April 30, 2015

Ivar's spends 20M clams to rehab Pier 54 restaurants

Photos by Benjamin Minnick [enlarge]

Including outdoor seating, the new restaurant will be able to seat 600 people.

As crews working on the seawall project get ready to take a break for the summer, shuttered waterfront businesses are poised to reopen, including Ivar's, which is finishing a $20 million remodel at Pier 54.

Jessica Murphy, the city's project manager for the Elliott Bay Seawall, said work along the central waterfront is about half finished and on schedule for completion in June 2016.

Mortenson/Manson is the general contractor for the seawall.

Crews have been jet grouting near Ivar's to stabilize the soil and reduce seismic risk.

Starting in July, 15 businesses will reopen and tourists will be able to visit them by walking over metal bridges that span the seawall work zone in about a half-dozen places.

One of those bridges will take people into Ivar's.

Ivar's President Bob Donegan said the plan is to reopen both restaurants — Ivar's Acres of Clams and the Fish Bar — July 1. Both venues have been gutted back to the studs and renovated. Acres of Clams is getting additional seating and a bigger kitchen.

The pier supporting them was rehabbed by Pacific Pile & Marine, which replaced 430 creosote-laden piles with 189 galvanized steel piles. During the work, the company found a snuff jar that was made before 1870, according to Donegan.

W.G. Clark Construction is doing the shell, core and restaurant work. Mithun and CB Anderson Architects are the designers.

Pacific Pile and Clark did the last remodel at Ivar's in 1985.

The new Ivar's will have an expanded entryway containing what Donegan calls “the tunnel of history.” Old pictures will line the walls, and there will be some surprises such as the word “Ivar's” written in lights on the ceiling.

The dining room ceiling has been opened up to follow the roofline of the building. An old sign for Galbraith-Bacon Co., the tenant in 1900, is being restored along the length of the space.

[enlarge]

Work along the central waterfront is about half finished and on schedule for completion in June 2016.

Opening up the building exposed the original turnbuckles, which structural engineer Dave Swanson at Reid Middleton said are part of a king post truss system that holds up the roof and walls of the pier.

Swanson estimated the system was installed in the 1920s and has something not commonly found in modern buildings: upset end tie rods, which have threads cut into the structural steel rods that are equal to or thicker than the rods themselves.

The new interior will have a nautical theme, and exposed Douglas fir beams and fir-lined ceiling. Crews used walnut shells instead of sand or steel shot to strip old paint off the fir.

Douglas fir was left untreated. Donegan said the wood will take on an orange hue, and then turn red.

The new banquet room will hold 114. Donegan said the old banquet space could only handle 40 people and Ivar's lost some business because of that.

Restaurant space will be extended to the end of the pier, in an area that previously housed Ivar's offices. Space at the end of the pier will have 110 outdoor seats plus 80 more that are under cover.

Donegan said many guests requested outside dining.

Including the outdoor seating, the new restaurant will be able to seat 600 people, about 150 more than the old configuration. The adjacent Fish Bar will keep its 130 seats.

Donegan said the kitchen is doubling in size and getting all new equipment, including energy-efficient hoods with variable air flow fans.

Crews working on the renovation are using barges to move materials in and debris out. Donegan said using barges avoids disturbing seawall workers.

Donegan said Ivar's expects its best summer since the recession. Prices will rise about 21 percent to account for increased expenses, mostly the $15 minimum wage, but no tipping will be allowed.

Donegan said Ivar's is funding all of the renovation cost.

The city paid $15 million to the 15 businesses that were closed. Donegan said Ivar's share was used to pay workers and cover other costs not related to the renovation.

Donegan said they plan to hire 150 people when the restaurants reopen, including 80 cooks.