By Chris Daniels
March 1st, 2023, 1:32 PM PST
SEATTLE — It’s not hard to question whether the heart of Seattle’s downtown business core is still beating if you walk through the corner of 4th Avenue and Pine Street.
Macy’s downtown flagship store went the way of the old Bon Marche. Gone is Starbucks. Abercrombie and Fitch, too. The downtown intersection, which also connects Westlake Park, has been weathered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re in a period of transition, no doubt,” Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) President Jon Scholes said as he sat in the park on a chilly February morning. “I think the assets that we have in place in [downtown Seattle] compete well with just about any other downtown coming out of this difficult three years.”
There is challenging data to support a radical, new philosophy.
The DSA’s oft-cited numbers, via Placer.ai, show worker foot traffic downtown is still at 43% of pre-pandemic levels. While foot traffic inched higher in 2022, it is still far from what was normal. In fact, when compared with other cities, it trails considerably.
The University of Toronto’s School of Cities used cell phone data to track downtown recovery from September through November 2022.
The data shows Salt Lake City at 135% of pre-pandemic activity, with other cities like San Diego, Omaha, Baltimore and Columbus in the top 10. Seattle was in the bottom quadrant at just 44%, with Portland, Oregon, Cleveland, Ohio, and San Francisco in the bottom three.
It leads to an argument, now gaining steam, that Seattle should look at what it would take to convert unused office space to housing. New York City’s mayor recently made the suggestion, and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell made it as well in a brief comment during his State of the City address in February.
“It may mean changing our zoning codes,” Harrell said, adding that he would lay out his full vision late this spring.
The Gensler Research Institute did what it calls a “City Pulse” survey of top American cities, which included Seattle. The institute surveyed hundreds of people who live and work downtown and found that 73% wanted more restaurants, cafes, bars, lounges, and social venues, followed by parks, theaters and public transit. Shopping districts were listed as the fifth choice.
“I did a trip where I was in Nashville, and Dallas, in Cincinnati on the trip and those three other cities, not nearly as much security and safety issues in their downtown streets. Not even close,” said Pat Callahan, CEO and founder of the Urban Renaissance Group (URG), which develops and manages hundreds of thousands of square footage in the area. “I think there’s a whole myriad of things that are in place in some of those other cities that we don’t seem to have in place.”
Callahan, like Scholes, remain optimistic based on the new Seattle Convention Center expansion and waterfront redevelopment. The city of Seattle also recently announced it will spend $20 million expanding pedestrian access, brightening and sprucing up the Pike-Pine corridor between Capitol Hill and the waterfront.
“There’s a lot of compelling things that will help us recover, but everyone has to join together to be part of that recovery,” Callahan explained.
Callahan said that “Class B” office space, defined as “10,000 square foot floor plates that were built before 1960,” seems to be hurting and would be ripe for a rezone and redevelopment.
But he believes there still needs to be a mix.
That’s why the URG leased space in the old Bon Marche building at 4th Avenue and Pine Street to Japanese-retailer Uniqlo.
“It’s a perfect location,” said Michael Zakrzewski, director of communications for Uniqlo, citing the foot traffic between downtown Seattle and the waterfront.
Zakrzewski said sales are 50% ahead of original projections a few months in, and they haven’t had significant issues with crime or shoplifting.
“I think it’s a matter of providing, again, that level of rejuvenation, and coming in and being able to provide something new for the local community sort of running away from a problem,” said Zakrzewski. “Why not come in and try to be part of the solution?”
Zakrzewski said Uniqlo specifically made the space very bright with only two entry and exit points. The store could be a piece of a larger strategy for the company, with plans to expand within North America by dozens of stores in the next couple of years.
“I think the assets that we have in place in this downtown compete well with just about any other downtown coming out of this difficult three years,” added Scholes.
