Although Charlie Conner’s seven-story mixed use complex at the Alaska Junction includes tearing down the building that has been home to RockSport Bar & Grill for 16 years, owners Darren Ahlf, Dan Beeman, and a silent, third partner extended their lease, and will stay at least until the year's end and then may rent month to month. Ahlf worked at Salty's "for years" he said, prior to RockSport. Beeman lives in West Seattle.

Ahlf told the West Seattle Herald he wants the public to know RockSport will remain open through 2011, and he and the other two owners are actively looking to buy property for a new location in or near the Alaska Junction. He said that a rumor has been spreading quickly that RockSport is closing soon, which is untrue, and wants to set the record straight.

"Believe me. I get asked every day from guests, ''Are you closing? Are you closing?' and It would be great to squash the rumor mill," said Ahlf with a bit of frustration in his voice.

"If you come right now you'll see that we're actually repainting. We recovered a bunch of our booths, updated our plasma TV and sound system, and we're redoing our lighting. We're looking at this as trying to show people that we're not going anywhere. We are continuing to reinvest here. We're not leaving."

The timing's kind of good to buy our own place," he added. "With the economy, there is property out there. We've got some pokers in the fire."

"This was a bank, Ahlf reminisced. "It took us nine months to demo, and we basically did all our work ourselves, the plumbing, electric, building the place out. We were the new kids on the block, We saw the community grow up around us. There was Poggie (Tavern) and us. That was about it. We made a t-shirt that says, 'We put the function in Junction'."

You can see our recent article on the Conner project here: