Dubsea Coffee (get it – “Dub C,” as in W.C.?), an independent coffeehouse serving organic and direct trade coffees and teas, will open its doors at its location (9910 8th Ave SW) at Greenbridge at 7am on Saturday, Nov. 14th.

The café will be the first retail business to open at Greenbridge, the 96-acre master-planned community being developed by the King County Housing Authority.

“What better way to build on the vision of Greenbridge than to offer a warm, comfortable destination where people from all walks of life can share great coffee and conversation,” said Stephen Norman, executive director of the King County Housing Authority. “Dubsea Coffee will also provide much-needed jobs in this community.”

Dubsea Coffee is located on south side of the Greenbridge plaza in the newly constructed Salmon Creek apartment building and across the street from Nia Apartments, an 82-unit complex that houses seniors and people with disabilities. To celebrate, the first 250 customers will receive a free 12-ounce drink, courtesy of Synergy Construction, Inc., the company that built the Salmon Creek building.

The café is the brainchild of Sibelle Nguyen, who sees her shop as a place where civic interaction can take place. She hopes Dubsea Coffee will be a hub for coffee, art and inspiration at Greenbridge and in the White Center community.

“Being open and loving — and inspiring each other to be that way — is what I hope this space will achieve,” Nguyen said. “There’s so much going on in this community that I want Dubsea to be a catalyst for fostering connections and friendships. I want to offer a place that fills residents with a sense of pride.”

The space is a reflection of this sentiment. With its simple, clean lines, cerulean blue ceiling, celadon green concrete floor, scored oak bar, and tall window banks defining its perimeter, the interior of the coffee shop evokes an airy, natural vibe. It’s also consistent with the attributes of the award-winning Greenbridge community, which has been certified as Three-Star Built Green™ by the Master Builders of King and Snohomish Counties and features a number of creative approaches to environmental sustainability.

Dubsea Coffee will serve organic and direct trade (even more socially responsible than fair trade) Stumptown coffee, organic Rishi teas, hot chocolate and chai. A variety of baked goods from Little Rae’s Bakery, Macrina Bakery & Café, and High Five Pies will be featured as well as breakfast items including bagels, granola, and yogurt. Sandwiches and Boylan sodas will also be offered.

“Stumptown looks to source and roast the best quality coffee in a socially and environmentally responsible way,” said Luke Dirks, sales and wholesale account manager at Stumptown Coffee. “We’re delighted to provide our products to Dubsea Coffee, which embodies an enviable business model: It’s an approachable café where fabulous, high quality drinks will be served, and it’s a place that will create a lasting, uplifting impact in its local community.”

Beyond coffee and comestibles, the coffeehouse features gallery space for local artists. Dubsea Coffee will debut with “Fractured Parables” by Joerael Elliott, Dubsea’s art director, and plans to feature the work of about a dozen artists per year. Free wireless Internet will also be available.

Though she grew up in Edmonds, Wash., Nguyen has strong ties to the neighborhood. As a toddler, she lived for a brief time at Park Lake Homes, the now demolished former public housing community that Greenbridge has since replaced. As a young woman, Nguyen returned to work as an AmeriCorps volunteer at Neighborhood House at Park Lake Homes. Now a resident of White Center once again, she is eager to fulfill her dream of owning a coffee shop here.

Even the name Dubsea Coffee is a kind of homage to the neighborhood residents. At one time, White Center was considered by many outside the area to be an undesirable place to live. Those living in White Center often felt otherwise. To overcome its (unfair) negative reputation yet still identify with their neighborhood, residents took to calling their community “W” (Dub) “C” (Sea) – an affectionate nickname for White Center.

Nguyen is already making a difference in the community; she has hired a Greenbridge resident and a White Center resident as baristas-in-training.

Bryant Sim, the Greenbridge resident, is a 16-year-old Evergreen High School student who will work part-time at the café.

“Coffee is really interesting to me – and this job is really close to home, so I can walk to work,” Sim said. “This is also my first paid work experience. It’s a great opportunity because it will help prep me financially for college.”

Greenbridge residents are excited by the prospect of a coffee shop in their neighborhood, said Tim Locke, president of the Greenbridge Association.

“Dubsea Coffee is an ideal business for Greenbridge,” said Locke. “It will offer a fantastic product, local jobs, and a lively environment with art and music. It’s a perfect fit.”

Calendar of Events for Grand Opening Celebration on Saturday, Nov. 14th:

• 7am: Doors open. Any 12-ounce drink will be free to the first 250 customers, courtesy of Synergy Construction, Inc. The bottom of each cup will be numbered. Numbers will be drawn in a random raffle; winners receive a 1-pound bag of Stumptown coffee.
• Noon: Program begins with Laudan Espinoza and Sean Larson on Spanish guitar.
• 1:30pm: Program concludes. Music by DJ Jon Lemmon and DJ Murdoc commences.

Dubsea Coffee will be open from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and from 6 a.m. – 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

We like the joint already, just ‘cuz of the name “Dub-C“, which we’ve used for a long time.

Last week, the King County Housing Authority completed work on White Center’s new Nia Apartments, its first new public housing for seniors and disabled residents in 26 years.

One week later, it is fully leased.

The new 82-unit, four-story apartment complex, which is located in the Greenbridge Community in White Center, offers residents spacious, light-filled apartments with well-appointed kitchens. Each apartment home comes with a patio or deck. The property also features a comfortable community room with a fireplace, a computer room with Internet access, raised bed gardens and a full-sized greenhouse. The building is completely smoke-free.

Nia sits on Eighth Avenue Southwest, the main street of the Greenbridge community. Retail businesses are planned for the first floor. Across the street, the YWCA will open a new adult learning center and the King County Public Library will open a new branch library in November. One block away, the Puget Sound Educational Service District will break ground next month on a Head Start facility to serve the neighborhood’s many young children.

“While we’re thrilled that this beautiful new property has proven so appealing, what this really speaks to is the need for more affordable housing for seniors in King County,” said King County Housing Authority Executive Director Stephen Norman. “In the current market, seniors who rely solely on Social Security must pay 80 percent of their monthly income to rent an average apartment. Without an increase in housing for poor elders on fixed incomes, this is a prescription for homelessness.”

The average annual income of the tenants at Nia is $10,200.

Using a conservative estimate, Aging and Disability Services and local government agencies project the number of seniors living in poverty in King County will increase to 22,076 in 2016, up from 16,825 in 2006. Currently, public housing and Section 8 subsidies support almost one half of the seniors in King County with incomes less than the 2008 federal poverty threshold ($10,400 for a household of one; $14,000 for a household of two people). To provide subsidized housing for this same percentage of the program’s low-income elderly households in 2016 would require that 2,491 additional public housing units or Section 8 vouchers be provided over the next eight years. Far fewer units are actually in the pipeline.

“The astonishingly quick lease-up action at Nia affirms the growing need for affordable housing for seniors and persons with disabilities,” said Norman. “They will come, if only we can build it.”

KCHA administers a range of quality affordable rental and homeownership programs for residents of King County. The Authority serves more than 18,000 families, elderly and disabled households on a daily basis.