The parking lot across from Café Allegro is being transformed into Wesley Square, a mixed-use development that will house retail stores as well as rental housing, offices and parking. The project, at 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 42nd Street is currently under development and the date of completion has yet to be been determined.

The site is owned by the Wesley Foundation, which once housed female students in the Wesley House, which was demolished and replaced by a parking lot in the late 1960’s. About a month ago, the parking lot was dug up and construction of Wesley Square began.

“It’s a major project they’re working on. It looks very big,” said Adam Bailey, a UW junior who walks by the site often.

Café Allegro, which is in an alley next to the site, is in direct physical proximity to the noise and dust of the construction during its operating hours.

Michael VanderWerff, an Allegro employee during the past four years, describes the cafe as “just a chill out spot that’s turned into a construction zone.”

The project is being developed by Unico Properties, a real estate investment and operating company, whose headquarters are in Seattle.

Although personnel from Unico were not available for comment, its Web site claims that the project “will result in a unique and special place where residents and guests support local merchants and social services, benefiting the community and acting as a catalyst for positive change in the neighborhood.”

However, community members have different ideas about how the development will impact the area.

“They are taking out the parking lot and adding a six-story building that will have an effect on the businesses and the atmosphere,” said Eric Apoe, a UW locksmith who has organized live music at Café Allegro for the past five years. “It’s change, and we will have to adjust to it.”

Philip Thiel, a retired professor at the UW School of Architecture, spent 18 months trying to stop the project, working with the support of the University District Community Council, the Roosevelt Neighbors’ Alliance, the University Park Community Club, the Seattle Community Council Federation, Café Allegro and Magus Books, according to the Jan. 5, 2006, edition of Eat the State!, a local anti-authoritarian newspaper.

Thiel’s groups collected more than 2,500 petition signatures for an alternative plan, calling for an open plaza next to Café Allegro and a building half the size of the one Unico proposed, but to no avail, according to Eat the State!

Wesley Square will contain 39 units of housing on the top three floors, ground-level shops and two floors of office space, and 85 stalls of public parking, according to the Unico Web site.

“I haven’t really noticed it affecting business,” VanderWerff said, explaining that Allegro has many regular and loyal customers who will not be turned away by the construction.

In addition to being Seattle’s original espresso bar since 1975, Café Allegro was the first café to sell Starbucks blend coffee, Apoe said.

“It has historical significance, and a lot of different types of people come here,” he said. “It’s the social headquarters and the last bohemian element.”

Apoe has organized an annual music event in the former parking lot during the U-District Street Fair as a sort of pre-Folk Life event.

“We are trying to make sure that this area is preserved,” he said.