McMenamins coming to Bothell? City Council discussing it today

Not too long ago, McMenamins was interested in developing a hotel, pub and entertainment facility at the old seminary building at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore. The neighborhood freaked out. Opponents feared that the renovated seminary would promote underage drinking and fill the streets with inebriated motorists. Hurray for the neighborhood, they successfully chased McMenamins away.

Meanwhile, this weekend… Washington Brewers Festival is 3 days of suds in Kenmore

Get a peek at the new local beers rolling out this summer at the three-day Washington Brewers Festival in Kenmore, starting Friday.

Live music, contests and games and a children’s play area that includes a root-beer tent will be set up.

And where will this festival be taking place? St. Edward State Park, of course.

Mr. Lupori discusses Kenmore’s rejection of McMenamins in a pair of posts here:

• McMenamins Announcement Raises the Question: Why Bothell Grows and Kenmore Stagnates
• Will Kenmore EVER "Get It?" Bothell’s getting a Hotel, Pub and Theater!

Good thing they put up those handwritten signs. Otherwise how would their potential patrons ever have figured out that this location has been closed?

In Kenmore, Mayor David Baker said City Hall staffers routinely receive complaints regarding Best Friends, many coming from parents who say young children easily can see into the roadside stand. Baker said officials have discussed the issue, but declined to go into details.

“We are aware of it, we do know of it,” he said.

To me that almost sounds like some sort of veiled threat from the Mayor there. Interestingly, as I drive by Best Friend, I have noticed a slight change in the weeks since that story ran.

Pretty much since the story ran, the blinds in the windows facing Bothell Way, which used to stay open, have been closed. Coincidence? Probably not.

Looks to me like Best Friend owner Wayne Hembree caught the hidden message in Mayor Baker’s remarks to the Reporter and decided to preemptively avoid a confrontation with City Hall. Probably a good move.

I’m reffering to the issue of parking for the James G. Murphy Co. auction house located on 68th Ave NE, just north of NE 182nd St.

Roughly once every three months or so James G. Murphy puts on a big auction at their Kenmore headquarters, complete with a major advertising push across the Seattle area. These auctions seem to usually primarily feature lots of cars, trucks, utility vehicles, boats, etc, which take up their entire fenced lot. Their advertising push always seems to be a success, with these quarterly auction events generating a large amount of interest from the deal-hungry buying public and drawing in hundreds of people from all across the Seattle area.

At around 11:00 in the morning yesterday I happened to pass down 68th avenue and 182nd street, and the scene was pretty chaotic. Cars and trucks stuffed into every possible spot (and then some) up and down both streets, lining the entirety of 182nd street and 68th avenue at least up to The Timbers apartment complex a quarter mile up the hill.

The following photos were taken at around 3:00, when—if you can believe it—much of the heavy traffic and parking overflow had actually died down.

Note that this overflow lining the streets is in addition to the completely packed former park & ride parking lot southwest of 68th and 182nd, which had the above-pictured sign indicating that it was the official parking area.

Already today the “downtown” Kenmore region is turned into a bit of a mess when James G. Murphy Co. has one of these big heavily-advertised auction events. But here’s a question that I can’t help wondering…

Where are all these James G. Murphy Co. auction attendees going to park once the Kenmore Village project finally gets off the ground and the ~350-spot former park & ride lot is no longer available?

I have a hard time imagining how the blocks surrounding James G. Murphy Co. will avoid degrading to complete mayhem once this occurs. Picture a traffic backup extending out onto SR-522 in both directions for the better part of the day and parked cars lining every street within a mile radius, crammed right up against residential and business entrances to the streets such that motorist visibility entering the road is virtually destroyed.

Does James G. Murphy Co. have a plan for this eventuality? Is the city working with James G. Murphy Co. to develop a workable plan for this situation before it completely cripples the city some Saturday in the future?

It seems like this is something more people should be talking about now, before the inevitable day of reckoning arrives.

For those of you keeping score at home, the departure of The Little Gym in the next month or so will leave the commercial space (i.e. – not counting City Hall) in the city-owned Kenmore Village property over half empty, with five of nine storefronts vacant. By square footage, the commercial space will be just under half empty.

Businesses that have moved or gone out of business, leaving Kenmore Village in the last year or so include:

• Ostrom’s Drugs – drugstore – moved to 6414 NE Bothell Way
• The Little Gym – children’s gym – moving to Lynnwood
• Hidden Treasures – thrift store – closed
• Reign’s Realm – children’s clothing & supplies consignment store – closed
• Taco Guyamas – fast food mexican restaurant – closed

Here’s a map of Kenmore Village in its current state (click to enlarge):

Eventually as I have the time, I will be expanding this map to include all of Kenmore’s business zones. Your input is welcome.

