Once blighted area's economy now booming

Originally published Saturday, November 1, 1997

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

"This community is now perceived as a place to make money. It's not a risk anymore," says George Staggers, chief executive of the Central Area Development Association.

Staggers grew up in the neighborhood, attended Garfield High and remembers when his dad used to shop at Welch Hardware. "What's changing is that people are starting to spend money fixing up their homes. People are starting to feel more comfortable in their community. I see more people on the street, and that tells me that people are not afraid anymore," Staggers says.

Seattle artist Don Barrie, who lived a block off South Jackson, remembers asking a friend, "Why does it look like this and why does it have to be like this?"

Barrie co-founded a group called "I Love Jackson Street," which wanted to re-create the vibrancy that existed when the jazz clubs lined the street between First and Fourteenth avenues.

Barrie, who teaches art and design at Seattle Central Community College, has worked with groups of students to produce outdoor murals, including an eye-popping piece inside the new Starbucks. He also played a hand in getting two neon art pieces depicting jazz musicians Charlie Parker and Ben Webster placed on Starbucks' roof.

And more changes are coming. Staggers says his organization is about to close on the purchase of a rundown building across the street from Starbucks, now occupied by Flowers Et Cetera, a longtime neighborhood business.

One of the quandaries of the neighborhood, Staggers says, is trying to acquire and redevelop properties and still keep them affordable to existing tenants or other small, start-up businesses.

In the case of the Flowers Et Cetera building, Staggers says, the Central Area Development Association considered adding another floor or two to the property. But that may not happen if it pushes rents beyond the reach of small businesses, he says.

One way to avoid displacing businesses is to develop the vacant land that dots the Central Area. CADA is set to build a new 58-unit condominium project valued at $5.5 million on a vacant lot at 23rd Avenue and Main Street, Staggers says.

His group also had a hand in securing three dilapidated but ornate Victorian houses at 23rd Avenue and Yesler Street, which are about to be renovated into condominiums.

While some fear such gentrification, for many the changes represent a new beginning for the Central Area.

Howard Zeiger and his partner, Keith Stafford, own and operate Every Body Health and Fitness on South Jackson Street. "We were the first new business to open up and take the bars off the windows," Zeiger says.

Zieger's building was erected in 1895 and has housed a storefront church, cabinet shop, rug factory and day care center.

As part of its transformation, Zieger painted the building's exterior in vibrant shades of pink, green, purple and yellow. Inside, the gym is filled with treadmills, weight machines, free weights, and it has the ubiquitous coffee and juice bar. The clientele, Zieger says, is as varied as the neighborhood. "We've turned into a little United Nations."

Continued:

• Change is coming quickly
• Hard work is renewing neighborhood with long history
• Residents hope to keep old flavor amid new growth