You have 2 1/2 more hours to stop by for snacks, sips, and stories as Illusions Hair Design gets ready to close its doors forever. Owner Sue Lindblom and her longtime team are retiring from the salon business.

Lindblom announced the closure three months ago so clients had plenty of time to prepare; we talked with her then about the salon’s 44 years and trailblazing business practices. (She has also sold the building at 5619 California SW, so its future is in somebody else’s hands.) P.S. – we want to thank her for 14 years of sponsoring WSB!

That’s the “memory wall” at Illusions Hair Design, which will close permanently after this Thursday (May 26th), as first reported here in February. The final hours for the salon will be a celebration, open house-style, and in case you’re not on the Illusions mailing list, here’s the invitation:

Come help us celebrate our 44 years in business with our GOODBYE OPEN HOUSE on Thursday, May 26th from 1-6 pm. We won’t guarantee to have enough Champagne to last the entire event (we will try!), but we can guarantee there will be cheers, MANY tears, and and abundance of THANK YOUs and fond farewells from us!

If you haven’t seen our memory wall yet, (photos spanning decades, salon memorabilia, and more!), our OPEN HOUSE DAY will be your LAST CHANCE to view it.

If you wanted one last chance to see us before we go, this day is it! We can share stories and memories together one final time. We will have some special guests from years past this day too! (Yes… SUE, LINDA, NANCY & CHARLET plan to be here!)

To everyone who has already said their goodbyes, sent cards, flowers, and gifts… THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Illusions (5619 California SW) has also announced plans for a fixture, décor, and more sale 10 am-4 pm (corrected) June 18th. It’s closing down because after 40+ years, proprietor and co-founder Sue Lindblom is retiring, and her staff all decided to leave the salon business too.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Angela Rivers‘s dad started West Seattle Coins on the southeast corner of California and Oregon in 1979. Her mom had a hair salon in the back. She and her brothers “grew up in there,” she recalls.

But suddenly, it’s the end of the line for the West Seattle Junction shop (which changed its name to Bellevue Rare Coins for unified branding with the company’s four other shops outside the city, but remains under the same family’s ownership).

You’ll recall the West Seattle shop closed after a robbery last month, and announced it would stay closed while remodeling and improving security. That was the plan until the landlord, the Senior Center of West Seattle, informed Bellevue Rare Coins that rather than allow extensive remodeling, they wanted to end the lease – originally running through next year – early, so they could expand Senior Center operations into the corner space. After the Senior Center sent us an announcement of this late Wednesday, we contacted BRC to find out about their plans, and that’s how we ended up speaking with Rivers today.

“It was a shocker. We didn’t see this coming,” she said. “It took us by surprise.” She also described it as a “double whammy” in the wake of the robbery (part of a regional rampage for which suspects are in custody), which in turn happened just three weeks after a glass-smashing attack at the store.

Here’s how the Senior Center explained it in the announcement sent to us:

Bellevue Rare Coins has been a great tenant and member of the Junction business community. We made this decision because Bellevue Rare Coins had recently announced plans to invest in tenant improvements in that space. The Senior Center staff and board are currently in a strategic planning process that include future plans for that space, and it was very likely that we were not going to renew their lease when it expired at the end of 2023.

Our future plans include an entrance on the California Ave. side of the building, which would help our community members find and access our facility. It may also be used in the future as an extension of our current Café, which offers freshly prepared soups, salads, sandwiches, and coffee weekdays to members and non-members of all ages.

Our short-term plan is to make this corner space available as a “pop-up” event and retail space. As we outline our next steps in our strategic plan, we will share our vision and get feedback from the community.

We want to thank Bellevue Rare Coins for their partnership as a longtime tenant.

Rivers says reopening without remodeling wouldn’t have worked because it’s “not a functioning store” given the damage from the robbery as well as the needed security upgrades, which she says they’ve since put in place at their other stores. Those other stores (in Bellevue, Issaquah, Lynnwood, and Tacoma) are all going strong, she says, so they’re “going to make the best of this” and might find another Seattle location, maybe even in West Seattle, someday. Meantime, she wants local customers to know, “We’ve enjoyed every moment of being part of the West Seattle community.”

Today we’re welcoming a new WSB sponsor, Sound Credit Union (4730 California Avenue SW). New sponsors get an opportunity to tell you about what they do, so here’s what Sound Credit Union wants you to know:

At Sound Credit Union, we’re West Seattle through and through. We know it. We love it. But what makes West Seattle so unique? With so many well-loved features and landmarks, it can be hard to agree on a favorite, but no list would be complete without including The Junction.

To visitors, or even just those new to the neighborhood, the crosswalk at California Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street can seem puzzling. The light turns red, and traffic stops in all directions? Pedestrians can cross whichever way they want? What is this madness?!

