More Retail Talk

The mixed-use developments of Rollin Street, Enso and the Amazon.com campus will be adding a lot of retail to the Westlake/Terry area. But their addition may be partly responsible for the subtraction of a few long-time independent retailers who either cannot keep up with the higher rents or have been disrupted by the construction.

Import furniture store David Smith will be relocating once its lease is up in mid-2009, and Glenn Richards, another furniture store with a similar motif, has been forced out of business by non-stop construction at Rollin Street.

Construction crews regularly blocked the alley shared with Glenn Richards. Customers and delivery trucks were thwarted. "People stopped coming in," he said. Even so, Fairman and his wife and co-owner, Laurie Van Dorn Fairman, hoped to ride out the period. But the constant construction sapped business for good. [10-01-2008 Seattle PI]

It's truly unfortunate to see these independent stores that add so much to the character of the neighborhood go to the wayside. But it's also evident that a 16,000 sq. ft. warehouse may no longer be the highest and best use for a parcel in a designated urban center with a significant up-zone in the works.

Rumor has it one of the retail tenants in Rollin Street will be high-end furniture showroom Poliform, which is a pretty clear sign of the direction this area is headed.


Will South Lake Union be able to grow into its role as an urban center without becoming a Bellevue-like Stepford Wife of a neighborhood?