Crews are finishing renovations on a 7,000-square-foot complex on Sixth Avenue in downtown Anchorage that will house a new restaurant, bar, coffee shop and concert venue.
The Williwaw, as it will be called, will be in the building where the Covenant House used to be across from Town Square Park.
The three-story building, built in the 1950s, was the site of the city's first YMCA and held Covenant House until 2013, when the facility for homeless youths was relocated. Williwaw will open in June, according to project partners Pfeffer Development, Salamatof Native Association?, Pentlarge Law Group and Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse.
There will be a 400-person eatery and a SteamDot coffee shop on the first floor. The restaurant will be operated by Humpy's, whose owners also run Subzero and Flattop Pizza across the street.
There will be a variety of food options at the Williwaw.
"SteamDot will be carrying breakfast items because they open really early," said Humpy's manager Jessica Maillous. "And the other restaurant is going to make locally grown and fresh products. It will be fresh food grown by friends and neighbors."
A large stage on the ground floor will entice national music acts to downtown Anchorage, according to developers.
"We can really branch out and book things we would never do at Humpy's, like big national acts and names you have heard on the radio or seen on YouTube and Facebook," said Susynn Snyder, Humpy's marketing and sales director. "We are finally getting to the point where the agents are contacting us, instead of us having to contact them."
Snyder said acts would range from reggae to country to electronic dance music. Last summer, Humpy's brought up national indie acts Capital Cities and Grouplove and will bring up '90s stars Blues Traveler this summer for a revival of the "Blues on the Green" concert series.
Blues Central, a former iconic Anchorage nightspot for rhythm and blues, will be "re-imagined" on the building's second floor. The bar was in Midtown Anchorage before it closed in February 2014. Humpy's bought the liquor license and rights to the name. It plans to continue offering Blues Central as a venue for local and national blues acts. Unlike the notoriously dingy old location, the new Blues Central will be more upscale, patterned after a Prohibition-era speakeasy.
Another, smaller bar and grill is planned for the building's rooftop patio, according to Snyder.
The idea to buy a former youth shelter and turn it into the Williwaw was born of financial serendipity, Snyder said.
Pfeffer and Pentlarge shared an interest in possibly developing the property. The two companies shared a mutual friend who noticed Humpy's was also interested in the building. After looking at similar developments in Tennessee, Washington and Oregon, the three companies decided to work together on the Williwaw project.
"It's one of those Anchorage kind of stories, where everybody knows everybody," Snyder said.