As shopping centers across the country gradually disappear, shopping centers in downtown Seattle are competing with art and local businesses for vacancies.
Friday, October 29, 2021 at Pacific Place Mall in Seattle. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
On a Tuesday in recent October, a young woman strode into the Pacific Place shopping center in downtown Seattle and stopped about 30 feet away. "Is J.Crew still there?" she asked aloud. No, the nearby concierge explained. It closed a while ago. "I should see my girlfriend here," the woman said, still buffering new data. "I have to text her to meet elsewhere," she concluded at last, turning around and walking towards the exit.
Less than two minutes later, another confused customer walked to the shiny white concierge counter, looked in the direction of the empty storefront and asked, "Is J.Crew closed?"
After operating in the mall for more than 20 years, the American clothing retailer closed its Pacific Place store in early 2020. The culprit is: the financial distress in the "retail doomsday" that began long before COVID-19. Now, as the economy in downtown Seattle awakens from the pandemic sleep, Pacific Place has no J.Crew-and former tenants like Coach, Kate Spade, Michael Kors or BCBG are gone. Instead, the shopper found something more unexpected than a mannequin with a hollow smile and a $150 handbag: art and handmade products by local artisans.
The shelves of the former Kate Spade store now display exquisite French soaps, stationery, books and antique treasures-ceramic miniatures by Sharon Jewell, sculpture jewellery by Joan Cihak and Lauren Grossman, and rustic pottery by Karra Wise, all of local artists’ The work is sold at Orcas Paley, a local independent store. Next door is a brand new Debonair Decor Couture retail store, a local clothing brand that has been established for one year and also sells pop art style artwork depicting music stars and celebrities.
Several escalators rise, Destination Maternity and Teavana have been replaced by boutiques that specialize in jewelry, art, household goods, and artist-designed and handmade gifts. In the former Victoria's Secret, the new black therapy and art space Wonder of Women hangs paintings of black women who made history in an alcove previously occupied by bras and frilled panties.
As part of a pop-up plan to revive the dormant five-story mall, these small independent businesses and art non-profit organizations came here as temporary leases to fill the space left by the chain store — yes, at a low price.
Laurie Kearney of Ghost Gallery said at her mall store on a recent Saturday afternoon: "This deal is too good to refuse." The store sells reasonably priced art, handmade jewelry, incense and candles, crystals and tarots. Cards etc. Nearby is a mechanical sculpture of Seattle artist Casey Curran, with a pile of delicate flowers made of laser-cut white paper, which opens and closes in the display window. Kearney said: "I'm excited about the prospect of many small businesses starting to move here and do some interesting experiments and see how it goes."
The Ghost Gallery is located in the front space of the Francesca chain boutique. It was filmed at Pacific Place Mall in Seattle on October 29, 2021. The dressing room was transformed into a tarot reading room, and Francesca’s display cabinets were used to display wine and other essences. Choose the product. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
The Ghost Gallery is located in the front space of the Francesca chain boutique. It was filmed at Pacific Place Mall in Seattle on October 29, 2021. The dressing room was transformed into a tarot reading room, and Francesca’s display cabinets were used to display wine and other essences. Choose the product. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
Although Pacific Place launched the "Eject and Grow" program before the pandemic, it has proved to be particularly popular in recent months, as the city center has gotten rid of the pandemic and small businesses, as always, are looking for affordable rents. Earlier this year, after persisting with the epidemic for more than a year, Kearney packed up her 15-year-old Capitol Hill Art Gallery and homeware store, planning to operate only online. "I'm almost bleeding," she said. But then she got a hint from Marlo Miyashiro, co-owner and managing director of the Pacific Place Handcraft Showroom and Bezel & Kiln. "I can store everything and see what happens in the future," Kearney recalled. "Or I can do it."
Kearney stood behind a heavy antique counter, recalling the first time she saw the store that would become her shopping center. "This space used to be Francesca's [clothing store]," she said. "All the dark wood—I was peeking through the door—I thought:'You know, this might be really useful.'" Kearney cleaned the place, painted the walls deep blue, and brought her Own electric fireplace (in order to create a touch of cozy Gothic style). With a set of comfortable chairs and a table, she turned the fitting room into a tarot reading space, which can be enclosed by thick peacock green curtains. "This is our kind of strange confession," Kearney said.
