EVERETT – The closure of the Fred Meyer grocery store on Evergreen Way is prompting Everett City Council members to address the issue of how to encourage new uses of vacant retail spaces.
One preliminary proposal would penalize property owners who don’t rent to a new business after a store closes.
Council member Paula Rhyne, who chairs the Parks and Built Environment Committee, said the plan could apply to Fred Meyer’s landlord, as well as other large big box stores, including a Walmart on Evergreen Way that shut down in 2023.
Rhyne said taxing the landowners on the future potential of their land could “incentivize them to find new retail tenants.”
The landlord of the Fred Meyer property, Benderson Development, which is based in New York City and Florida, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Rhyne said she is concerned that more large retail store closures could occur in Everett as the retail environment and shoppers’ habits continue to evolve.
“So I would love to see the city get ahead of that in some way,” she said during the meeting.
Rhyne said there is already a city law imposing a yearly registration fee on vacant retail property, but it’s capped at $1,000 a year.
“For something as humongous as a land holding company, that’s nothing,” she said.
Currently, she said, the city doesn’t have the staff to impose those fees, so they are not being collected.
Rhyne said the staff shortage has also led to the city not tracking the vacant properties.
Rhyne said the amount of the tax would need to be determined at future committee meetings, but said it needs to be meaningful to have an impact on the landlord. The city council would have the final say on a fee schedule if it decides to go ahead with the plan.
Committee co-chair Elizabeth Vogelli said she was supportive of the plan.
But Vogelli said that committee members would need to determine a threshold as to how big a closed retail establishment would need to be to impose a tax on the landlord. She questioned whether the landlord of a mid-sized supermarket that closed or a pharmacy would fall under the new law.
“Is it the big-box stores named Fred Meyer, Walmart, Costco, or is it one step down?” she asked.
Rhyne said she wanted to “focus on the biggest properties first.” She said she wants to make sure any ordinance won’t affect landlords of small businesses.
Rhyne also wants the city to pass a law that would prohibit retail property owners from instituting “anti-competitive measures” on future businesses. Such restrictive covenants could be used to prohibit future stores from occupying the same property.
Rhyne said it’s unclear if those restrictions are in place at the Fred Meyer site.
“Anti-competitive measures have no place in Everett,” she said.
The focus on what happens to the Fred Meyer site and other vacant retail locations comes after a Sept. 24 vote by the Everett City Council condemning Fred Meyer parent, Kroger Inc.
The council called the planned closure “an act of corporate neglect.”
Kroger has cited theft as one of the reasons for closing the Everett store, but the city of Everett has released crime numbers that show crime was reduced after it made the store part of an anti-crime effort in January 2023.
Kroger has already reduced the hours for the Fred Meyer on Evergreen Way, which is set to close Friday. Fred Meyer now closes at 7 p.m., seven days a week, instead of its prior 10 p.m. closing.
Many of the store’s shelves are bare. An in-store pharmacy has also been permanently closed.
A spokesperson for Kroger Inc. did not respond to a request for comment on the store’s closure.
Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.
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