The coronavirus put a hold on that plan. But the sentiment remains — Yesler Terrace is nearing its next stage as what remains of the original development is finally shuttered.

It's been seven years since developers broke ground on the new Yesler Terrace and many more since talk of replacement began. Construction has unfolded in a checkerboard pattern, as high-rise apartments have one by one taken the place of the historic rowhouses. The once-squat housing project is dense now, a mix of deeply subsidized and market-rate homes. And soon it will become even more dense as the leftovers of the 80-year-old low-rises are torn down.

There are years to go yet before the construction is complete, but residents and managers are nevertheless nearing a milestone: Of the roughly 500 households that called Yesler Terrace home before its transformation began, the last family was recently offered somewhere new to live.

When they've moved — by April 1 at the latest — the final deconstruction will begin. The northern row nearest Harborview will be the next to go, sometime in late March or early April. The structures to the west will follow. If all goes as planned, the last of the iconic rowhouses — symbols of racial and cultural integration perched at the summit of Seattle's old Skid Road — will be rubble by May.

As the "relocation coordinator" at the Seattle Housing Authority, Koehler carried out the central promise of the Yesler Terrace redevelopment — that any resident who wanted to could return and those who didn't would have somewhere else to go. He knows each family by name, and they in turn know his.

His primary job is nearing its end. Of the 493 households that were living in Yesler Terrace before construction began, 208 moved directly into the new buildings. An additional 52 left temporarily, then returned.

Except those final two households, the rest have gone elsewhere — into a different Seattle Housing Authority property or somewhere else with the help of a Section 8 voucher. Some have moved out of the state or even returned to their home countries. Each household was given 18 months’ notice to decide where to go.