Francesca's is one of many national retailers that have left Pacific Place in recent years. The company failed to keep up with changing retail trends and the e-commerce boom, struggling before the pandemic, and filed for bankruptcy at the end of last year. Barneys New York, Barnes & Noble, Eddie Bauer and Victoria's Secret have also abandoned ships due to financial difficulties in the past few years. This great escape is not unique to Pacific Place, but is part of the end of the national retail industry.
Since the mid-2010s, a multi-million dollar renovation project was supposed to help Pacific Place turn in a different direction by attracting tourists, more and more downtown residents, and South Lake Union technology workers. People who hope to work in the nearby Amazon campus of the world's largest e-commerce company will be attracted by the dining and entertainment options and the new grand entrance (known as "the grand building, personally obsessed with the entrance of Seventh Avenue and Olive Road". In marketing materials) deliberately located on campus facing tech giants.
Some shops left to make way for decoration; due to the reduced flow of people during the construction period, others still existed. Then, just a few months before the refurbished Pacific Place was supposed to open, the pandemic hit. More closures followed.
According to a 2017 report in Puget Sound Business Magazine, Pacific Place had about 50 tenants just four years ago. Today, this number is about half of this number, plus an AMC movie theater.
October 29, 2021 in Pacific Place Mall in Seattle. Local companies said that although many stores are empty, passenger traffic has increased. At lunchtime recently, several groups of people wearing Amazon blue badges and others were heading to the restaurant. At other times, people work on laptops or charge mobile phones on the large tables in the atrium. The driver of Uber Eats waited for his mobile phone to ring when it rained outside. One afternoon, a janitor woke up. A sleeping man reads a book on one of the plush chairs. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
October 29, 2021 in Pacific Place Mall in Seattle. Local companies said that although many stores are empty, passenger traffic has increased. At lunchtime recently, several groups of people wearing Amazon blue badges and others were heading to the restaurant. At other times, people work on laptops or charge mobile phones on the large tables in the atrium. The driver of Uber Eats waited for his mobile phone to ring when it rained outside. One afternoon, a janitor woke up. A sleeping man reads a book on one of the plush chairs. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
Some stores have weathered the storm: the local favorite Pike Place Chowder, the downsized Tiffany & Co., Aveda, AT&T (tenants since opening in 1998) and Lululemon (now in a larger space) still exist. The popular Chinese hot pot chain Haidilao opened on the third floor in September 2020.
But most of the 339,000 square feet of space in the building is still underfilled. Walking around, you can play arcade games to match store artifacts with previous occupants. L'Occitane retains only its iconic Provence yellow and brown appearance-black curtains cover the open space. On the lower level, a small red placard that says "yogurt and smoothie" is the key to deciphering the ancient text above. Only its outline is still visible on the cutout of the metal sign: "Red Mango". The slogan "Welcome to the Great Interior"-posted on posters and boards covering the empty storefronts of the entire mall-echoed in the empty buildings.
The Washington, D.C., Madison Marquette company, which owns Pacific Place, declined an interview request and refused to disclose vacancy rates or rental information, but sent a statement that reads in part: "The pop-up format provides a way for these growing local businesses. Short-term rentals can be as short as one to two days and provide them with an attractive option to connect their products in a physical space. It allows them to test drive physical stores without long-term commitments."
This arrangement also allows these small businesses and art non-profit organizations to take up more space than they can usually afford. Local independent perfumer Molly Ray is moving from the 200-square-foot space in Pioneer Plaza to the 1,600-square-foot store in the mall, which means she can expand her perfume making workshop. Peter Gaučys and Patrick Angus of Orcas Paley moved from the 150-square-foot, atmospheric store in Hillman to a shiny, spacious boutique.
Gaučys declined to say how much the store’s rent is, but said: “Under normal market conditions, we will not be candidates for this space.”