But the beauty of The Junction — known as “pedestrian scramble” — is that it puts people first. And as a local not-for-profit credit union, we’ve always put people first. We’re known for our personal touch, our great interest rates, and our active support of local organizations: we helped more than 290 community organizations just last year alone!

And right now we’re celebrating West Seattle by giving away free T-shirts* featuring that quirky, people-first crossroads at The Junction to anyone who walks into our location on California, just a few steps from the all-ways intersection we all know and love.

Come in and say “hello” for your free T-shirt! And if you open a checking account at our West Seattle branch location, we’ll even throw in $100*. We’re Sound Credit Union, and we’re worth crossing the street for. Diagonally, if you want!

Sound Credit Union is located at 4730 California Avenue SW, just south of SW Alaska Street in The Junction, and is open 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Monday–Friday and 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Saturday. You can find us online at soundcu.com, and you can contact our West Seattle location by phone at 800-562-8130, ext. 8220.

*Visit soundcu.com/junction for offer details.

We thank Sound Credit Union for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.

Another corner commercial building in one of West Seattle’s junctions is up for sale. This time it’s the building on the southwest corner of California and Fauntleroy in Morgan Junction, home to Peel & Press, Pet Elements, Starbucks, Subway, and West Seattle Vision, and a ~39-space parking lot. It’s listed as “26,668 square feet with future development potential with NC3-55 (M1) Zoning” at an asking price of $6.2 million. According to county records, the building last sold 20 years ago for $2.2 million. Records also show that two properties to the south, same side of the street, have sold recently – the Ivy Court mixed-use building (6525 California SW) for $12.3 million last November, and the Marnae Apartments (6533 California SW) for $6.6 million last month.

P.S. We should note that the former WaFd building kitty-corner from the newly listed building (6428 California SW) still has a FOR SALE sign up; we’ve never found a public online listing for it, so we don’t know the asking price.

Another of the vacant buildings/storefronts on our watch list is the former Swedish clinic at 3400 California SW, a building that’s become a much-tagged eyesore and more, with other problems such as the afternoon two weeks ago when an alarm sounded for hours. 14 months have passed since what’s now Virginia Mason Franciscan Health announced it would be taking over the building. At the time of that announcement in March 2021, VMFH said they expected to open the clinic in fall. But months have gone by with no sign of work, and vandals have abundantly and repeatedly tagged the building (our photo only shows part of it), inside the parking garage as well as on the exterior. One complaint filed with the city two weeks ago declares that the building is “becoming a neighborhood nuisance.” Crime concerns also were noted; last December, the vacant building was hit with what the police report estimated as a $250,000 burglary. Permit records were inconclusive regarding the status of the project, so we inquired with VMFH. After eight days, we received this reply attributed to the organization’s divisional real-estate director Wade Moburg:

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health is committed to providing high-quality primary care, women’s health, laboratory and radiology services to West Seattle residents through our new clinic. We experienced some delays to our preliminary timeline and have not yet begun remodeling. However, we recently secured a building permit from the city and hope to begin construction in the near future. We will share more information as it’s available and look forward to serving the community in our new space.

VMFH did not comment on the current state of the building, which it does not own; county records show the owner is an investment firm with an address in Edmonds. The Seattle Municipal Code says property owners are liable for removing graffiti. City records show three complaints about the state of the building filed in the past two months, consolidated with the current status “under investigation.”

After Village Woodworks closed at 4538 California SW in The Junction three and a half months ago, the property owners told us they hadn’t decided what to do with the space – whether to find a new tenant or pursue redevelopment. Signs that just went up reveal their decision: The 5,426-square-foot space is available for lease. The listing is short on verbiage, simply noting the building’s location on “the premier retail corridor in West Seattle.” Village Woodworks had been there for 25 years. That side of the 4500 block of California SW has several other spaces in transition, including the Campbell Building‘s for-sale listing (asking price has since dropped from $6 million to $5 million) and the about-to-start-demolition project at the former Lee’s/Kamei/Naked Crepe spaces.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

While the Westside Awards are presented by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the words of gratitude from this year’s recipients make it clear that the awards are more about community than commerce – while embodying how the two are intertwined.

The winners were honored at the first in-person Westside Awards breakfast since 2019, held this morning at a new venue, the Brockey Center at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) on Puget Ridge.

Speaking toward a sea of tables, WSCC executive director Whitney Moore noted the Chamber’s membership now stands at 231. She yielded the podium to emcee Brian Callanan, longtime local broadcast journalist who’s with the Chamber as director of the annual Loop the ‘Lupe event in West Seattle (June 4th this year).

The four winners, chosen by the WSCC from community nominations (here’s the full list of those), were announced last month – but this was everyone’s chance to see, hear, and applaud them.

