After months of speculation, a manager at the QFC on 24th Avenue Northwest has confirmed the grocery store will close on Dec. 1 while an eight-story mixed-use apartment building is built there.

The existing QFC at 2237 N.W. 58th St. will be torn down and reopened at the ground floor level of the new development. Six stories of apartments will be built above the grocery store.

The News-Tribune reported in January the store would close and construction would begin by March on a 268- unit, mixed-use apartment building. Since then, the project has been on hold and representatives for the grocery chain and the developer, Security Properties, would say little more than it was still going forward.

Contacted in his office Friday, John Marasco, managing director of development for Security Properties, said he could not yet release any information about why the project has been delayed nearly a year.

Due to unfinished negotiations between investors and QFC, he said he was restricted from any public explanation. Also, he said, the developers are in talks with another investor and are waiting for details to be worked out.

"It's a great project and we're just at the finish line," Marasco said.

Marasco said an official notification would be released to the public probably this week.

Security Properties was contacted several times this summer for an update on the project and construction timeline. Each time representatives said something else was holding up the project.

First securing building permits from the city was taking longer than expected. Next was trouble firming contract negotiations with a general contractor.

Marasco also said the developers were waiting for QFC corporate officials to decide when they would close the Ballard store and notify and make arrangement for the employees.

The store's 60 employees will work in other Seattle locations for the duration of the project. The goal is to move most of them to neighboring stores in Crown Hill and Wallingford, said Kristin Maas, a QFC spokeswoman.

"They'll just move up the street a little bit," said Maas.

Maas said she could not offer any details about the delay of the project.

"We're just excited to be moving forward," she said.

There are some theories as to the delay. Ballard and other parts of Seattle has been experiencing major residential development and it might not make sense to open new units in an area that is abundant with new condominiums for sale.

Metropole and NoMa condominiums on 57th and 24th across the street from the QFC, and a new residential building slated for the corner of 58th will bring more than 400 new housing units and thousands of square feet in commercial space. There are several more mixed-use developments under construction or planned around Ballard.

Some developers have had a hard time securing contractors and construction workers who, with all the new commercial and residential development, can pick and choose projects and go for higher bids.

A Wallingford QFC and condominium project was halted in June due to higher than expected construction costs, leading some to think the same problem had stopped construction here.

According to some developers, it's tough to make a new apartment project pencil out, given the escalating cost of land and construction. This gives rise to some speculation that the units above QFC could be more high-end rentals.

Whether or not the QFC workers will be offered their jobs back in Ballard is not yet known, Maas said. The store is scheduled to reopen at the end of 2009.

It will be double its current size with a total footprint of little more than 45,000 square feet and feature a bistro, a gourmet cheese kiosk and a wine steward on staff.

QFC is a division of Kroger, one of the nation's largest grocery retailers. There are 19 QFC stores in Seattle and three in the Ballard/Crown Hill area.

The new building will have 268 apartments; about half will be one-bedroom units and one-quarter of the apartments will be studios, according to early design plans. There will also be and 15 town homes and some two-bedroom units.

The entire project is expected to last about 18 months after groundbreaking, but it is possible QFC could move back in before the residential units are completed, Jeanne Muir, a publicist representing Security Properties, said in January.

Muir could not be reached for comment last week.

About 450 residential and commercial parking spaces will be located underground, as well as trash compactors and all grocery related deliveries. Commercial traffic will enter on the south side of the building and residential on the north.

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