BIZNOTES: HomeStreet, Lodge, Cactus

Three West Seattle biznotes:

LEADERSHIP CHANGE AT HOMESTREET BANK: Change at the top for West Seattle’s branch of HomeStreet Bank (WSB sponsor) – vice president Melodie Van Houten has left to lead the Federal Way branch, and Nam Le is West Seattle’s new branch manager. They posed with Santa during last Friday’s open house in West Seattle:

Van Houten was active with many West Seattle community organizations during her time here, including the Chamber of Commerce. Federal Way is much closer to where she lives. P.S. Another holiday event is coming up Friday at the Junction branch of HomeStreet (4022 SW Alaska) – which marks its third anniversary this month – a mini-bazaar noon-5 pm, with local vendors plus cocoa and cookies for visitors.

THE LODGE IS OPEN: Also in The Junction – thanks to the commenters who’ve pointed out that The Lodge Sports Grille has opened its West Seattle location (4209 SW Alaska), a year and a half after first word that it was on the way. We last wrote about it November 25th, noting that proprietor Shawn Roten said it would be opening despite the parent company’s Chapter 11 filing, which continues to make its way through the court system; all Lodge locations remain open.

CACTUS REOPENS TODAY: As mentioned here December 4th, Cactus at 2820 Alki SW has been closed for a little over a week for a “10-year refresh.” General manager Darin Kawabata tells WSB the work is on schedule, and that Cactus will reopen today, as expected.

Nam Le December 14, 2016 (1:26 pm)

Thank you for the mention on the West Seattle Blog! I came from our HomeStreet Capitol Hill branch and love to work within involved communities. Everyone has been so friendly and welcoming. I’m very excited to get to know and serve this wonderful community. Stop by and say hi because i’d love to meet you!

What Happened? December 15, 2016 (7:09 am)

What’s the deal with WSB bringing up Lodge’s financial issues every time it’s mentioned? Is there a reason for this, where no other businesses’ finances are relevant to your reporting?

WSB December 15, 2016 (7:19 am)

Hi again. Yes, the reason is “because it’s news.” As for “every time” – this is only the second time we’ve mentioned the Chapter 11 case, first time we’ve mentioned the Lodge is open, and it would be a rather glaring omission to not mention it at all. As for “other businesses” – is there another currently open West Seattle business in Chapter 11 that you are suggesting we’re not mentioning? – TR
- What Happened? December 15, 2016 (4:25 pm)
  
  I’m not the reporter. By only mentioning it for Lodge, though. By not researching other businesses you mention, it seems like a vendetta. I just did a cursory Google search and found 2 Junction businesses, one restaurant and one retail store, that have Chapter 11 filings in the past 18 months. The Lodge would be the 3rd, albeit I only spent 5 minutes clicking around.
  
  Why not lay off? I don’t know the restaurant all that well, but they do plenty of things right but their finances are way off. Why does that justify tagging them as such in every mention of the place? You’re putting the value of this awesome blog at risk, chasing away businesses interested in enriching West Seattle.

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