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
