Demolition crews are clearing a small commercial strip at 5435-5437 California SW in Morgan Junction to make way for new homes. The project will transform the block, replacing the familiar storefronts with a residential development.
What’s planned
In place of the low-slung business building, the project calls for 12 townhouses arranged in two rows of six. The site plan includes six off-street parking spaces along the alley, according to West Seattle Blog. That report also notes the parcel sold to a builder about three months ago for roughly $1.7 million, and that when the demolition was photographed, most of the work was focused at the back of the lot.
Shops displaced
The teardown wipes out a couple of small neighborhood retailers that once helped anchor the block. One storefront housed a Canna West Culture outpost, while Canna West’s main shop across the street is still operating, per Canna West Seattle. Independent perfumer Filigree & Shadow notes on its site that its West Seattle studio closed in 2025 as the maker prepared to move on.
Parking, transit and neighbors
The plan for six parking stalls serving a dozen homes has neighbors openly wondering how many more cars the street can realistically handle. Commenters in the project’s discussion thread have pointed out that the property sits directly on California Avenue’s RapidRide C corridor, a high-frequency bus route serving Morgan Junction, which can influence what level of on-site parking the city expects. West Seattle Blog has been tracking that local reaction, and the RapidRide C Line route map on Wikipedia shows the bus running along California Avenue and straight through Morgan Junction.
Where this fits in West Seattle’s boom
California Avenue has quietly become a laboratory for small-scale redevelopment, with several nearby lots either marketed as “permitted development” parcels or already converted into multiunit housing in recent years. Current listings and commercial property ads highlight the pressure to turn village-scale storefronts into townhomes and apartments, a pattern playing out up and down the corridor and reflected in what is on the market now.
What happens next
For now, demolition is the main show. Next up, the paper trail: building-permit and land-use filings will lay out how the townhouse project proceeds. Those documents are publicly searchable through the city’s SDCI Permit & Site History Research Tool, available from the City of Seattle. We’ll be watching permit activity and local reporting for what comes next on this changing stretch of California Avenue.
