Westwood Village apparently will soon have yet another vacant storefront: Payless ShoeSource, which has a store on the shopping center’s south side. National news outlets including NBC, Reuters, and CNN quote Payless tonight as saying it will close all 2,100 of its U.S. stores in the months ahead, with liquidation sales starting as soon as this Sunday. (Thanks to the readers who’ve sent tips on this.)
I’m really starting to worry about the Village. Too many stores closing and nothing much opening in their place. This is a good area, not a lot of competing retail close by, you’d think this would be an prime location.
Isn’t Westwood Village going to be rezoned for retail/residential? I heard it being talked about, but haven’t heard anything in awhile. Maybe the owners have other plans.
Nothing pending along those lines in the 11 years we’ve been doing his. They’re actually making their way through the permit process for what sounds like large-scale parking-lot resurfacing, though…
Westwood Village needs to look at their leasing agreements. They need to add more restaurants, especially with a bar, to their portfolio. Enough people like within walking distance, as well as it being a bus transfer hib, that it would be well received. Even the small spaces could be equipped with kitchens for small cafe or food truck-esque spaces.
Our family lives nearby, it’s unfortunate the once nice vibe is gone. We really missed the bookstore during the week of the snow. Somehow, management does not seem interested or concerned about the atmosphere (vacant spaces) there.
I agree with Josh and A. This could be a really vital part of the community, but it feels like the management doesn’t care. A local mom wants to open a drop-in play space there, but she’s been rebuffed. Can you imagine how much business the tenants would get if parents had a place to drop off their kids and go shopping, eat a meal, visit the dentist or doctor. The space where Clearview occupied is still empty!
Westwood Village is like two blocks from the Seattle city limits. A business that wants to serve the area should do it from just south of Roxbury rather than subject itself to Seattle’s anti-business regulations.
White Center has as many (actually more) empty storefronts as nearby retail hubs within city limits. The county has its own issues. On topic: I think one challenge of WWV is that the parking lots are terrible, but there is so much single-family housing nearby the number of customers able to walk there is not amazing. I think once the area is upzoned (if that EVER happens) that would be a boon to the shopping center.
Most of Westwood’s empty storefronts don’t seem to have resulted from a lack of nearby customers – they’re chains in national or regional trouble – Radio Shack, Barnes & Noble, Carter’s, Fresh Vitamins, Pier 1, now Payless. (In the non-chain closures, Clearview left when they built their own space and moved; Giannoni’s is the lone local indie that just up and shuttered.) And WWV does have multifamily housing on part of three sides – with park/school land on part of two sides. I do wonder what the endgame is. The day of the mall seems past.
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