The Herald Business Journal


YOUR COUNTY.	YOUR BUSINESS JOURNAL.

Published August 2001

An era of rebirth
Six major projects could bring
hustle, bustle back to city core

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

Restaurant owner Joel Starr wasn’t in Everett in the 1960s when the Bon Marche, J.C. Penney, Woolworth and numerous other retailers on Colby Avenue kept the downtown filled with people — shoppers and diners, office and government workers, bankers and barristers.

But he didn’t have to be there then to understand downtown Everett’s problems now. He saw the same economic gloom settle over Spokane, where he grew up.

“Retail left downtown Spokane for the malls, just as it left Everett and many other cities. Downtown needs retail to bloom and it will after residents come back, when The Nautica apartments (at Hewitt and Grand avenues) and others are built,” said Starr, who opened his own contribution to downtown Everett’s revitalization four years ago — The Flying Pig Brewing Co. on Colby Avenue.

After struggling to establish his own enterprise — which has become a popular community meeting place for business people, local residents and Navy base personnel — Starr believes the downtown economy is about to improve dramatically thanks to the impact of more than $281 million in county, city and private developments to be completed between now and mid-2004.

The six synergistic projects expected to change Everett’s core image and economy include:

A $140 million expansion of county offices. Snohomish County government is well into developing a master-planned campus redevelopment that will build new office buildings, an expanded jail and a parking garage by mid-2004.
The $44 million Everett Station. Scheduled to open in December, the station will be a transportation hub for commuter trains, buses and taxis, along with new education, career development and retail facilities. The site will be served by a new $15 million Pacific Avenue overpass due to open in September.
A $60 million special-events arena. The arena, scheduled to be built in the downtown area by fall 2003, could provide a venue for hockey games, basketball, concerts, trade shows and conventions.
Everett’s $8 million replacement of root-clogged sewer lines on Hewitt Avenue, the main East-West arterial through the city’s commercial district. The project will create a new streetscape in the city’s downtown core.
A $5 million investment in historic Everett buildings by developer Craig Dieffenbach.
The Nautica, a $9 million residential/commercial project, scheduled to open by October at Hewitt and Grand avenues. The Nautica will include 121 apartment units and 5,500 square feet of commercial space.

Together, they represent a level of change unprecedented in Everett’s core area since major retail stores left 30 years ago.

Excited by the changes, Starr the gregarious pub owner has become Starr the downtown activist — a role he said he’s able to take on thanks to the support of his wife, Kerri, a working partner at The Flying Pig, and their employees, who have helped to make the restaurant such a success.

A member of the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce’s executive board — and previously Vice Chair of the chamber’s former Convention, Visitors and Tourism Bureau and the chamber’s Downtown Development Committee — Starr is also temporarily chairing the new Downtown Everett Action Committee, formed to “enhance the economic vitality” of the area and to advocate for its revitalization.

“It was the Save Our County Seat campaign that brought the downtown community together to oppose county government’s proposed plan to move most of its offices out of Everett’s core to the facilities vacated by the Boeing Co. near the airport,” Starr said. “There were 20 to 30 people active in the campaign. It was an all-out effort. And the county listened.”

He’s quick to credit others who have helped to prepare the downtown for its resurgence, including Everett developer Art Skotdal and his family, who own the 12-story EverTrust Tower and more than 30 office and residential properties downtown, including the Bank of America and Coastal Community Bank buildings.

Starr also admires Jeff Wicklund of Wick-Ed Cellars on Colby Avenue, whose wine store has been a downtown attraction since it opened nearly four years ago, and Donna Perrigo, for “sticking her neck out” and moving her Studio Donna beauty salon from the Frontier Bank building on Colby to a larger, long-vacant corner property at Wall Street and Colby Avenue.

Starbucks promptly moved into the Frontier Bank storefront, and Studio Donna’s newest neighbor across the street is the $14 million headquarters for Advanced TelCom Group (ATG), an independent telecommunications competitor to Verizon. ATG’s new facility is preparing for a September grand opening.

Starr also praises the impact of the restored Historic Everett Theater, Everett Performing Arts Center, the Cosmopolitan Theater and other developments that now attract people to downtown Everett.

Soon, the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce expects to move to downtown facilities from its temporary south Everett location, another significant event that will boost development of the core business district.

On the perimeter of downtown, other major projects are also part of the impact on growth in the city’s core — from Naval Station Everett, homeport for the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and six sister ships, to Providence Everett Medical Center’s new $40 million Women’s and Children’s Pavilion due to open early next year a few blocks from downtown.

Even the proposed commercial, office and entertainment development of the northern end of the Everett waterfront — which will complement such successful attractions as Everett Marina Village, Anthony’s Homeport and Lombardi’s — will help downtown, Starr believes.

“Initially, I thought, ‘What if it just develops more competition for downtown, and for my business?’ But this (core) area will be even more improved by the time the waterfront develops in four to five years, and I think we’ll trade customers. In fact, we may even end up with a second location for The Flying Pig, on the waterfront,” Starr said.

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