The most noticeable expansion is Wonder of Women International. Veronica Very previously ran this non-profit organization in her Seattle house. Now in the former Victoria’s Secret, she has 11,000 square feet and is currently a dear sister of WOW Gallery. I saw your setting. This is an art exhibition of "Iconic Black Women" and "Black Love" paintings. Husband, Seattle artist Hiawatha D.
"When people came around the corner, it still shocked people. They were like, "Wow, I didn't expect all of this. "To be honest, you usually can't find such a large gallery," Very said, sitting on a leather sofa in one of the spacious back galleries. "We are taking up space. No apologies."
On October 29, 2021, at the Pacific Place Shopping Center in Seattle, Veronica Very, founder of the Wonder of Women non-profit organization and gallery, looks at a painting by Hiawatha D. titled "Four Girls." "Four Girls" shows four black girls who were killed in the church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. -Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carool Denise McNair. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
On October 29, 2021, at the Pacific Place Shopping Center in Seattle, Veronica Very, founder of the Wonder of Women non-profit organization and gallery, looks at a painting by Hiawatha D. titled "Four Girls." "Four Girls" shows four black girls who were killed in the church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. -Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carool Denise McNair. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
WOW does not operate like traditional galleries—not all original artworks are for sale—but instead focuses on providing retreats and activities around healing and anti-racism work for local and national organizations. In a recent interview, tall tablecloths awaited a group of black women in STEM.
Unlike traditional galleries, the fitting room has been transformed into a "therapy suite", which is a space for personal reflection and WOW's black female artist residency project (currently watching: abstract multimedia collages by Jaime Alexandra Escarpeta). Each locker room is dedicated to different activities: "writing", "listening", "remembering", "affirming" and "speech" (WOW's $25 ticket includes a visit and the cost of guided treatment in the suite 150 USD per hour). The space may have a table, chair, carpet, or recording device—a place to sit down and meditate, write down thoughts, and record stories while the candles are glowing.
At the end of the fitting room corridor, above a slowly flowing fountain, painted on the wall is Audrey Lord’s famous quote: “Taking care of yourself is not self-indulgence, but self-protection. This is an act of political warfare.”
The location of Pacific Place is very personal. Her daughter Ashlé, who died in 2017, happened to find her first job in Victoria's Secret at the age of 16. A few years ago, when they lived in the city center very much with her fiancé at the time, they bought a wedding ring from Tiffany. "As far as I am concerned, this is the sacred orchestration of the ancestors," Very said.
October 29, 2021 in Pacific Place Mall in Seattle. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
October 29, 2021 in Pacific Place Mall in Seattle. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
Shopping malls occupies a special space in American consciousness. For many people born before the 2000s, shopping malls are the venue for iconic events: the first bra. First job. First date. This may be part of the fascinating cause of the death of shopping malls-countless photo books, YouTube channels and articles (such as "50 haunting pictures of abandoned shopping malls across the U.S.") dedicated to the ghostly appearance of consumerist temples remains.
Since the mid-1990s, consumer interest in indoor shopping malls has been declining, says Vicky Howard, author of "From Main Street to Shopping Center: The Rise and Fall of American Department Stores." It was built after the idea of Pacific Place as a high-end shopping destination in the early 1990s to help revitalize the city center. Although when Madison Marquette bought the building for US$271 million in 2014, the mall was almost entirely rented out, the changes in the retail industry eventually caught up with Pacific Place.
He said that in 2017, Earnest Thomas of ONYX Fine Arts Collective first identified Pacific Place as a potential gallery location, a non-profit organization dedicated to displaying artworks by African-American Northwestern artists, and he noticed many empty shops. "So they gave us a chance. We have been here for nearly four years."
Thomas said he was satisfied here. "We always let people from all over the world come here and say:'It's great to see an art gallery-it's not something like Kmart.'" He welcomes new art companies to join him. Moreover, he pointed out: "There are more black companies here than at any time in the history of this shopping mall. It is probably because they can afford it."
However, this affordability and flexibility brings some insecurities. Marlo Miyashiro is the owner of The Handmade Showroom and Bezel & Kiln, the two showrooms for independent manufacturers, including Crystalyn Kae (vegetarian bags), Five Ply Design (laser cut wood home decor) and Clay It Forward (ceramics). Due to the refurbishment of certain spaces and the move in of new tenants, she had to move into Pacific Place four times in six years.
