fire escape pathways, so the emergency egress will need to be reevaluated in the new configuration.
To the best of my knowledge, none of these steps have been taken, so the garage will effectively need to be red-tagged after the demolition of the building, and secured with fencing in an effort to keep people from getting hurt in it.
In the shadows of the trees there are openings in the fence that lead into the garage
Unfortunately, fencing and signage has proven ineffective on this property to date, likely because the absentee owners have no local presence keeping the building looking occupied.
To make matters worse, many important issues will need to be resolved before any new buildings can replace the old, and provide replacement skybridge access. The Department of Ecology and the Duwamish Tribe have both raised significant issues that won’t get triggered by the demolition of the buildings, but will get triggered when a project requires digging for new foundations or utilities.
Many of us advocated that the City take actions to save the buildings back when they were still salvageable, and I think the regret will really set in during the next five to ten years as this garage sits abandoned and permits run into obstacles.
To mitigate the damage to North Renton, our Council and Mayor should be insisting now that the owners of this garage immediately apply for the permits necessary to bring the garage up to code, and then work with other local companies to put the garage into daily use. If it’s going to be in North Renton, it should be in service, not dangerously looming over a vacant site with broken fences and torn no-trespassing signs.
If the prospect of this abandoned garage concerns you. please contact your city council and let them know using the advice I have provided here.
The project description in the Environment Determination of nonsignificance makes it clear the parking garage will be retained. The Boeing employee fitness center in the garage will be demolished.
More of the City’s documents regarding this project can be found here.
Didnt someone hang their campaign sign up there who is running for office or something?
Yes, for about a day there was a garland of campaign signs adorning the dystopian Garden Ave building, but it was a mix of stolen signs from many different campaigns. It seemed to only last a day or two. I’ve heard that someone in City Hall had it removed pretty quickly.
The Public Safety Chair has worked really hard.
She’s made dozens of TikTok videos.