I flew over to Stupid Prices yesterday to check out their deals, and spotted something a little bit amusing:

In giant, bold, all-caps: “NOTHING HELD BACK!” and “EVERYTHING ON SALE!”

In tiny fine print, taped to the third banner: “Excluding: TELEVISIONS”

It would seem that Stupid Prices has rather strange definitions of “NOTHING” and “EVERYTHING.” Televisions are apparently “NOTHING,” and therefore naturally excluded from the “EVERYTHING” which is on sale.

In my opinion the new Chase look is a lot more sterile and uninviting than the WaMu feel was, especially the interior of the building. But I suppose it is better to have our local branch continue operating under a massive impersonal operation headquartered in New York City than to have lost the local jobs that the branch provides. I just wish Chase would stop running those annoying “new to Washington” radio ads.

Kenmore is losing small, mom and pop businesses one by one thanks to a city council that either doesn’t care or isn’t willing to help keep these small businesses here in Kenmore, or even to assist them in any way with relocation.

Case in point: Corner Comics
http://www.cornercomics.com/

6575 NE 181st
Kenmore, WA 98028
(425) 486-XMEN (9636)

Corner Comics is moving to a new location thanks to the imminent shuffle of public buildings that will eventually relocate the Kenmore library to their current building. Corner Comics’ last business day at their Kenmore location is coming up quick: Saturday, August 29th, 2009. They are moving to Kirkland, into a rental space they can afford.

I talked to the owner, Paige Gifford, while she was closing up shop. I asked her if it was her choice to move out of the current location. “No,” she replied, “we were told to move by the end of August.”

I then asked her if the City of Kenmore offered her any assistance. “Not one bit,” she said, sounding a little angry. “They never offered any relocation money or any other kinds of assistance.”

She pointed out that the available rental space in the current Kenmore Village is priced far too high, around $40 per square foot. This is nearly double the $20 per square foot that she had been paying at the store’s current location. “None of the local businesses can afford that kind of rent, nobody makes that much money,” she explained.

In Gifford’s opinion, the City Council only wants big box stores and major franchises. She believes that there is no room in the council’s plans for local small businesses.

And she’s not too far off. Ostrom’s went so far as to buy their current location so that they have some control over it. The construction of Kenmore Village by the Lake is stalled indefinitely because the developer, Urban Partners, has been unable to find an anchor store and keeps begging for more time in their search.

Of course it now turns out that even many citizens’ favorite store, Trader Joe’s, was seemingly never invited or courted by local government in any way. It took the initiative of local citizens to get the franchise’s attention, as well as City Council member Laurie Sperry.

She recently sent an email out to subscribers to her blog, KenmoreBlog.net, on August 21st, asking readers if they wanted a Trader Joe’s in Kenmore. If you did, please click a link and voice your opinion. (I do have to note that she misspelled “Trader Joe’s” as “Trader Joes.” One would think she’d get that right.)

Of course I clicked the link and voiced my opinion. But I also think that we need a PCC or a better grocery store in our neighborhood than Safeway or Grocery Outlet.

It would be even better if we had our own Farmers Market. I dearly love the Yakima Fruit Market in Bothell for its variety and types of fresh vegetables. It would be great if we had something like that right here in Kenmore. A grocery store that dealt in locally grown or raised food.

One way we could encourage and support local small businesses such as Corner Comics or a fruit market rather than chasing them away would be to create a business incubator here in Kenmore. It would be a way to encourage and nurture new local businesses in Kenmore, founded by its citizens for its citizens. That’s something our City Council could do, if they could see past Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand of the Market.

Sometimes the Invisible Hand works and sometimes it gives you the invisible finger.

[August 28 update from the Kenmore Crow]
Mayor David Baker responds to some of John’s criticisms in a comment below, which I will duplicate here in the post in order to provide better visibility.

Mayor Baker’s response:

In order to provide accurate information in response to the matter raised by Mr. Reiher. Corner Comics rents on a month by month basis from King County Library System, NOT the City of Kenmore. The library wants to demolish the building in November and is asking all tenants to vacate that are on a month by month basis. If Corner Comics wants relocation expenses then they should contact the King County Library System

The City is not responsible for property owned by the King County Library system. It is not the City of Kenmore’s, responsibility pay for relocation expenses for another governmental agencies action. The only time the City could legally consider relocation expenses is when the city is acquiring the property under state and federal regulations.

The current Kenmore Village rental rates are NOT $40.00 square foot, but range between $5.00 to $17.00 per square foot with several in the $10.00 to 11.00 per square foot range.

The Kenmore City Council, years ago, decided that big box stores did not fit in Kenmore’s long range plans and preferred small local businesses. That is written in to the Cities Comprehensive Plan, Downtown Plan and elsewhere.

The last point is that Ostrom’s Drug and Gift store did NOT buy their current location, they are leasing.