Where do you buy a carton of milk near 23rd and Jackson this November? Where do you pick up a prescription? A year ago both answers were at the corner. Now neither is, and the most useful thing to know about the corner is how far the errands have moved.
Since spring, 23rd and Jackson has gained its places to gather and lost its places to shop. The coffee is back, the art walk is on the calendar and a train stops a few blocks away. The grocery and pharmacy are gone, and the ideas floated for their spaces so far are hopes, not leases. For anyone who lives within walking distance, the weekly routine now runs north along 23rd and west on the train, while the corner itself is filling back up as a place to meet.
The building with the music note over its door is open again
Coffee TAB moved into the former Starbucks space at 2300 S Jackson St in September. Seattle magazine noted that the building had been empty for four years after Starbucks closed it in 2022. Axios Seattle reported hours of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
This is a nonprofit cafe, and its menu is the least unusual thing about it. Coffee TAB trains young people who have faced barriers to employment as barista apprentices. Each apprenticeship lasts eight to 12 weeks, and 25 apprentices have completed the program since 2023, according to Seattle magazine. It's the nonprofit's third cafe. Vulcan Real Estate owns the building and the shopping center around it.
At the opening, State Sen. Rebecca Saldaña described what the space is for, as reported by Capitol Hill Seattle Blog:
"Because 23rd and Jackson is the heart of the Central District. It's the heart of our community, and this place has been empty for way too long. Our young people and our elders need a place to hang out, and the coffee is really delicious."
She was describing a place to sit and spend time, and that is what the corner got back this fall.
What closed, and where those errands went
The Amazon Fresh in the Jackson Apartments closed in February, and the Walgreens across the street closed at noon on May 19. South Seattle Emerald reported that the Walgreens had been open for nearly 30 years and that its pharmacy was the last one left in the Central District. The grocery itself had been a replacement. Amazon Fresh opened in 2021 in Vulcan's new Jackson Apartments, built on the former Red Apple grocery site. The building has more than 500 apartments and a 25,000-square-foot main retail space. Vulcan sold the apartment project to Timberlane Partners in a $171 million deal at the start of 2026.
The table below shows where each errand goes now.
| Errand | Where it went | Address | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full grocery run | Safeway | 2201 E Madison St | Has a pharmacy |
| Full grocery run | PCC Community Markets, Central District | 2230 E Union St | |
| Full grocery run | PCC Community Markets, Madison Valley | 2925 E Madison St, Suite B | Opened Oct. 14; open 6 a.m.–11 p.m. daily |
| Prescriptions | Walgreens | 4412 Rainier Ave S | Where the Jackson store's prescriptions were sent |
| Prescriptions | Quynh's Pharmacy | Little Saigon | Independent pharmacy |
| Specialty and pantry staples | Uwajimaya | 600 5th Ave S | Near International District/Chinatown Station |
In May, the Emerald also listed the Grocery Outlet at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and East Union Street among the nearest grocery options.
Several of those stores are farther than they look on a map. The Emerald described the Rainier Avenue South Walgreens in Columbia City as nearly 3 miles from the Jackson store. When the Jackson store closed, Walgreens offered its former customers free prescription delivery for 90 days. Counted from the May 19 closing, that window ran out in mid-August, so anyone who started using it should have a new setup by now.
Some businesses have stayed. In May, the Emerald listed AutoZone, Simply Soulful Cafe and Chase Bank as still operating at the intersection. Simply Soulful's site lists hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday. It's closed Mondays.
The routes that do the carrying now
The new transit service this year happens to follow the routes those errands now take. Judkins Park Station opened on Saturday, March 28, with the 2 Line across Lake Washington. The station has entrances at 23rd Avenue South and at Rainier Avenue South. The same day, King County Metro moved Route 8 onto 23rd Avenue South between East Yesler Way and South Massachusetts Street to connect it directly to the station. Metro's update on August 29 added more frequent Route 8 service.
Together, those changes give the corner three errand routes it didn't have a year ago.
- North on the 8 for groceries. Route 8 now runs along 23rd past the station, which matters when the nearest full grocery stores are on Madison and Union.
- West on the 2 Line for Uwajimaya and Little Saigon. International District/Chinatown is the next stop from Judkins Park. Sound Transit's maintenance notices plan bus bridges for that exact segment. Uwajimaya and Quynh's Pharmacy are both in that part of the city.
- Walking to the Rainier entrance. SDOT installed raised crosswalks at three I-90 ramps on Rainier Avenue South and turned on rapid-flashing pedestrian beacons near the station.
Sound Transit's October 2026 schedule for the 2 Line lists weekday trains about every 8 minutes from 5 to 9 a.m. and from 3 to 7 p.m., and about every 10 minutes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. One station elevator, Elevator 3, has been out of service since Oct. 16 until further notice, and riders are directed to the elevator next to it. Sound Transit's service alerts page lists late-night closures before you count on a late train home with groceries.
What's on paper for the empty storefronts
In January, Amazon said some closed Fresh and Go stores could become Whole Foods, but it hasn't said which ones. That same month, Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth said she hoped to bring a Trader Joe's to the space. That was a goal, not a lease. In September, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog still described the former grocery and the former Walgreens as shuttered.
The city has two tools that could matter here, and neither is aimed at this corner yet. In 2025, Seattle banned "negative use restrictions," the lease clauses that can stop another grocery or pharmacy from moving into a building a chain has left. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported that it wasn't clear whether that rule applied to the Amazon store leases.
Then on Sept. 20, Mayor Katie Wilson's office announced $1.7 million in support for neighborhood grocery stores. The plan has three parts:
- An Independent Grocers Alliance study of grocery conditions in eight Seattle neighborhoods, which haven't been named, to build a strategy for attracting grocers
- One year of consulting plus capital funding for 10 independently owned grocers, with priority for legacy markets
- Funding for security and design upgrades at stores
The city pointed to a pilot with Lam's Seafood Asian Market to reopen a Rainier Valley grocery site that had been vacant for eight years. The target neighborhoods and grant rules will be finalized "in the coming months," Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported. Until those lists are public, there is no way to tell whether 23rd and Jackson will be on them.
The corner's calendar through December
The events on the corner's calendar this fall are all about gathering. They mostly fill the evening and weekend hours that the cafe's 3 p.m. closing leaves open:
- Friday, Nov. 6, 6 to 9 p.m.: The Historic Central Area Arts & Cultural District's Central District Art Walk, free, self-guided and all ages.
- Sunday, Nov. 22, noon to 3 p.m.: The Northwest African American Museum's Jimi Hendrix Celebration at 2300 S Massachusetts St, with live music, food, a craft station and a raffle.
- Friday, Dec. 4, 6 to 9 p.m.: The December Central District Art Walk, also free and all ages.
On Nov. 22, for example, you could get coffee at Coffee TAB before it closes at 3 p.m. and then go to the museum for the Hendrix celebration. A full grocery run still means a ride on Route 8 or the 2 Line.
If you own near 23rd and Jackson, a lot changed around you this year: a light rail station, a reopened cafe and two large storefronts still empty. If you want to know how those changes show up in your home's value, Cedar to Sound Homes can put together a free home valuation that looks at what's actually happening on these blocks.