"We are about to usher in six years, and we hope we never have to move again," Miyagi said, noting that moving is expensive and she likes the current setting. "This year we will actually see profit, and then we will have to spend it on moving."
During the pandemic, small business grants helped Miyashiro's businesses survive, and the flow of people increased, especially last summer. Although the number of shoppers has decreased in the fall, Miyagi and other small businesses say they have seen a surge in early holiday shopping and are betting that this number will increase.
October 29, 2021, Bezel & Kiln in Pacific Place Shopping Center, Seattle. Owner Marlo Miyashiro kept the wall shelf left by Teavana to display handmade products, including teapots and jewelry. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
October 29, 2021, Bezel & Kiln in Pacific Place Shopping Center, Seattle. Owner Marlo Miyashiro kept the wall shelf left by Teavana to display handmade products, including teapots and jewelry. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
Due to global supply chain issues, more shoppers may choose local products this season. Most independent shops in Pacific Place said that they feel as if they are around the corner, and many plan to extend their leases. But across the country, indoor malls are still struggling, with foot traffic dropping by 6.5% compared to September 2019. In particular, the performance of indoor shopping malls is worse than that of suburban shopping malls and outdoor indoor shopping malls (the vacancy rate exceeds the financial crisis in 2009). And the long-term future does not look so bright. It is estimated that by 2025, about a quarter of the 1,000 or so shopping malls in the United States will be closed.
Some believe that the solution is to revive the dead shopping center by adding housing, offices, hotels, parks and grocery stores. After the owners recently cancelled the foreclosure of Portland's oldest shopping mall, a real estate company planned to shift the focus of the shopping mall and redevelop the site to include residences and "creative" offices. Some of the Puget Sound area shopping malls’ redevelopment plans also include similar plans, including the famous Northgate Shopping Center-one of the country's earliest indoor shopping malls-which turned into a somewhat ghostly shopping mall in 2019 , At the time it lost many tenants before it was "completed". Reimagine. "These plans mean that the mall is reducing its retail and parking spaces, and instead building Kraken hockey training facilities, offices, residential buildings, promenades and parks. Some people envision the mall as the future logistics center of companies such as Amazon.com. Others. The shopping center has gained new vitality by merging large churches, fitness centers, homeless shelters, university campuses, schools, doctor offices, and ski resorts.
On October 29, 2021, Orcas Paley at the site of the Kate Spade store in Pacific Place shopping center in Seattle. The dressing room now displays artworks, and the display cabinets that used to hold handbags now display artworks and selected items. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
On October 29, 2021, Orcas Paley at the site of the Kate Spade store in Pacific Place shopping center in Seattle. The dressing room now displays artworks, and the display cabinets that used to hold handbags now display artworks and selected items. (Cross-cut Jovelle Tamayo)
It is unclear what Madison Marquette's long-term plan for Pacific Place is. Can it be the next location for the Seattle Art Fair or the Deconstructed Art Fair, which is a popular derivative of it—Thomas from Onyx Gallery said he proposed an idea to Madison Marquette? Can it become a permanent hub for creative enterprises and art galleries?
"If this shopping mall is a showcase for local businesses, artists, manufacturers, and craftsmen, wouldn't it be great?" said Gaučys of Orcas Paley, as a portable Crosley record player that projected Mozart and Mozart in 1958 through the store. The recording of Haydn's piano sonata. "That's what everyone thinks: Wouldn't it be amazing if this iconic downtown Seattle shopping center becomes a showcase for locals? People are crazy about this idea," he said.
"This is an amazing idea. But I also respect the reality Madison Marquette is dealing with, and his assets-they must also have a sustainable business model. So I don't know the answer."
"Maybe," said Kearney of Ghost Gallery, "this is something the city can participate in... subsidizing some of these costs in the name of supporting independent businesses. I mean, they are trying to get more people active in the city center. This is a great way to do this."
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Margo Vansynghel is a reporter at Crosscut, focusing on art and culture. Find her on Twitter @Margo_vs or email Margo.Vansynghel@crosscut.com.
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