End of an Era and Beginning of a New one – Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery moves to Bellevue
Gallery Opening at Bellevue Place
The Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery, after 17 years in Kirkland, has decided to move to a new and exciting location within the Bellevue Collection at Bellevue Place, located seconds away and adjacent to Bellevue Square at the intersection of N.E. 8th and Bellevue Way.
Gunnar’s new location is only 6 minutes from downtown Kirkland.
To celebrate the new location, Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery will host a Grand Opening Party and Holiday Group Exhibit – Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Gunnar will continue with his monthly “Meet the Artist” Series Receptions on the 2nd Wednesday of the Month.
We wish Gunnar great success in his new gallery at Bellevue Place.
Posted by Rob Butcher on Monday, November 10, 2008 at 6:12 am
Filed under Features, Retail / Shopping · Tagged with Bellevue, Downtown, Galleries, Retail / Shopping
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Happy trails, Gunnar!
We wish you all the success in the world. We will miss your gallery downtown, but we’re sure to see you around town. Cheers.
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Best of luck. Sad to see you go.
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Gunnar – we will miss you. You have been such an important part of the community, both as a business member, a supporting Kikland Citizen and a voice for reason in City policies. There is little doubt that with the current City Council “Gang of Four” lack of business support,- that you had to move to a city that does support their business community. Am sure that with the proposed “Head Tax” on employee’s of business”s in Kirkland – you will not be the last leaving town, and the tax revenue that you once paid will be lost., and missed. The next time we buy something from you, we just need to drive to Bellevue.
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HEY, here’s a thought…
Lease the space at a reasonable rent where the landowner can pay all costs and make a decent profit on his investment. Put a much needed and hopefully popular business in the space Gunnar is vacating. Make it small and inviting and something that provides a reasonably priced service. Find something that locals and visitors alike would frequent and enjoy.
Maybe you could name it something cute…
I KNOW
They could call it Pasta Ya Gotcha!
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It’s a sad day when a business like Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery is driven out of town by a rapacious landlord. Demanding unreasonable rents for old dilapidated buildings seems to be “the Kirkland way.” And, at a time like this, with businesses struggling on every corner, you’d think that landlords would take a breath and actually lower rents in order to keep their spaces full. We can expect more of the same in Kirkland where some landlords have absolutely no loyalty to their long time tenants. Maybe one of the farsighted of this bunch could get a sign shop to move in–one with a specialty in “for lease,” and “going out of business” signs.
Good luck Gunnar, we’ll miss you.
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Pleasant journeys, Mr. Nordstrom. You will be missed by many.
With regard to the previous statement there are no rapacious landlords. No question of loyalty. This is still a free market we live in. The landlord made a business decision to set the price of his land. Mr. Nordstrom made a business decision to leave. A new tenant will make a similar business decision to rent Mr. Nordstrom’s vacated space. Each individual is striving to maximize his investment. That is exactly as it should be. To suggest that a landlord should “take a breath and actually lower rents in order to keep their spaces full” is nonsensical. It makes no more sense than to suggest that Mr. Nordstrom pay “unreasonable rents for old dilapidated buildings”. Both have calculated what it takes to run their respective businesses. They know very well what they are doing as they likely have been in business for decades. I wish Mr. Nordstrom and his former landlord had reached an agreement but they did not. It is likely that the landlord knows from experience the value of an unoccupied retail space in this economic climate and now he will find another tenant at a mutually agreed to price. That is how the free market works. Unless we have decided we no longer like the free market and we should rely on the government to enforce a solution. I pray you don’t want that. Pleasant journeys.
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I don’t even know you but you were really friendly to our family when we were new in town. I never bought anything from your store but I always enjoyed peeking in the window!
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Ah, you make it so simple. Just like Goldwater did. From what I gather, the landlord in this case lives in Kirkland. What kind of downtown does he want to live in? One with empty storefronts? A downtown with a never-ending series of failed businesses? Do landlords have no responsibility to their own communities? No, I don’t want government enforcing such a solution, but I would like to believe that property owners had some sense of commitment to their communities.
