EVERETT – In the face of a city ordinance that firmly encourages him to close up shop, one downtown business owner said he’ll continue to specialize in eleventh-hour loans and hawked jewelry for years to come.
“I understand that a revitalized urban core needs to be more dressy,” said John St. John, owner of Loaner Pawnshop, “but we still do a very respectable number of loans and have a very loyal clientele.”
St. John has filled his downtown store with rings from messed-up marriages, antique weapons from the Middle East, inky black leather jackets, dusty stereos and other goods for 24 years. The prior owner of the store was there for 38 years, St. John said.
The pawnshop is one of only three in the city’s downtown core, and city officials want that to be the limit.
Last month, in an emergency action, the City Council banned pawnshops, tattoo parlors, arcades, teen clubs and other types of businesses from the ground level of downtown buildings. The ordinance was an extension of one passed last year.
The extension was an emergency action because the previous ordinance had expired. The city hopes to approve a far-reaching downtown comprehensive plan in June, and officials didn’t want certain businesses to open during a lapse in restrictions.
There will be a public hearing on the emergency ordinance on Wednesday morning at the council’s regular meeting.
That means the three existing pawnshops in downtown Everett can rest assured that they won’t have new competition anytime soon.
“I suppose that may be comforting,” St. John said. “At one point, there were up to six or seven pawnshops downtown.”
Even so, St. John’s shop is different. Where else can you find a vintage Afghan firearm inlaid with mother-of-pearl?
“We’re the old-school stuff,” said Kennda Good, a clerk at St. John’s store.
She pointed to a statue of a voluptuous maiden cast in burnished bronze. Nearby was a giant buck’s head, a trophy from a long-ago hunting excursion. A large model airplane dangled just below the ceiling.
And then there’s the cash. Pawnshops offer loans when banks won’t, Good said.
“We get a lot of Boeing people when they have layoffs,” Good said. “They become our customers then, and when they go back to work, they come in and spend those paychecks.”
If St. John closed his shop, the city wouldn’t allow another one to open. So St. John plans to stick around – for a very long time.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
Public hearing
A public hearing to discuss the city zoning ordinance that bans certain businesses from the bottom floor of downtown buildings will be at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Everett City Council Chambers at 3002 Wetmore Ave.
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