Restaurants hardest hit by seasonal slowdown,
but new projects could bolster business
Fall is here, tourists and visiting family have all but disappeared, and some of the businesses in downtown Kirkland are facing the retail equivalent of S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
Hardest hit are restaurants, according to Marc Chatalas, owner of the Cactus Restaurant at 121 Park Lane. "When the sunny weather goes away, the traffic count goes down and so does the business," he said. "We don't like seeing the rain and cold weather."
Chatalas said he doesn't cut back on hours at his eatery when summer's over, but the number of employees working there does change. "Coming into summer, I staff up for three or four months," he said. "Then I basically go down to regular staffing levels."
The business community would like to see that change - not just for restaurants, but for the entire retail core, according to Dick Beazelle, a longtime Kirkland restaurateur who is the new executive director of Kirkland Downtown on the Lake. "It's a natural slowdown," he said of the yearly drop-off in business.
"It's a seasonal thing," agreed Bill Vadino, former head of the KDL and now the new executive director of the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce. The goal, he said, is to turn Kirkland into a year-round destination rather than just a warm-weather attraction.
With that in mind, the KDL commissioned a marketing and economic-development study in 2002, Vadino noted. One of the suggestions coming out of the study was to set up clusters of art galleries and restaurants downtown, he said.
"There are a couple ideas out there that should help create a more year-round city," added Larry Springer, a Kirkland City Council member and owner of the Grape Choice wine shop at Lakeshore Plaza. The proposal to lid the Lakeshore Plaza is one of those ideas, although it will most likely take a combination of public, city and private developer money to pull it off, he said.
George Larson, chair of the Downtown Action Team, said the Lakeshore Plaza project would definitely help. "It would be a draw not only for our community, but also a draw for people from outside of downtown," he said.
Another idea under consideration is creating a continuous street frontage for businesses, a move that would help create a "critical mass" for retailers, Larson said.
In addition, the economic-development study identified other so-called opportunity sites. One of them is the mixed-use project at Lake Street and Central Avenue, and there is also a new hotel going in on Kirkland Avenue. "And there's a good-sized apartment project across from the Performing Arts Center," he said.
Springer at the Grape Choice doesn't have to contend with a seasonal drop-off in business. "We're not affected," he said. "We have a 20-year-plus track record with customers, so the up and down nature of business is flattened out."
Vince Isaacson, owner of the Lake Street Diamond Company jewelry store at 127 Lake St., tells a similar tale. "I don't find it to be a problem," he said of the seasonal drop-off. "My business if pretty steady, because people have jewelry needs all year round."
Jennifer Rex, owner of the J. Rex clothing store at 123 Lake Street S., doesn't have a problem with a seasonal drop-off, either. "Summers are not necessarily our strongest months," she said of sales. In fact, business really picks up in the fall and the trend continues into December, Rex added.
Gunnar Nordstrom, owner of the Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery at 127 Lake St. is also unaffected by seasonal changes. "August is typically one of my slowest months," he said. "In the gallery business, it's very much tied to your show schedule."
Still, Nordstrom approves of plans to jazz up the downtown business core. "Kirkland is just not a destination location, [and] it should be," he said. "It should be the best destination around."
Teddy Overleese, from the Kirkland Economic Partnership, thinks more retail anchors would brighten up the downtown business climate, but making that change will take awhile. "It won't happen overnight," she said.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or (206)461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
