Corner Comics and the Loss of Small Business in Kenmore
Posted by John Reiher | Filed under Business | 14 Comments
A brief note from the Kenmore Crow: The following is a guest post from John Reiher, who pens the local blog Living Sustainably. The views expressed below are John’s. Thanks for participating, John!
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.
Tags: central-kenmore, city council, Corner Comics, fruit market, Kenmore Village, Laurie Sperry, small business, Trader Joe's, Urban Partners
Copper Lantern Townhomes: Before and After
Posted by the Kenmore Crow | Filed under Real Estate | No Comments Yet!
Here’s a little tale of some recently-constructed homes here in Kenmore.
Copper Lantern Homes is a brand-spanking new development on 182nd Street composed of 33 townhome units. It was built by the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) on a plot of land just over one acre that they purchased in September 2005 for just under a million dollars.
Here’s a photograph of what the property looked like facing North from across the street in December 2007 before LIHI developed it:
The existing house looked like it was in relatively good shape. It probably could have used a new roof, but apparently the previous resident was living in it up until the sale. The vandalized white sign on the curb in the photograph above is the “Notice of Proposed Land Use Information,” which had been posted for nearly a year when the picture was taken. During the year and a half between when the LIHI purchased the property and when they developed it, the house and yard were a magnet for vandalism and illegal dumping.
In 2006, a representative of the Low Income Housing Institute stated that they would “save as many of the tall evergreens as we can.”
Here’s a photograph from roughly the same angle of what the property looks like today:
The trees on the left are on the neighboring property to the west. A grand total of two evergreens—27″ and 52″ in diameter—were saved (out of about 20 or more that originally populated the property—many of which were much larger). They appear on the left in this photograph (taken from within Copper Lantern, facing south-south-east):
The trees on the right are the same trees that appear on the left in the previous photo.
At right is another December 2007 photograph taken from a different angle that includes the same two trees that were left standing. So much for saving very many of the tall evergreens.
In order to purchase a townhome at Copper Lantern, families must have a household income “at or below 80% of King County area median income (AMI).” There are four floor plans: Three 3-story 4-bedroom units, nine 3-story 3-bedroom units, eleven 2-story 2-bedroom units, and ten 1-story 1-bedroom units.
The 4-bedroom units have already sold out, which is not surprising since they were priced a good 40% below comparably-sized homes elsewhere around Kenmore.
Two of the 3-bedroom units have “SOLD” stickers in the windows already (the end units, of course). These still look like they’re priced fairly competitively, at around 10% cheaper than similarly-sized condos for sale nearby.
The buildings that house the two-bedroom and one-bedroom units are still fenced off as the developer puts on the finishing touches. None of these look like they are sold yet. Interestingly, there are at least five two-bedroom units currently on the market just at the end of the block at the condo-conversion “Coventry Place Condominiums” with asking prices $15,000 (around 7%) less than the two-bedroom Copper Lantern units. On either end of 182nd you can find one-bedroom units bigger than those for sale at Copper Lantern on the market with asking prices 17% to 20% less than the Copper Lantern homes.
I understand the desire for “affordable housing,” but in my opinion it is a shame that in this case it comes at the expense of so much natural beauty. It will also be interesting to see how many people rush to sign up to purchase condos with low-income restrictions on the deeds that are priced higher than nearby units that have been on the market for six months to a year.
Here’s a Bothell/Kenmore Reporter article from back in March about the project: Home sweet home for Kenmore’s Copper Lantern
Tags: central-kenmore, copper-lantern, development, non-profit, Real Estate
New Unnecessary Traffic Signal Coming to 73rd & 181st
Posted by the Kenmore Crow | Filed under Construction | No Comments Yet!
Looks like work has started on a new and completely unnecessary traffic signal at 73rd Ave & 181st St:
I pass through this intersection quite a bit—from both 73rd and 181st, and I have never found myself thinking “golly, I really wish there were a traffic signal here.”
On a similar subject, has anyone else noticed how smoothly traffic seems to flow at the other end of the block through 68th and 181st now that it’s just a 4-way stop? Once they get the second southbound lane on 68th opened up between 181st and Bothell Way, that intersection should be completed. Of course, we all know they’re going to put a traffic signal back in there anyway.
But hey, a crow can dream, right?
Tags: central-kenmore, Construction, photo, roads, traffic
