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Opposition forms to project near Pike Place Market

SEATTLE — A city design review board was set to discuss a hotel project planned across the street from Pike Place Market Tuesday evening, which is opposed by historic preservationists and neighbors.

City officials say the Hahn building at First and Pike was built in 1910, and developers have applied to tear it down and replace it with a 14-story building containing a hotel, five apartment units and ground floor retail.

In comments filed with the city, residents in the neighboring Newmark Tower Condos have raised a number of objections, including blocked views and no parking planned for the new building.

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They've also started a campaign called Save the Market Entrance, which emphasizes how the proposed building would be out of scale and out of character with other buildings at the intersection of First and Pike.

"We call it the four corners entrance to the market and the scale and symmetry is going to be destroyed forever if a 14-story hotel goes in right at the entrance to the market," said Dan Merkle, a leader in the group and a resident of the Newmark.

The campaign includes an online petition which has more than 4,500 supporters.

The Hahn building is not a designated landmark.

It holds a coffee shop, T-shirt shop and the Green Tortoise Hostel, where musician Amber Hayes stayed when she first visited Seattle.

"There's people like me that don't have the money to stay in these super swanky high-rise hotels," Hayes said.

Developers declined to be interviewed, but sent a statement saying the project "will complement the character of the neighborhood as well as providing public amenity space."

City officials said the project is in the early review stages.