The number of retail businesses in greater downtown Seattle has shrunk, says a new study from the Downtown Seattle Association. Eric Pyrne reports:
The store count fell from 1,010 in 2004 to 901 in 2009, association President Kate Joncas told an audience of more than 900 at the group’s annual “State of Downtown” economic forum Thursday.
“The drop in retail downtown is not dramatic enough that we are calling it a crisis yet,” Joncas said in an interview later. “But we need to pay attention.”
Last year alone the number of retail stores in greater downtown, which stretches from South Lake Union to Capitol Hill to Sodo, fell 2.7 percent, according to statistics compiled by the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA).
In the retail core — downtown’s heart — the drop topped 10 percent for the year.
Joncas attributed the declines, in part, to store consolidations by national chains and increased competition from the suburbs. National and international retailers “are choosing Bellevue first, not us,” she told the forum.
New developments in Bellevue, like the Bravern and Lincoln Square, are the kinds of projects folks like Joncas are concerned about. When Neiman Marcus opened their first store in the area, it was in Bellevue at the Bravern, and not in downtown Seattle. For some, the embarrassment of losing to a company like this to Bellevue will bring calls for another Pacific Place-type development, the folks who concern themselves with the health of downtown businesses could go another direction.
Why not encourage small retail businesses? It’s going to get harder and harder to compete with places like Bellevue for high-end retail, so a shift in strategy is worth considering. Instead of courting large national brands, let’s fill that empty 10 percent with new small businesses. With Seattle’s ethos of “buying local,” it is a strategy we’re already adopting—particularly in neighborhoods like Capitol Hill. Our downtown shopping core should support this, too.
For folks who live downtown, this will have an added benefit. It will make a downtown look a bit more like a neighborhood. Small scale retail will put eyes on the street at a time when there is real concern over safety. This kind of change is going to be tough to make, but while our economy is in the tank, now is the time to try something different.
The reason why people on Capitol Hill buy local is because people that are into that are more likely to move or live there. There are plenty of people who shop downtown who just want big name brands. I don’t think that shifting to smaller stores will save downtown retail. Does it need to be saved anyway?
Also Bellevue sucks for shopping in general because it is so spread out. Huge wide roads make for a shitty unwalkable city and its getting worse.
I just don’t see why this is a bad thing.
When I buy my groceries in the U Dist or Fremont or Ballard and get my gas in Fremont and my clothes in other parts of Seattle it still has the same revenue impact for Seattle.
It just doesn’t go to the “stakeholders” who live outside of Seattle and think we are their serfs.
So why is that bad?
When I buy my pizza at K’s Chicago Pizza in Fremont and my chocolate at Theo’s Chocolate Factory it’s still revenue.
This is really worrying, and not just downtown. I’ll bet retail is way off all over; in fact, I’ll bet the number of stores in Bellevue is down, even with Bravern. I’ll also bet the neighborhoods are hit almost as hard as downtown is.
Seattle does not by any stretch of the imagination have an “ethos of buying local”. We like to pay lip service to this not-very-bright idea, but the fact is, we are arguably the most trade-dependent city in the US, and always have been. There’s a lot of new craft retailing going on, but it’s a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the stuff people actually need and buy — almost none of which is produced locally, even in small retail businesses.
And the kinds of businesses that make a neighborhood — dry cleaners, hardware stores, specialty groceries (not fancy ones, just specialty, like butchers, bakers, and produce stands) are precisely the kinds of businesses that are disappearing rapidly. They’re also the kind that are inappropriate for downtowns, but belong in neighborhoods. The downtown core is not a neighborhood (the fringes are).
Kemper Freeman doesn’t want a “walkable” city. The Bravern, Lincoln Square, and Bellevue Square are all designed with the mindset that you show up in your LS400 and park in the garage, then wander in the confines of the development.
Also, retailers are going to go where the money is. Clearly there are enough affluent folks in Bellevue, Medina, and Redmond who are not interested in crossing the bridge to shop downtown that said retailers are willing to pay the almost certainly higher rents to set up shop. I’m certainly no apologist for its manufactured artifice, but find it funny that Bellevue has snatched the “viable downtown” model right out from under Seattle’s nose over the last 15 years. I don’t think “courting new small businesses” is going to do anything at all to change this. Name a major city with a sizable downtown retail core that doesn’t rely on regional and national chains and I might change my opinion.
Yeah, I’ve never had the sense that the Downtown Seattle Association has ever been too concerned with small business. I could be wrong about that – feel free to correct me if I am – but as a merchant that was always my sense.
“When Nieman Marcus opened their first store in the area, it was in the Bravern and not in downtown Seattle”
So, that Nieman Marcus store that was in Westlake Center from 1996-2002 was just a figment in our imaginations?
“I’ll bet the number of stores in Bellevue is down, even with Bravern.”
Good point, Fnarf. I had that same thought after finishing my post. Other parts of Bellevue, i.e. Factoria and Overlake, sure don’t seem to be thriving so much as hanging on.
Well, Seattle has a fucking Goodwill on every corner stuffed with upper middle class, guilty white liberals.
@6, technically that wasn’t a “complete” Neiman Marcus. It was a gallery store that mostly sold jewelry and small furniture goods.
I hear the zombies that roam the parking garages at the Bravern tend to steal stuff from your car too.
Ooops…the Westlake Center Nieman Marcus was from 1999 to 2002 (not 1996 to 2002 as I’d posted earlier.)
