LAKEWOOD — Most business owners want to be close to a main road. But Lakewood Grocery owner Dennis Bray has learned you can be too close.
A new left-turn lane has pushed the through traffic on Lakewood’s main entrance, 172nd Street NE, closer to the 97-year-old building he has leased for the past 11 years.
As a result, fewer people are stopping now, so Bray plans to move his business to a new building 300 feet to the west.
That leaves in question the status of the 97-year-old building, a local landmark. It’s always had the pulse of a country general store. Bray still sells livestock feed, and pictures of a 346-pound halibut caught by a neighbor on a trip to Alaska vie with cigarette ads and neighborhood bulletins for attention.
Bray’s cellphone interrupted his jawboning about the store’s future with Wayne Vroman, a longtime Lakewood resident and friend.
After a brief exchange, Bray hung up and moved toward the coffee machine. "That was a lady at the post office," he said. "She asked me, ‘Will you bring me a cup of coffee?’ "
About the time he finished filling the cup, a bright yellow Volkswagen bug pulled up to the curb, aimed the wrong way in a narrow parallel parking spot. Bray walked out to deliver the coffee through the driver’s window and chatted briefly.
That kind of curbside service at Lakewood Grocery is not unusual, Vroman said.
"I’ve run cat food over to the neighbor," he said.
Vroman, a retired butcher, is not even an employee. He just likes to hang out there and doesn’t mind helping out in a pinch.
But like many country stores in recent years, Lakewood Grocery’s funky historic charm is giving way to modern convenience.
The old store’s high ceilings and uninsulated wood walls make for steep heating bills, Bray said. "You can stand here and almost feel the wind blow through here."
Insurance isn’t cheap, either. He calculated how much he could save on insurance and heating bills in a newer building, and figured it would almost cover the cost of the move.
The store began to lose business in October 2002, he said. That’s when the state Department of Transportation squeezed in a left-turn lane in front of the store to improve traffic flow.
It worked — perhaps a little too well, from Bray’s perspective. Even though the speed limit is 25 mph, Bray said, people appear to be doing 40, and now they pass closer to his front door and the tight parallel parking there.
"Someday, someone’s going to get clipped," he said. "I just didn’t feel that it was safe. Someday, I think a car’s going to come through this building."
Some customers appear to have been scared away. Bray estimated that his business has declined 10 percent to 15 percent, or about $200 worth of business a day, since the turn lane was put in.
He was shocked when Snohomish County wanted to charge him $72,071 in traffic mitigation fees for moving to his new location.
The fees are designed to get new development to pay part of the costs of improving roads, said Steve Dickson of Snohomish County Public Works.
The state Department of Transportation did not charge any fees because the store’s customers would simply be moving nearby.
The county used traffic studies provided by Bray’s consultants, Dickson said.
After talking with County Council members Kirke Sievers and John Koster, Bray did another survey that provided specific customer information about their travel patterns. That new information led to a new assessment of $27,847.
That’s still a lot for his small business, Bray said, especially if the old building gets new tenants. His current landlord, Al Dabestani, said he already has an offer on the old place, and others are interested in leasing part or all of the 6,000-square-foot, two-story building.
"I’m going to keep it as a grocery store or whatever else" would work there, Dabestani said. "We’re planning to do some remodeling, spend some money on it and fix it up."
For Bray, the move is hard.
"That’s what I feel bad about — taking a piece of the history away," he said. "You just don’t see these kind of stores anymore."
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
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