After a few years of rest there is a familiar scene rising above Broadway’s Capitol Hill Station. A massive construction crane has again risen above the land between John and Denny along Broadway.

The busy giant being put to use by lead contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis is a sign of new progress. After a June ribbon cutting — and a true groundbreaking in July — contractor crews have set in on creating an expanse of housing, retail and commercial space, community spaces, and a new plaza about the bustling subterranean station.

Sound Transit opened the U-Link extension and the new station below Broadway in March 2016. In August 2016, Sound Transit signed a 99-year lease with Gerding Edlen to develop the properties it had acquired surrounding the station. The Portland-based developer is leading the project with designs from Hewitt and Schemata Workshop. Berger Partnership is landscape architect for the entire site and part of the design super team working on the Capitol Hill Station development project. Capitol Hill Housing will develop and operate the affordable housing component of the projects. CHS reported here on the 20 years of community engagement it took to make this development a reality.

When complete, the development will span four buildings around Capitol Hill Station. It’s planned to house 428 residential units – 41% of which (176 units) will be designated affordable housing. There will be 31,150 square feet of residential space, 216 parking stalls for cars, and 254 parking stalls for bikes. Designs for the project were finalized in October 2017.

The development’s retail component, meanwhile, has been planned to include a grocer and a daycare facility. CHS reported in March that H Mart appears to be lined up to fill the key retail component of the project.

Crane going up on a soggy Sunday. pic.twitter.com/ZhOKy67JUn — CapHillTOD (@CapHillTOD) December 16, 2018

Gerding Edlen expects the construction to take about 21 months after beginning this summer with the removal a massive amount of dirt from the site and shoring up the pits. Below-grade structural work followed with above-grade work coming next. CHS reported here on how to keep track of construction updates during the two years of work the development is expected to require.

Meanwhile, work is also underway to design the AIDS Memorial Pathway project that will connect the Capitol Hill Station development to Cal Anderson Park. The City of Seattle has also been working on a project creating safer crossings and street improvements around the site.

The heavy machinery now thrusting into the Broadway skyline follows the August 2014 exit of the previous 250-foot-armed crane at the corner used to build the $110 million subway station during a three and a half-year tour of duty. Capitol Hill Station opened for service in March 2016. With luck, the housing and commercial components will be ready to open sometime in late 2020.

UPDATE: They’re multiplying! Thanks to reader James for the picture.

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