There is a difference between maximizing your profits in the long run and maximizing your profits this week!! Your view of our system (no-holds barred, piratical capitalism) is the reason that the recent election turned out the way it did. You must think that Ayn Rand’s books were non-fiction–they were novels.
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I and my family will miss the great artists and their artwork that Gunnar brought to Kirkland. My grandkids and I spent many hours over the years enjoying the creativity. We will now drive to Bellevue to enjoy the new gallery. Of course while we are there we will do some shopping and probably dine. I don’t blame the landlords for what has happened in Kirkland. They have a right to get whatever return they think they need to have to own the property. The delapidated condition of our downtown is a direct result of failed City policies. As far as I can tell there is no incentive for redevelopment. I watched the Council special meeting the other night concerning building heights and set backs and step backs and such. It was very clear to me that with the exception of one council member there is no expertise, rationale, or otherwise economic data to support anything being considered. Thus, jiminkirkland I predict little to no redvelopment for the forseable future. Any redevelopment will bring higher rents and more turnover of spaces. Greedy landlords? I don’t think so. Not very far thinking, innovative and stiffling City government? Yes!
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I appreciate Rob of Kirkland Views for posting the notice of my sad departure from Kirkland and I also appreciate all your kind words and wishes for success in my new location. I have truly enjoyed my retail experience in Kirkland and only assumed that I would retire here. I have been blessed with making an abundance of friends over the years and look forward to continuing those relationships even as I move 5 miles down the road.
Having been a retailer in the downtown area for 17 years it is very difficult to think about leaving let alone actually doing it, but when push came to shove, something had to give.
There were a few factors that provoked my “business” decision that “Shades of Goldwater” alluded to and it wasn’t just a rent increase, but rather a series of concerns that forced me to make the decision to move.
My substantial rent increase during my slowest business period in 17 years and a failing economy obviously had a big influence on that decision, but it alone might not have forced my business decision to move.
But…
Add two years of construction development at the McLeod Project (of which I whole heartedly supported) and realized its impact upon me and the retail traffic when I voiced my opinion in support. While I knew it would impact me severely, it is a fantastic project for downtown Kirkland and I had to support it regardless.
Add a slow and crippling economy that has sparked fear amongst the strongest.
Add a community that has become “us against them” in defining a direction for Kirkland.
Add a council majority that appears not to support active retail or development in the downtown.
Add a lack of parking or at least the vocal “hear ye hear ye” Kirkland has no parking proclamation
Add a steady decline in tourist activity since 2000
Add a steady decline in walk by retail traffic of which rent is predicated on
Add a dwindling synergistic gallery population from 16 galleries in the 1990’s to 4 now. (I wish I had kept track of how many times I heard that “Kirkland has too many galleries”) so I could relay that now…but maybe 4 is the right number to all those that offered their opinions on that to me.
Any one of these are deterrents to a retail business. Take one or two together and you can probably continue business, but add them all together and the cards are stacked against you in odds that you will never survive.
As for the landlords and a free market, there are all kinds and I suppose this would be a very uninteresting world if they were all the same. Past experiences in Kirkland with landlords has shown a huge diversity. From absentee landlords or community landlords who just continue to offer low rent and are happy to keep a tenant, landlords like West Water Development who had a vision about their properties and Kirkland and put forth the effort and capital to create that vision. It was West Water who raised rents to unusually high standards in the profitable 90’s, yet it was also West Water who reduced their rents when the economy slowed in 2000.
And then there are the landlords that only follow along and want what the next guy is getting without regard to condition of property, economic conditions or what that rent amount is actually relating to.
Free market, you got it and it is all over the board and character driven.
There doesn’t seem to be any defining factor that supports a consistent rent structure in Kirkland and that makes it very difficult to work within.
There is no remorse in regard to my landlord other than I really didn’t want to go, but when the decision was made, I was immediately presented with opportunities that far exceeded my expectations and my move to Bellevue Place will be exciting and a much better place to do business.
Thank you all again for your support and kind friendship over the years and I look forward to seeing all of you In Bellevue.
Gunnar Nordstrom
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