Part of what the U-District's Cafe Allegro became famous for may be literally uprooted. Unico Properties is looking to build a six-story office- and housing-complex that will block the view from Cafe Allegro.

Unico Properties is planning to start construction for the new building in late summer or early autumn, according to company representative Pat McCabe. The building will house retail businesses on the bottom floor, office space on the middle floors and residences at the top. The company hopes to repave the alley in front of Cafe Allegro to give it a "post alley" look, which they hope will attract more customers.

The UW is looking to rent space in the proposed building, something it wouldn't have been able to do had the lease lid not been lifted last November.

According to the minutes of the City of Seattle University of Washington Community Advisory Committee (CUCAC) meeting that took place in March 2003, the original reason for the removal of the lease lid was an attempt to "[bring] more people to the Ave. ...[removing the lease lid] can only help support the Ave. businesses."

The much debated lease lid policy had limited the amount of space the UW could lease in the U-District. Proponents of the policy believed it supported local businesses and kept the UW from taking over too much land off campus, while those who opposed the policy -- including some UW faculty and staff members -- argued that the UW should be entitled to lease as much space as it wanted in the U-District.

Members of the Greater University Chamber of Commerce said they also felt the UW has been a "good tenant" of the surrounding areas in comparison to other tenants.

In the middle of the controversy stands a small two-story cafe practically hidden in an alley. The cafe would be one of the first businesses directly affected by the lifting of the lease lid, as the proposed building will block its second-story view, legendary in the U-District.

Eric Larson, a UW research scientist in the Department of Family Medicine and frequent customer at Cafe Allegro, said he is among those who believe the lease lid should not have been lifted.

"[The lease lid seemed the] best way to govern [the] balance between ... office space and potential housing space," he said.

Although the U-District has strict guidelines governing the designs of new buildings, Matthew Fox, U-District co-chair of the CUCAC, said that many of the structures on Roosevelt Way Northeaststill ended up "too institutional-looking," leaving no protection for the preservation of the U-District's style and way of life.

In March 2003, the CUCAC made a motion to oppose the removal of the lease lid as proposed by the mayor. The motion failed.

But when the lease lid was officially lifted by the Seattle City Council on Nov. 17, developers gained incentive for building all over the U-District at the very prospect of having one of the richest, and most reliable, tenants rent from them: the UW.

Longtime U-District residents said they are devastated at this agreement because they fear for the neighborhood's authenticity.

Fethi Mecifi, a UW alumnus and 24-year patron of Cafe Allegro explained that if a large building were to be constructed on the corner of Northeast 42nd Street and 15th Avenue Northeast, it would stop being "so much of an Algerian hangout."

McCabe said the U-District, concerned with the decline of business in the Ave., was looking for something to help revitalize the area.

McCabe said Unico Properties came through with what it feel to be the best plan for the space. Unico Properties feels it is helping the area by working closely with the community. Unico Properties is trying to change the area just enough to bring more revenue to the areas around the Ave., but not so much as to change it so that it won't be recognizable to its customers, McCabe said.

"Having the [Cafe] Allegro survive is important to us," he said.

UW alumnus Ted Karanikolas, who has been a barista at Cafe Allegro for three years, said he felt that while a new building would be "unfortunate," it wouldn't drive away most of Cafe Allegro's regulars.

"It's prime real estate," he said.