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Big event for local yarn aficionados starting Wednesday – here’s the announcement from Seattle Yarn (5633 California SW):

Destiny Itano and Cheryl Lea of Seattle Yarn are celebrating their fourth year as owners of Seattle Yarn at 5633 California SW in West Seattle! They are also one of 20 local yarn stores in the PNW participating in the Puget Sound Local Yarn Tour, an amazing annual tradition that’s been going on for 16 years. The tour is 5 days and starts this Wednesday, May 11. Many fiber art aficionados make the annual trek, trying to make it to as many stores as they can in a few days to have their “passport” stamped. In past years, many tour participants have been “finishers”, having reached all 20 stores!

Also: There is a daily prize drawing, a free knitting pattern, free crochet pattern, locally dyed yarns, a new and exclusive yarn from Indigodragonfly, a selfie station designed by Destiny’s son – a local artist, conversations with master fiber artists, and, of course, deals! I would also encourage folks who appreciate fine arts to come by and check out some of the beautiful display knitted pieces – which are stunning! And everyone loves the ever growing family of gnomes and bears, knitted by Elspeth and crocheted by Winter.

(Gnomes and bears NOT for sale)

Seattle Yarn will be open extended hours for the tour, May 11-15: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 10 am to 8 pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.

Big day at West Seattle’s only comic-book store, Tails to Astonish (just south of The Junction at 4850 California SW; WSB sponsor). It’s the first Free Comic Book Day – a nationwide event – since Nicole and Shaun Duff opened Tails to Astonish:

Along with the store’s regular merchandise, today you’ll find, yes, free comic books! 1 free per person, 2 more free with a $10 purchase, and “all $1 comics, as well as comic sets, are buy 2 get 1 FREE!”

Tails to Astonish is open until 7 pm tonight.

Need concrete work? Portal LLC is in West Seattle, here to help! As we welcome Portal to the WSB sponsor team, here’s what proprietor Chris Hildebrand wants you to know:

We are unique in that we live in and exclusively service the community of West Seattle. We’ve called West Seattle home for over 20 years and we are deeply connected to these neighborhoods and the families who live here. Staying in one place means we can be responsive to our clients when they need us, and it also means accountability – we are your neighbor, we are easy to find, and we can only be successful if we take great care of every single West Seattle resident we are fortunate enough to work with.

Clients tell us they like working with Portal because of our professionalism, our clear communication, and our focus on Customer Satisfaction. Our online reviews tell the story from our client’s perspective and we hope people check those out. Here is a text I recently received which is typical of the feedback we receive: “Chris, I just wanted to tell you that in all the days of rain lately, our basement has remained dry. We are thrilled. Thanks again for the work with the drains and the new pavement at the back of our house. It was money well spent!”

We have been involved in volunteer grassroots efforts in and around the West Seattle DIY skateboard community for over two decades and don’t have any plans to quit. If anyone has a concrete skate spot they need help with, I invite them to hit us up!

In that photo is a recent project in West Seattle. Our client hired us to build stairs and a wall, and halfway through the project asked if we could add “skateboard-able” elements to the design. This was the concept we ended up coming up with together. We love building stuff like this and dream of pouring concrete skate structures all throughout West Seattle!

Envisioning a project? Reach Portal at chris@buildwithportal.com and 206-419-3880 (text or voice).

We thank Portal LLC for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.

Three biznotes tonight:

OTTER ON THE ROCKS: The new Admiral District bar is having its first Open Mic night tomorrow (Tuesday, May 3rd). Signups start at 6, performances start at 7, hosted by Midnight Marauders. This is the start of Otter on the Rocks’ hopes of bringing live music to the space; if you haven’t been there yet, they’re at 4210 SW Admiral Way.

BEAUTY THERAPY COLLECTIVE: Following up on the Friday announcement, we stopped by during Sunday’s open house to say hello to entrepreneur Nikki Nguyen:

Her business Nikki’s Lashes and others are sharing the space in the building she recently bought at 4208 SW Oregon, and there’s room for more, with individual suites like this one:

There’s more info on her website.

TINY SCIENCE: Jen the Entomologist is back again this year with an annual specialty of her Tiny Science business – Mantis Madness:

As she explains it, “It’s a family-friendly project that involves growing anticipation for hundreds of tiny baby praying mantises to hatch in a cup. It’s totally amazing. After hatching, babies are meant to be released into the yard or garden. It’s an awesome experience to behold and a great educational experience for everybody and anybody. Great for seniors and singles, too.” The kits are available now, for a few more weeks – here’s where to go.

(Photo courtesy Click! Design That Fits)

After almost two decades in West Seattle, first in Admiral and then The Junction, Click! Design That Fits (WSB’s longest-running sponsor) is looking for new ownership.

