EVERETT – Backers of the new Everett Events Center hoped it would transform the city’s business district from an after-hours ghost town into a vibrant economic hub.
Now that the center has logged its first birthday, most people suggest things are off to a good start, but still have a long way to go.
“The arena is doing what it was supposed to do,” said Tom Hoban, chief executive officer of Coast Real Estate Services. “It’s the private sector’s turn right now to bring in the retail and the residential to complete the picture.”
What the arena was supposed to do is to put feet on downtown streets that for decades have been vacant after dark.
“I think it’s kind of early to have a lot of heavy-duty financial data,” said Karen Shaw, Everett’s economic development director, when asked about the center’s financial impact.
“We do know that the center will probably bring in the neighborhood of 700,000 people into Everett once this year is completed. A large number of those folks have probably never been to Everett, or it’s been so long ago that their information is tainted. Just to drive that number through Everett is phenomenal.”
That number of visitors has clearly helped downtown restaurants and taverns, and a number of new eateries have opened to take advantage of the people visiting hockey games, concerts, ice shows and other events.
Scuttle Bannan, co-owner of Scuttlebutt’s Brewery on the city’s waterfront some distance away from the downtown area, said the arena has helped her business, particularly on weekends when people have more time to come to events early.
“We have people who are obviously heading to the game because they have their Silvertips jerseys on,” Bannan said. “Anthony’s and other restaurants have been calling us to seat a group of people because they’re so full. I just think every restaurant must be affected.”
Barry Sarles, who remodeled his building on Colby Avenue and put in a new Quiznos Sub shop, said business has been good.
“It’s a fantastic store,” he said. “I’m really lucky.”
Sarles said he’s working on opening another franchise, but hasn’t ironed out enough details to say which one it is. “People are spending money,” he said of building owners such as himself who have been cleaning up their structures and investing in new ventures.
Eddy Thedsombandit, who opened Stadium of Thai restaurant across Hewitt Avenue from the arena, said his business is directly tied to the schedule of events. “When they have a game here, we’re very busy,” he said. “If there’s nothing, it’s kind of quiet.”
Sarles agreed that the arena is really the only thing drawing significant numbers of people downtown.
“If they can book another 100 events, it’s going to be very busy,” Sarles said. “Time will tell.”
But he did say he can already see a “re-emergence of downtown … with many happening bars and restaurants.”
Norm Kosky of Camano Island agrees.
He said he attended about half the Silvertips hockey games, often coming in early and eating both lunch and dinner downtown.
“I feel good when leaving the center and Everett,” he said. “It is hard to believe I used to think of Everett as a second-rate sleeping hick town.”
That kind of talk is music to Shaw’s ears. But it doesn’t surprise her. She said she’s hearing it a lot these days.
“Sometimes it takes a situation like the events center to give people a reason to come to your city,” she said. “We’ve had people who felt that there wasn’t anything in Everett to see. Now, with the events center, we’re starting to get lots more play about what’s happening here. People are starting to catch on.
“I’m all atwitter because I’m seeing our city come alive.
John Mohr, director of the Port of Everett, agreed people in the region are giving Everett a second look.
“There’s this whole aura of downtown Everett now,” he said. “I think people are proud to say they’re from Everett.”
Mohr noted that a host of local projects – including the port’s $200 million redevelopment of a portion of the waterfront to add condominiums, offices, retail shops and a public amphitheater – are all helping to initiate a turnaround.
“We just have a whole lot of neat things coming together in the downtown – the Everett Station (transit center), the arena, the Silvertips. It just really galvanized everything.”
In addition to new restaurants, the downtown has also seen some new apartment complexes intended to attract people interested in the city’s revitalization.
Earlier this year, Skotdal Real Estate’s Peninsula Apartments opened near the corner of Colby and Pacific avenues, a few blocks southwest of the events center. The facility, along with more restaurants and shops downtown, can help attract more residents to the city’s center, said Craig Skotdal, president of Skotdal Real Estate.
He said that combining the events center with street improvements along Hewitt and Colby avenues, the creation of the downtown improvement district and incentives for construction of more residential development have all added to downtown Everett’s momentum.
“It’s another step in the right direction,” he said. “Anytime you have entertainment and recreational facilities as a magnet for urban dwellers, it helps.”
Some of the home buyers who previously wouldn’t look north of Mill Creek because they wanted to be close to the sporting and cultural events Seattle offers now are looking in Everett and north, he said.
“Long term, that’s great for our economic potential, because that brings talented people into Everett,” he added.
But redevelopment isn’t automatic.
In 1995, the 12,000-seat Spokane Arena opened at the same site the city’s old arena had occupied. Like the Everett center, Spokane’s arena began hosting a busy schedule of events, along with the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs, from the start.
There’s no question the arena increased the number of people dining, shopping and visiting downtown Spokane, said Jon Eliassen, president of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council.
However, the immediate area around the Spokane Arena hasn’t seen dramatic change, he added.
“In the two-block radius around the arena, that’s changed very slowly,” Eliassen said. “It didn’t create its own neighborhood; it just contributed to the larger downtown.”
Shaw recently launched a survey to see what types of businesses people want to see downtown. She said the city’s intention is to be aggressive in recruiting new businesses that will continue to give people things to do in Everett.
“People are on the streets later than they’ve been in the past,” she said. “It’s our job make sure they have things to do.”
Shaw said the survey results aren’t in, but she’s sure she wants to see more retail downtown as well as places for activities and entertainment. “We need mixed retail and housing and all the things that make a full community.”
Coast Real Estate Services’ Hoban noted that there are a number of good restaurants already downtown, but he said the city needs what he calls “the next wave” if it hopes to attract people to live there.
“With the exception of the Subway and the Quiznos, there aren’t many national franchises that have shown up,” he said. “In order for residential to be stimulated at a higher level, we’ll need more restaurants to support it. I would hope the arena would be a stimulator for that.”
He also noted that there’s “a bit of a structural problem” around the arena with absentee landlords mixed in with the locals.
Many absentee owners aren’t fixing up their derelict buildings, and it shows.
“I would love to see the area around the center remodeled with a higher standard used for the types of businesses, one that can complement Colby and the events center,” said Allison Raduziner, who attended the center’s grand opening and the rodeo.
Hoban said redevelopment will happen, but it will definitely take some time.
“There are people coming to downtown who otherwise wouldn’t be there,” he said. “The business market is responding slowly, but it will come in time.”
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.
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