Buyers Have Checkbooks Ready, But Sunset Hotel Future is Uncertain Street Closure Devastates Local Businesses

By Tom Herriman

Jim Jones, owner of the fire-gutted Sunset Hotel, meets with Seattle Fire Department Battalion Chief Bill Rice.

The 30 people living in the hotel at the time of the fire five weeks ago were plumbers, electricians, fishermen, nurses, restaurant staff and a host of other occupations, all needing an inexpensive, safe, clean place to live. Now they're doubled up with friends or relatives, or renting motel rooms out on SR 99, far from their jobs and the quaint charms of Ballard Avenue.

But forces are at work today that could bring the old hotel up from the ashes and make it once again a reasonably priced place to live and restore it as a gateway to the Ballard Avenue Historic District.

While Jones is looking around for another site for his meat business, Art Olsen, owner of Olsen's furniture, the Sunset's next door neighbor, has expressed an interest in buying the building. And so has Historic Seattle, a public development authority that uses public and private funds to rescue and restore historically valuable buildings.

John Chaney, Historic Seattle executive director, said if they are able to acquire the building, they would preserve the remaining original facade and restore the exterior with historical integrity.

Chaney said Historic Seattle's plans include 30 studio apartments with a mix of income-restricted and market rate housing. But Chaney believes because the units would be so small, even the market rate units would be relatively low priced. The ground floor would be retail stores.

No matter who buys the property, the building will either have to be restored, or replaced with a new building that reflects the historical character of the Ballard Avenue Historic District, a quiet, tree-lined commercial street with a mixture of boutiques, machine shops, ship brokers and taverns. Beth Miller, executive director of the Ballard Avenue Historic Preservation Commission, said the law provides the Commission with the clout to sign off on any permits for demolition or construction, and she wants to make sure the historic character of the hotel is preserved.

Right after the fire, Jones ordered a partial demolition of the upper walls. They were taken down brick be brick. The bricks are in big containers lined up in front of the store on 22nd Avenue, which has been closed to traffic since the fire.

The closure of 22nd Avenue has devastated other businesses in the district.

Valdi Bjornason, owner of Valdi's Ballard Bistro, said, "22nd is the only left turn off of Market to get into the historic district. With the street closed, people just get lost and give up in frustration. In March we had our best month since we opened, but April was our worst because of the closing of 22nd."

Rob Mattson of the Ballard Neighborhood Service Center says the street won't open until someone owns the building and can put in the money to either shore up or tear down the south wall.

Mattson said that the City is providing a grant to put up some helpful and attractive detour signs to help people find their way around.

Jones Family and Sunset Hotel go Back to 1945

Jim and Gail Jones are the third generation of Joneses to operate the family butcher shop business which was started by Jim's grandfather John in Chicago in 1898, right after getting off the boat from Norway.

John Jones told his children and grandchildren there were so many other Johnsons and Johansons in the line when he came through U.S. Immigration, he decided to change his name to something distinctive. So he made it Jones.

Grandfather John came to Seattle in 1903 and founded a business and a family. John's sons, Bill, Kenneth, Harold and Bob all worked in the butcher shop. Their sister Lillian became the bookkeeper. The Jones store was once on Broadway, then on Market Street and 20th Avenue in Ballard and in 1945 moved to the Sunset Hotel building on 22nd Avenue and Ballard Avenue. Two years later Jim was born and by the time he was 12, he too was working in the family business. Every Saturday morning he had to slice 20 lb. slabs of bacon and sweep out the shop.

Jim's dad died last year, but Jim has been running the business for several years now with the help of his wife Gail and his uncle Bob, one of the noted singers in the family.

Jones Bros. has been a well known provisioner of the Ballard fishing fleet and other ships. Jones says fishing boats and home freezers are their biggest business.

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