October 15, 2026

SRM scrapes Bellevue site, with cleanup to precede 376 units

Rendering by Runberg Architecture Group [enlarge]

Looking southeast at the future 12 Bellevue apartments.

Who, today, remembers Bella Cleaners in Bellevue? Or if that name doesn't register, how about Red Carpet Drycleaners, Arthur's Red Carpet Drycleaners or Arthur's Fine Dry Cleaners? At 102 Bellevue Way S.E., those businesses lasted from 1982 until 2020.

Bella is now gone, along with other structures on the corner of Main Street. Ascendent did the demo in recent weeks, and Farallon Consulting has an approved cleanup plan on file with the state Department of Ecology.

SRM Development owns the corner. Working with Runberg Architecture Group, it'll eventually build an approved midrise apartment project with about 376 units. That goes by 12 Bellevue Way S.E. Some locals still think of it as the former Jack in the Box and 7-Eleven corner.

SRM assembled the property during 2021-2022. When the DJC first reported the plan seven years ago, Ecology didn't then list the Bella site as being polluted. That changed during SRM's long planning period, when it evidently self-reported the pollution.

Ecology correspondence with SRM last month anticipates an NFA (determination of no further action), following what it calls expedited voluntary cleanup. Farallon has previously been monitoring the soil and groundwater.

Photo by Brian Miller [enlarge]

Last weekend, looking north, the mostly bare slab.

When the DJC visited the bare slab last weekend, excavators were parked for future use; there were also big sewer or drainage pipes, storage barrels and small portable office structures. SRM's signage is hung on the fences surrounding the tidy site.

Farallon's schedule — by no means binding — is two to three years of construction following the cleanup. SRM has two other nearby Bellevue projects under construction, and is poised to begin a third. (Those are to total around 616 units.) So it's quite busy for now.

There's no sign of a construction loan for 12 Bellevue, but the ownership LLC was reorganized this spring, when a nearly $4.5 million loan also came via Washington Trust Bank. That should cover the demo and cleanup costs.

As to the onset of construction for the roughly 530,678-square-foot project, which is also to have 438 parking stalls and 15,685 square feet of retail/commercial space, that could be next year. On the slope of Main, it'll present seven and eight stories to passersby.