Plaza at the south end

The southernmost end of the lot is home to a large public plaza below the upper-floor apartments. I'm not sure why Safeway didn't include this space in their store -- perhaps it's something to do with Seattle's convoluted zoning requirements that try to prohibit supermarket-sized stores (something I've never liked), or maybe having a store that was 400 feet wide (nearly the width of a typical Fred Meyer or Walmart Supercenter) but still only 40,000 square feet was a bridge too far for Safeway. (The actual store is roughly 35,000 square feet, including mezzanine space, which is tiny by modern supermarket standards but still more than double the size of the old one.) Only time will tell if this space becomes a true public plaza, or yet another space constantly patrolled by private security who will come along and kick you out if you spend more than a few minutes there.