And the phrase is “figment of” not “figment in” our imaginations…
(Pays to be accurate when you’re being snarky about someone else’s error. Point taken.)
Hey Will (Kelley-Kamp, not the asshat who clearly has far too much time on his hands), it’s Eric Pryne, not Pyrne.
That said, what do you think additional small retail businesses will offer the downtown core that doesn’t exist already, and can sustain itself? There are only so many Seattleites who care enough about supporting local business to patronize these places, should making that decision mean making several stops instead of one (for example, clothing and housewares that you could find easily with one stop at Macy’s). And it does seem that we have plenty of high-end clothiers and specialty shops downtown already, and if those are closing now, that might be an indication that the market is saturated. Are there enough residents downtown to make small retailers really viable for the long term?
Downtown retail rents are astronomical. Most small businesses can’t touch them.
It works in Ballard — that is, when a-hole landlords don’t decide to raise the rent to $5000 for a small chai shop.
Kemper Freeman’s developments have done more to make downtown Bellevue a walkable community than anyone. Have you seen Bellevue Way’s sidewalks on a Friday or Saturday night? They are PACKED with people. This has happened because Kemper Freeman has been developing street front retail for the last 10 years along Bellevue Way, his goal is to make Bellevue Way the best shopping street in the NW, comparable to streets like Michigan Avenue, Robson Street, and Newberry Street. It’s slowly happening. Retail is the catalyst for all great 24 hr cities. Retail is what makes people want to live there, work there and visit there. Seattle better not forget this.
Does “retail” include cupcake shops and hot dog joints?
@15, Robson Street? Newbury Street? Michigan Avenue? HA HA HA HA HA HA! Have you ever walked up and down any of those streets? They resemble Bellevue Way in the same sense that Herve Villechaize resembles Johnny Depp — i.e., not at all. Bellevue Way is still almost entirely inward-facing (into the mall) or fronted with vast surface parking lots. There’s nothing even remotely resembles Robson’s funky vibe, Newbury’s range from Brahmin jewels and furs at the top to the grit at the bottom, or the Magnificent Mile (which shits all over its closest Bellevue equivalent, the mall — repeat, mall — at the Bravern, which is about 1/1000th as significant. And which is not on Bellevue Way.
It’s not just that Bellevue Way isn’t good enough or dense enough with shops to match up to those streets; it’s an entirely different kind of place. Bellevue Way has NO STYLE. It is end-to-end designed and laid out by retail managers with a mall sensibility, who regard even the vaguest hint of cool as something to be stamped out, not encouraged. Is there ANYTHING on that street that’s not a chain? Is there anything on that street that can’t also be found on Southcenter Parkway? Is there anything on that street that says “Bellevue is a place in the Northwest; we are not in Arizona or North Carolina or Minnesota”?
No.
You’re going to have to do better than a strip mall with a Sleep Country USA or a mall fronted by Cheesecake Factory to move into the big leagues.
Robson Street looks nothing like Bellevue.
Bellevue resembles Hasting Street in the dodgy 15 block section of Vancouver BC that scares people. Even in the daytime.
YOUR URB IS DEAD!
@18, no it doesn’t. Not even remotely. It resembles Hastings even less than it resembles Michigan. Not only that, but you don’t even believe it yourself; you’re just trying to pick sides again. That’s stupid. You’re not helping. You understand nothing.
Yeah its really strange to talk about encouraging small business downtown, given that they can’t possibly make the astronomical rents. Stores are constantly popping up and then disappearing in places like Westlake Center; they just can’t make it. I rarely go to downtown Bellevue, but OMG that place is a goddamn MOB SCENE many evenings, especially in summer, its crawling with people (many of whom have probably never been to downtown Seattle), really crazy and has this vaguely “Las Vegas strip” feel to it. To me, the downtown Seattle core increasingly has this unfortunate weird “get your business done and get the heck out of here” vibe to it. Ballard rules.
@21, nice try, MarkyMark. Maybe you haven’t been on the Vegas strip recently. That town is shriveling up and dying.
Your Bellevue “mob scene” is fighting to get into Cheesecake Factory. Is that the future?
I was at that breakfast meeting for the DSA. They also pointed out that Dubai just barely squeaked by the United States in having the most retail square footage per resident. Theirs is 25 sq. feet per citizen… ours is something like 23. Third place is a European country (I forget) with just THREE square feet of retail per person.
I didn’t quite realize how excessive we were until I heard that.
Fuck Bellevue (not the people there, just the shopping), and fuck indoor Pacific Place/Westlake Center type malls. I like walking down the streets and window shopping (and buying sometimes, too). Malls are soulless.
@4: Paris 😀
Kemper Freeman didn’t develop the Bravern. Schnitzer NW did. If you’re going to be snarky, get you facts right.
@23, how much of that is box stores? Box stores are convenient but do little to encourage neighborhood living; they destroy it.
One of the interesting things about Melbourne is the miles and miles of thriving, throbbing shopping streets, like nothing we have here. Imagine Broadway as it used to be, or Pike/Pine, only with twice as many shops per block, and going on not for a few blocks but for MILES, and linking up with others just like it. Melbourne may not be high on those square-foot-per-capita charts, but for neighborhood living they’ve got us beat hollow. Places like Bellevue’re not even in the picture.
Speaking of box stores, they’re not doing too well in a lot of places. Lots of giant empty ones down around Southcenter.