Seattle Press on Line - Belltown's Brave Face

Belltown

Belltown's Brave Face

By Adam Richter

Belltown is still a hip urban arts center, but (inset) many old standbys like the Frontier Room are closing. Adam Richter photos.

Jan 31, 2002 -- Belltown's status as a dot-com haven didn't last long. When the sky came down on the Internet economy, this small neighborhood just north of downtown Seattle saw businesses close, storefronts empty and residents move out. Apartment buildings that had vacancy rates below five percent have seen that rate double since the recession hit. Some condominium projects had to convert to apartment use just to stay in business, and other developments not yet under construction are on hold indefinitely.

During its flirtation with mad, over-the-top Prosperity-with-a-capital-P, Belltown became emblematic of the best and worst about Seattle's growth. Hip nightclubs, restaurants and boutiques opened up, and new condos with incredible water or city views reached into the sky. On the other hand, residents who got priced out of the neighborhood and locals who remembered Belltown as a low-rent artists' district bemoaned the "yuppificiation" of this old neighborhood.

Belltown Community Council President Zander Batchelder says the neighborhood's association with dot-com millionaires is "kind of false." Belltown always had, and still has, a population of working people. There are still small startup business in the area. Low-rent subsidized housing is still available. And these days, as in the days before the Internet boom, crime is still a problem in some parts of the neighborhood.

"A lot of stuff still remains the same. We still have the year-in, year-out open-air drug dealing," he says.

The Speakeasy Cafe is now a burnt-out shell.

Several businesses along First Avenue have seen little crime, however. Susan Greenwood is the assistant manager of E.E. Robbins, an engagement ring store at the corner of First Avenue and Blanchard Street. She says that though she knows a crime problem exists in Belltown, she hasn't seen much of it.

"We see less than most people," says Greenwood. "I hear people complaining all the time, and we're really lucky."

Shanon Broumley, who manages the 2900 On First apartment building, also says she's never felt unsafe in Belltown. "I've never had an encounter or a threat or anything," she says.

But if the level of crime remains relatively constant, Belltown has felt the effects of the recession in other ways. Bernard Spring, general manager of the upscale Axis Restaurant, says his customers' spending habits have changed.

"The people who're trying to impress other people have dropped off a bit," he says. But Spring says otherwise his restaurant is doing well, despite the slow economy. Axis brings in enough of a mixed crowd not to depend on any one type of customer.

"It's not like if the high-end people stop coming, we shut the door," says Spring.

Greenwood says business at E.E. Robbins has also remained constant, but she concedes that an engagement-ring store attracts a different crowd than a restaurant. She likes the fact that the store is in Belltown, but the owners could have put the store anywhere. "When it's fine jewelry, I don't know that it matters where it is," she says.

Warren Funnell, owner of Western Type and Printing on Fifth Avenue, is in the same boat. His shop does printing for a number of Belltown businesses, but he doesn't need to be here to meet the demands of most of his customers. He started working in Belltown when he and his wife came here from Winnipeg in 1961. "We stopped in Seattle, I got a job the next day and we've been here ever since," he says.

If he had to start over, however, Funnell says high rents and property values would keep him out of Belltown.

"If I were starting a business I wouldn't do it in Belltown and I wouldn't do it in Seattle," he says.

The recession may have slowed down climbing property values, but as Funnell points out Belltown is still an expensive place to do business. Seattle Building Salvage moved from its storefront at Second Avenue and Bell Street last year because of high rents. "That building was just very reasonable when we moved in 13 years ago," says manager Victoria Thomle. Now the company is located on Westlake Avenue North, which is more afforable and, according to Thomle, more suitable for a building salvage business.

Retail and commercial business may still be going strong--none of the businesspeople interviewed for this story acknowleges a drop-off since the recession hit--but Edward Kingsman, an associate broker with John L. Scott's Belltown office, says the real estate market has gone limp.

"The market just died out last year," he says.

Kingsman has been a realtor in Seattle for five years, concentrating mostly on the downtown and outlying areas like Queen Anne and Capitol Hill. He says the biggest dropoff in the real estate market has been Belltown. For example, the Vine Building, a condo project on First Avenue, has been taken off the market because, Kingsman says, it only presold 30-40 percent of its units.

Batchelder says the slow economy could be good for the neighborhood, and not just because falling real estate prices will put Belltown in affordable reach for more people. Maybe now, says Batchelder, the area won't have to be pigeonholed as having one identity or another.

"Belltown might be able to just be itself for a while," he says.

That probably means keeping the neighborhood as is, including the upscale urban restaurants as well as the subsidized housing.

Reader Comments

Discuss this article in the forums!


Brandon	Aug 25, 2003	Seattle	data entry / student
I really believe the Belltown Community Council, as well as the Downtown Seattle Association, need to encourage a more multicultural business community in Belltown. Having visited the West End, Vancouver's most densely populated neighbourhood, I was smitten by the array of small businesses of various ethnic groups. I do not mean sushi restaurants. I mean sari shops, incense shops, herbal and medicinal shops, and produce markets. Oh, and please, at least one major 24 hour supermarket. The absence of one is anathema in such a residential community. Sound unrealistic? Call it destination shopping. People already engage in this ritual. I truly believe that what makes a neighbourhood livable and viable is that it is eclectic, not white bred. And considering Belltown's status as the most densely populated neighbourhood in Seattle, the melange of different people would create a more tolerant, human-oriented air to the neighbourhood. There is no reason to designate only Chinatown and Little Saigon as the "multicultural" neighbourhoods in Downtown Seattle. This is why cultural diversity in the business and enterprise community ought to be aggressively pursued.