Click! proprietor John Smersh made the announcement this morning: “Our sweet little shop (dare we say neighborhood gem?) is seeking a new owner who will continue to share thoughtfully designed, contemporary goods with our community … someone in our community who shares our vision, values, and aesthetic and has dreams of thriving in local, independent retail.”

From the announcement, the backstory:

John and Frances Smersh grew Click! Design That Fits from its humble beginnings as an extension of Frances’s jewelry business in the Admiral District to the well respected Junction destination you know and love. From the beginning, our hope was to find someone to take it over when the time came that we were ready to move on to our next adventure.

Frances’s diagnosis of Young Onset Alzheimer’s Disease in 2015 at age 48 meant a significant plot twist in our narrative. Shortly after diagnosis, our incredible crew stepped up, taking over day to day operations and allowing John to focus on his caregiving responsibilities as Frances’s disease progressed. Many of you likely saw John and Frances at Click! during that time, as her desire to stay connected with her community continued throughout it all. Frances passed away last September, and John and the Click! fam have been beyond blessed with so much continued love and support from all of you. We’re ready to pass the torch and keep the love-fest going. It’s time for Click! to transition to new ownership.

From the start, Click! has represented community and connection. For over 17 years we’ve been building relationships between the often overlapping groups of our designers/maker/artist colleagues and vendors, our neighbors in West Seattle and beyond, and our staff-crew-fam. These connections have allowed us to survive and thrive, even in times of hardship. It would not be surprising if our next owner is already a part of this community, or connected to someone who is.

The original home of Click! was 2210 California SW (now Zelda Zonk Consignment); in 2010, the Smershes moved the shop south to a larger space at 4540 California SW, where that “community and connection” has included countless in-store events, from West Seattle Art Walk receptions to author signings. The shop also has embodied community by supporting and featuring local makers and West Seattle-themed merchandise. And it’s supported sustainability with reusable items for everyday living. (Plus, if in-person shopping is not your thing, Click! has long offered online shopping.)

Putting the shop on the market does not mean any immediate changes, Click! says: “While we are anticipating a transition period over the coming months, we’ll still be open regular hours.” That’s Wednesdays-Saturdays 11 am-4 pm and Sundays 10 am-4 pm. They’re also noting, “Please know that our crew (John included!) aren’t able to answer questions about the sale and that all inquiries will be directed to our broker.” She is Carrie Topacio (carrie@vantageseattle.com, 206.402.5567).

(Photo courtesy Beauty Therapy Collective)

Just west of the northwest corner of 42nd and Oregon, in a rapidly redeveloping pocket of The Junction, stands an old building that’s just been given another new life, as the Beauty Therapy Collective. The new owner of the building at 4208 SW Oregon is Nikki Nguyen, who intends to use the building to “provide suites for small individual business owners who want to own their own business and be their own boss.” That includes her own business, Nikki’s Lashes. She has room for others offering beauty and spa services – massage and cosmetic procedures, for example. Some spaces are taken, some are open. She’s been renovating the interior in time for a grand-opening celebration this Sunday (May 1st), noon-2 pm – everyone’s invited to stop in for a look.

We promised more biznotes – here are four West Seattle businesses inviting you to weekend celebrations:

WEND AND MOLLY’S TURN ONE: It’s first-anniversary-party time at neighboring WEND Jewelry and Molly’s Bottle Shop (3278 California SW). WEND proprietor Wendy says, “West Seattle has been a wonderful community to open a shop in during a global pandemic with no bridge, and we want to say THANK YOU to our neighbors! Celebrate our first year with us.” 4-8 pm Saturday (April 30th) they’re having a party with music, treats, tastings, and at WEND, discounts and raffles. Neighbor Inkberry Tattoo (which opened 9 months ago) is joining the party too. P.S. WEND has class openings right now too – more on that here.

INDIE BOOKSTORE DAY @ PAPER BOAT BOOKSELLERS: This Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day, and Paper Boat Booksellers (6040 California SW) has a big day planned. The store opens at 10 am; shoppers have a chance at raffles and will get to “spin the wheel.” You can also get a passport to start a 10-day journey to all 24 independent bookstores around the Seattle area – visit them all and win discount coupons for all the stores! (More on this at seattlebookstoreday.com.) Then at 11 am, three local authors lead a special Family Reading Time a few doors north at HeartBeet Event Space.

HIGHLAND PARK CORNER STORE: 4 pm-7 pm Sunday (May 1st), Highland Park Corner Store invites you to come enjoy mariachi, tacos, and beer.

The award-winning store’s owner Meaghan says, “To celebrate spring and with a nod to Cinco de Mayo, we’ve invited CocinaMX 32 back, this time they’re making tacos! Enjoy your tacos with a draft beer while listening to mariachi from Mariachi Alma Nueva (featuring one of our staff on violin!).” The store is at 7789 Highland Park Way SW.