SEATTLE — Homegrown Seattle businesses fight to stay local
High rents and a surge of redevelopment have homegrown businesses across Seattle closing.
After 33 years on Capitol Hill, Piecora's Pizza closed last year to make way for new apartments.
"I think that a lot of the personality is disappearing from the neighborhood. Capitol Hill in general," said James Lescott, who lives on Capitol Hill.
In January, Hurricane Cafe in the Denny Triangle closed after 20 years -- the property was scooped up by Amazon.
Champion Party Supply was a Halloween destination in Lower Queen Anne for 21 years, before closing a few months ago.
After more than a decade on the waterfront, 99 Blues Club may be the next to go.
The building has a new owner who raised the rent $10,000 a month.
"It is an eviction notice. You can't sustain it. The business was just hanging in there just as it was with the construction out front even still recovering through the recession," said Ed Maloney, one of the owners of 99 Blues Club.
He's proud the Blues Club has hosted many Grammy Award winners over the years and worries about Seattle's future.
"What's being hurt is music art cultural preservation of the city," said Maloney.
The rash of closures has brought attention to the issue.
Don Stevens, owner of Bill's Off Broadway, knows at least one developer is conscious of the problem.
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Three years ago new owners bought the property to build new apartments.
"It's a huge deal for us and there's nothing we can do about it," said Stevens.
Then the owners came to him with a surprising offer.
"They basically said we're going to build 93 apartments and and we would like you to stay," Stevens added, "They really really wanted us to come back and would we reconsider and I didn't know how we would do that so I said we would consider it and we ended up finding a way to make it happen."
Stevens moved out for almost two years while the building was constructed.
Now his space is much bigger and business is even better than before.
"They gave me more space. I went from 2,200 square feet to 3,7000 square feet. It's all one level now," said Stevens.
Some of the furnishings from the old space were also repurposed into the new space.
"I was lucky there's no question about it," said Stevens.
To move beyond luck, the city is stepping in with resources to help small businesses survive.
"We've got to be smarter we've got to help get our word out to help these businesses survive this and succeed in the long run," said Office of Economic Development Director Brian Surratt.
He wants business owners to know about a program called Access Seattle.
"We triage we almost serve as kind of case manager and want to build out solutions to individual businesses and their needs," said Surratt.
Surratt says city advisers provide free help to business owners to scout new locations, help with permitting, and even connect them to financial assistance programs.
"Obviously these mom and pop shops are the heart and soul of Seattle," said Surratt.
Access Seattle has recently helped two barbershops in Central District, and 12 businesses in Northgate find new locations.
Stevens says the new owners went beyond fair and are actually kind.
But he hopes more developers realize it's smart to preserve businesses like his.
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"They're keeping me here because it's in their best interest," said Stevens.
The city says that since last March, it has helped 98 businesses impacted by construction in its Access Seattle program.