In recent weeks, Vulcan's Phil Fujii--accompanied by folks from Vulcan's property management firm, Trammell Crow--has been meeting with business owners to talk up the streetcar and two-way Mercer Street proposal (with the help of a PowerPoint presentation). Fujii even invited some folks to head down to Portland to check out that city's Pearl District streetcar, the model for Seattle's proposed Westlake Center-to-Lake Union line. "Obviously they want everyone on board on the streetcar project," says one SLU tenant who saw the presentation. "I got the impression that [Vulcan] wanted [Fujii] to try and hit all the neighborhood tenants."
Finding cheerleaders in the neighborhood is key to Vulcan's streetcar dream. At city hall, while Mayor Greg Nickels is all for the streetcar (he even convinced the state legislature to slip Seattle $3 million to study it), the city council isn't so sure--and they have to sign off on it. If Vulcan trots out South Lake Union businesses that support the idea, it may be easier to convince the reluctant council.
Vulcan spokesperson Michael Nank says reps have been in the community discussing plans for months, encouraging people to weigh in on the ideas. It seems the company has been building a coalition of streetcar supporters: "I think you'll certainly be hearing about that in the coming days, about all the people who have really gotten behind the streetcar," Nank says mysteriously.
That would be a big turn of events for the neighborhood, where businesses have been strangely silent about the streetcar and Mercer Street proposals when residents and other property owners have tossed in their opinions. There are two reasons why South Lake Union businesses are mum: First of all, plenty of business owners don't support the proposals, because it won't be beneficial to their companies (and they don't want to pay a special local property tax for the streetcar). But many of those businesses are Vulcan tenants, and the owners aren't comfortable speaking out against their landlord's pet project.
The silence in South Lake Union is markedly different from the chatter in two other neighborhoods with sweeping changes on the table. In Northgate and the University District, it's not hard to find support for two neighborhood proposals pushed by Mayor Greg Nickels: easing development restrictions on Northgate Mall, and nixing the limits on the amount of space the University of Washington can lease in the U-District. Northgate Mall merchants themselves are stumping for Nickels' proposal to dump the neighborhood's General Development Plan so the mall can expand, and in the U-District, many Ave business owners endorsed the plan to let the UW lease more space in the neighborhood.
But South Lake Union merchants are behaving differently. Vulcan tenants don't feel comfortable speaking up, because their leases contain a clause allowing the South Lake Union giant to kick out tenants with three- to nine-months' notice. While that clause is meant to clear the way for concrete redevelopment plans, it's also keeping a lot of businesses quiet.
"If you rock the boat, they might say, 'Why don't you just get out now,'" says one businessman whose space is a block off the proposed streetcar line. He asked not to be named. "It's not so much that [Vulcan] has thugs come by, but I think it's just the very nature of the fact that everyone's on month-to-month leases. You're under the good graces of Vulcan."
"It's tough to feel secure in a neighborhood that's up in the air," says another business owner, two blocks from Lake Union. "Your business could disappear at any time."
One person is willing to go on record with his opposition to Vulcan's plans. Paul Obrastoff, at Baron Marketing & Distribution--a Westlake bar-accessory shop carrying everything from solid oak wine racks to corkscrews--thinks the streetcar proposal is a "crazy waste of money." His business would overlook the Westlake Avenue North line. "It's not going to help me because I'm not a walk-in business. Most of the businesses here are commercial offices or industrial--nowhere that you'd want to take a streetcar to. And if they hit me with that tax, they'll have a fight on their hands."
Outspoken comments like that make Obrastoff a rarity in the neighborhood. Plenty of other Vulcan tenants--from arts organizations to light industrial businesses and a few retail outlets--don't like the streetcar idea either, but they're not willing to speak up.
Over at Vulcan, Nank says the company encourages its South Lake Union tenants to voice their concerns about the neighborhood proposals, without worrying about repercussions. "I find that the theory [of nervous Vulcan tenants] is somewhat absurd." Moreover, Nank says from his SoDo office, "There's been overwhelming positive interest and support [for the streetcar] from local residents and businesses." Perhaps we just haven't heard it?
