Slated to break ground next year, Little Saigon Landmark Project meant to anchor community

By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Virtual renderings of the Landmark. (Rendering provided by Mithun)

More than 14 years after its inception, the Little Saigon Landmark Project will finally become a reality next year, when crews break ground between South Jackson Street and 10th Avenue South.

Community organizations Friends of Little Sài Gòn (FLS) and Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) have been working on the development since 2012, when the landmark was but a concept. Both organizations will co-own the building, which represents a first of its kind in Little Saigon: a community center and commercial space beneath 70 family-oriented, affordable housing units, none of which is smaller than a one-bedroom. The building will be close to the Jackson Street streetcar and bus lines, and four or five blocks away from the Light Rail.

FLS Executive Director Quynh Pham said that the center is particularly important, because it’s the first building within Little Saigon meant specifically for the Vietnamese community. While the Vietnamese community does have the Vietnamese Cultural Center in West Seattle, it is not tremendously accessible, she said.

“The community region-wide is looking for a physical space to come and gather that is a lot more accessible and caters to different generations and programs,” Pham said. “It’s been a lifelong effort, something that the elders have been pushing me to do. To be able to realize it is really fulfilling for me. … It’s finally going to feel like we have a home and an anchor that’s tying things down, because I think still today—especially with all that the neighborhood has been going through—people feel like they are slowly losing their home here.”

The project is slated for completion in early 2028, and will cost a total of $63 million to build. Both FLS and SCIDpda have raised most of the needed funds for their respective pieces of the project. FLS will secure the last $1 million needed on its end through individual donations and grants.

The units, which will sit atop a commercial space and a community center, will be priced between 30%–50% area median income (AMI). More than half of those units are reserved for people making 30% AMI. This meets the needs of families in the neighborhood, whose median income is less than half that of the overall city’s.

Virtual renderings of the Landmark. (Rendering provided by Mithun)

The commercial center will house a mix of businesses, while the community center will serve as a hub for a variety of activities, including cooking classes and elder programs. The community center will also function as an incubator for Little Saigon’s many food businesses.

Affordable housing, said Jamie Lee, SCIDpda’s co-executive director, “is one of the tools that we use in order to preserve and promote and develop the CID,” alongside commercial activity on the ground floor that serves both building residents and the neighborhood as a whole. Nearly every single building SCIDpda owns or manages operates this way, she said.

“We believe that it’s truly important that not only do people have a place to live, but a community they can thrive in and one that they can access really closely,” Lee said. “We really do believe that—especially in the location that the CID is in and here in Little Saigon—having these mixed-use amenities is really important. It’s also really great in a commercial building to have housing up top, as it helps with foot traffic and just kind of overall livability and overall success of that commercial space.”

Lee said that SCIDpda and FLS were originally hoping to place the building near the Wing Luke Museum. Still, to finally complete the project is a massive achievement, Pham and Lee said—both for their respective organizations and overall partnership, and for the community, as a whole. 

“For SCIDpda, this is our first ground-up development within the boundaries of the CID since 2004,” Lee said. “This is our second property that we’ll own in Little Saigon … and then our first ground-up development in Little Saigon. … This project was started by people before Quynh [Pham] and I … and to be doing this with FLS is really great. I’m just so happy to have it actually finally happening. Quynh and I have been working on this together for 11 years at least.”

Pham said that the community is particularly excited for cooking classes—“I think that’s the number one thing that we’re all looking forward to, just this very food-centric space”—and that elders and youth alike are looking forward to communal and afterschool programs, respectively.

“This is major for us,” Pham continued. “It’s a big asset that we’re taking on and hopefully the long-term range of where our organization is headed and having a really big voice and stake in the neighborhood.”