'I Was Numb': Skyway Coffee Man Gets Permission For Coffee Shop

SEATTLE, WA - It might not sound like the biggest issue, but a small zoning change approved Monday by the King County Council will allow the unincorporated Skyway area to get its first sit-down coffee shop in years. The Council unanimously approved a zoning change to allow drive-thrus in Skyway's core business district. The move will allow drive-up espresso stand owner Nevzat Cankaya to move his business to a larger space and add seating for customers.

"I was numb," Cankaya said Tuesday in reaction to the vote. "It was one of the happiest moments of my life."

Skyway's main business district along Renton Avenue has withered over the past decade. Grocery stores, restaurants, and other commercial businesses have left, but Cankaya's espresso stand has been around since 1995.

In 2016, Cankaya bought a building across the street from his stand with the intention of opening a sit-down coffee shop, a longstanding dream of his. But a King County zoning rule that went into effect in the early 1990s deemed drive-thrus could not operate in Skyway. Since Cankaya has operated a drive-thru stand for 22 years, he needed to be able to serve his regular drive-up customers across the street to his new location - he needed to get that drive-thru rule changed.

King County Councilman Larry Gossett told Cankaya earlier in 2017 that getting an exception to the zoning rule would be an "uphill battle," Cankaya has told Patch. Skyway residents intent on helping Cankaya circulated a petition asking for Gossett to do anything in his power to change the rule.

At Monday's Council meeting, about 10 Skyway residents spoke, urging the Council to approve the zoning change. But there were many more who attended the meeting to support Cankaya.

Cankaya said the Council meeting was a "surreal experience." He waited for about two hours as people spoke about other issues, the Council welcomed guests from Cuba, voted on other issues. In the end, the support from the Skyway community for Cankaya's shop bowled him over.

"There's not one place to sit down and have a cup of coffee," said resident Ira Sacharoff, who noted that there are plenty of casinos and recreational marijuana shops in Skyway.

"We need a daytime watering hole, and by that I mean a coffee shop," resident Alex Perry said.

Gossett said before the vote Monday that it took "months of discussions" with the county's Department of Permitting and Environmental Review department to figure out how to make the zoning change. Gossett introduced an ordinance to change the zoning this past August, which was about a month after a heated meeting between Gossett and Skyway residents about the coffee shop.

Cankaya has said that he's targeting Summer 2018 to open his new shop if everything goes smoothly with finding contractors and getting permits for construction.

Image via King County Council