The cat is out of the bag, Trader Joe's is coming to Sammamish.
Though Regency Centers has not officially announced the new tenant slated for Ace Hardware's 11,000 square foot space at its Sammamish Highlands shopping center, the company has submitted an application for tenant improvements for the specialty grocery store, city permit staff said.
Ace had secured an extension to its lease following last year's announcement that it would be moving from the center, but the extension expires in August, making way for a new Trader Joe's location in Sammamish.
Recently, the land-swap proposal that Ace owner Tim Koch had referred to as the last best chance to relocate Ace in Sammamish was denied by the city of Sammamish.
Koch recently wrote a letter to customers, asking for help to keep Ace on the Plateau:
Dear Ace Customers,
I regret to inform you all that the city voted down our proposal. As of right now we will be closing our doors August of this year. If anyone has information about space on the plateau please contact me via email or call 425-868-2203. I would love to keep Ace alive on the plateau!
I sincerely appreciate all of your support and patronage throughout the years. Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Tim Koch and the Sammamish Ace Team
Without Ace, the nearest general hardware stores for Sammamish residents are in Redmond or Issaquah.
Ace branded stores are part of a 4,400-store network originated in Chicago in the 1920's, but each store is individually owned.
Ace occupies an 11,548 square-foot anchor location in the Sammmamish Highlands Center. Regency also manages Inglewood Plaza and Pine Lake Plaza, which have a combined 120,000 square feet of space and are both fully leased.
Despite mixed emotions, do you like the idea of gaining a Trader Joe's in Sammamish? Tell us in the comments.
Previous coverage of Sammamish Ace Hardware
Sammamish Council Rejects Ace Hardware Site
Sammamish Ace Hardware Owner Continues Uphill Climb
Here lies Ace Hardware
Council Hears Two Hours of Comment on Sammamish Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware Owner Asks Sammamish to Represent at Council Meeting
I'm also disappointed in the City Council and staff for always looking at the glass half full and not meeting the real needs of their community and basically regulating businesses to prevent any reasonable development. A good example of that is the so called Sammamish Teen center. You should just call it the Sammamish Tweener center. Those that use it are not really those that need a place to gather but that is what happens when you give it to the Boys & Girls Club. That place should have been developed for those in this community aged 15 to 18 not 12 & 13.
I am really disappointed in the city council for not coming to an equitable solution with Ace. It seems to me they should be tasked with working together to find a solution both Ace and the council. I would hate to lose another small business and especially a hardware store that is so close and convenience. To answer the price question earlier...who cares if they are more $ when they have expertise and you don't have to drive off the hill to HD or Loews.
That community is also facing the possible loss of their last remaining Hardware store, a TrueValue franchise business. The city council there discussed trying to use taxpayer money in a variety of economic development schemes to help core businesses like a hardware store stay in the community, but the majority wasn't comfortable with something like that, calling it a "slippery slope". Still, the city's administrators are trying to work with the hardware store to stay, as Sammamish City Hall is presumably also doing. On the other hand, Mercer Island residents and business leaders have been unsuccessfully courting Trader Joe's for at least a decade, and the fact that new location is opening in Sammamish should be seen as something as a coup, rather than as a Faustian bargain as seems to be intimated here. In other words, I would be spiking the football and asking the city how they helped attract TJ's, and figure out how to use that expertise to attract or retain a hardware store in the community (I hear there is a TrueValue on Mercer Island looking for a new home!).
Agree with you on Regency to an extent - I can't blame them on taking the highest rent, but can we get some decent restaurants on the Plateau? As for the waste of gas - I'll guarantee more Plateau residents go to Trader Joe's in Issaquah or Redmond today than go to Ace - so this will probably be a small net positive from an evnironmental standpoint.
If the request to move Ace to another location would have been granted, then we would have no problems with Trader Joe's using the empty space. The real question (from my perspective); how would Sammamish look like should the request to have a local business, independently owned, opened a huge store in a place that some deemed not in accordance to the zoning of our city? Who would have cried foul if traffic would have become bad and nobody did anything to stop it? Etc
Kendall, come live in our little city before you start to think you can tell us hat we should be happy for, get real.
PLEASE email the city council ASAP. I will be doing that tonight! A letter to the paper would be good too. Lets put the pressure on them to find ACE a home after their loyal devotion to our city. And don't forget ....John Curly is on the radio (97.3) so maybe we should call in!
The main thing I want to add, however, is that while the issue is complex, Kendall's MI anecdote, as folks in my hometown of Spokane wanted a Trader Joe's so much that we tracked a petition and any tips on a possible new store there while I worked at a business newspaper there (sad for me, TJ's came to my own neighborhood right after I moved). Living close to a Trader Joe's was not crucial, but one of the benefits I thought of when choosing my new home here on the West Side. That doesn't eliminate the huge benefit of having both locally owned businesses and a hometown hardware store. We all remember when Gilman Blvd. was dark last winter and grocery stores were closed--ACE is a very vital local business. Anyway, I mostly wanted to note that despite all the issues, it's not surprising that getting a TJ's would make Sammamish the envy of other communities. That doesn't eliminate the essential questions of if Sammamish is friendly to small business and if finding ways to add additional retail space (ie., Town Center) shouldn't be prioritized.