By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The economic realities of life on lower Queen Anne Hill have caught up with Pat Kaufman, a community-minded guy who wears a buzz cut, works at the Seattle Center and owns a bicycle instead of a car.

Kaufman, who helped plant 200 street trees this spring, is looking for a place to live after the rent on his studio apartment overlooking Tower Books on Mercer Street shot up $130, to $625 a month.

"I'll probably go to shared housing and try to save some money," says the 28-year-old who hopes to buy a house someday.

Kaufman's situation is hardly unusual. About a dozen renters moved out of the Marqueen Apartments in the past month or so. In June, investors bought the 1918 brick building at the foot of Queen Anne Avenue North. They plan to restore its original charm and "make it more upscale," says Heath Carnes, operations manager for R.P. Management.

Instead of a "25-year-old (coffee) barista moving in, it may be a 25-year-old who works downtown for one of the banks," says Carnes.

As part of the upgrade, a new coffee bar run by Jack Kelly, a former owner of the nearby Uptown Espresso, will go into the Marqueen's northwest corner this fall.

Gentrification of lower Queen Anne, which until a few years ago came in fits and starts, is in full bloom.

A number of commercial retail and housing projects are in the works, including demolition of "The Blob," the free-form concrete shell near Queen Anne Avenue and Roy Street.

For years, The Blob seemed to cast an evil spell over every restaurateur who tried to make it into something respectable. Its Canadian owners plan to knock it down next spring and put up a mixed-use building with retail space on the first floor, topped by three floors of apartments or condos. (Update: The Blob was torn down in November 1997.)

Even the 74-acre Seattle Center is shaking the image created 35 years ago when the World's Fair shook up lower Queen Anne. Several electrifying projects are under construction, including Paul Allen's interactive music museum and Pacific Science Center's 400-seat IMAX theater with 3-D technology.

Even the base of the venerable Space Needle is getting an overdue facelift and a new entrance off Broad Street.

Working with the community, Center planners also are eyeing other long-range improvements, including the removal of walls and barriers along the northern campus.

The aim is to make the Center as open and inviting as it now is along Broad Street, which has a grand expanse of grass and sculpture. One idea for the north portion is to create a "theater district" to reflect its internationally recognized tenants, among them Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Intiman Theatre.

As part of the vision, Mercer Street would be narrowed for several blocks from four lanes to three. That would tame the "the Mercer Street racetrack" and provide room for broad sidewalks. Some 20,000 cars a day stream past the Center on Mercer Street.

The Center also has its eye on a block of land on the north side of Mercer between Second and Third avenues, owned by the Kreielsheimer Foundation and Diamond Parking. The block could support a new public plaza and office project.

Continued:

• Neighbors split on whether changes will be good or bad
• Upscale eateries invading bastion of old-style diners