New Businesses Coming Downtown

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Story Published: Jun 29, 2009 at 5:23 PM PST

By Holly Zuluaga

KENNEWICK--It's booming business in downtown Kennewick.

A handful of new stores opened, and they're not just bars.

"People are seeing that downtown isn't just bars and tattoos, that we do have that and there's a niche for it. But we have a wide variety of things. We have more than just that downtown," Executive Director for the Historic Downtown Partnership Tim Dalton said.

Places like, Cellular 911, The Cupcake Bakery, Bloomingdeals, and an art gallery have moved in.

"We'd like to see the boutiques and those types of things come downtown. We'd love to see a bookstore look at downtown, we're getting wine galleries, the art galleries, we'd like to get tasting rooms downtown," Tim Dalton said.

Places like Ivory Jazz, Backbone, and Soul Food have come and gone. But the Downtown Partnership says the empty stores haven't lasted long.

"As we lose businesses we're seeing new ones right there ready to take the spot and go," Dalton said.

One wine bar and panini grill was swapped for another.

Ivory jazz was replaced by Roxy, and the Cupcake Bakery moved in where Soul Food was.

In the late 90's, the Downtown Partnership fought back a 28% vacancy downtown, now just 3% of storefronts are empty.

Just in the last 4 years they've gained 18 businesses that have stayed downtown.

The Downtown Partnership says businesses that start here, stay here.

Washington Hardware has been here over 100 years.

“The thing about downtown is the rents are affordable and it's creating a sense of community. Downtown is coming back to life because of the affordable leases and just the environment of being downtown and everything is centralized,” Dalton said.

It's a mix of the old and the new, another step in transforming its past image.

The downtown partnership says most of the businesses that move in are start- ups, but some have moved over from Marineland Village because of the cheap rent.

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