Seattle council committee convenes retail roundtable to tackle downtown vacancies, safety and recruitment

Council members and retail stakeholders on Thursday convened a roundtable focused on downtown retail recovery, exploring measures to fill vacant storefronts, recruit compatible tenants and address safety and perception issues that affect customers and sales.

Speakers from the Downtown Seattle Association, the Washington Retail Association, Downtown Works (a retail consulting firm), property owners at Pacific Place, Nordstrom and the Office of the City Attorney all advised the Governance, Accountability and Economic Development Committee on practical steps the city and private sector can take to support brick-and-mortar retail in the downtown core.

John Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, said a healthy downtown retail sector supports jobs, tax revenue and "alive and active and safe streets," and warned that high vacancy rates were reducing jobs and sales tax revenue. He cautioned that recent proposals at the state or local level that increase operating costs could make Seattle less competitive for large retail tenants: "The b and o tax proposal that was announced yesterday is not a helpful selling point to our efforts to attract retailers to Seattle."

Retail consultants and landlords pushed for a permanent retail advocate role — a salaried "retail recruiter" embedded with downtown recovery work to coordinate landlords, prospects and permitting. Midge of Downtown Works described the role as long-term: "The job of the retail advocate is not to be the deal maker, but is a matchmaker... It takes a long time from the time you meet a retailer till an actual deal is made." Tom Boudreaux, Downtown Works operations adviser, urged better coordination among stakeholders, saying multiple parties are spending money and effort that "doesn't seem to be coalescing through a glue that's holding everyone together."

Landlords and local retail operators urged faster permitting, more short-term activation of empty storefronts and pilot parking incentives to bring shoppers downtown. Janelle Jensen of BH Properties, which owns Pacific Place, said streamlining permits and providing one dedicated permit reviewer for large assets would speed tenant fit-outs. She also recommended expanding Seattle Restored-style interim-activation programs to incubate small retailers and attract foot traffic. Pacific Place and other owners noted that many downtown vacancies are large spaces (10,000 to 25,000 square feet) that are costly to fill, requiring creative deal structures often tied to sales reporting.

Laura Bass, store manager at the Nordstrom flagship, urged attention to perception and convenience: "Having been here for 8 months, I feel like there has been a lot of progress made, but I'm not sure that other people see that... parking is hard. If you're gonna go shopping, if you go to Bellevue or Alderwood... there is free parking." Several stakeholders suggested city partnerships to subsidize or better utilize underused garage stalls during off hours.

City Attorney Anne Davidson said prosecutorial focus on repeat offenders has been part of efforts to reduce retail theft. She cited the city's "high utilizer" work: "a 118 individuals were responsible for over 3,500 police referrals," and said more focused prosecutions have reduced repeat activity and enabled enforcement. Committee members and retail stakeholders discussed integrating private commercial camera feeds into the city's planned real-time crime center; Council members said private video would be invited into the center to speed investigations.

Council President Sarah Nelson said the council will pursue concrete steps including permitting reforms, evaluating parking pilots and continuing coordination with the Office of Economic Development and Downtown Seattle Association. She noted a piece of legislation authorizing DSA-managed kiosks had passed full council earlier in the week; kiosks would offer local advertising, wayfinding, multilingual information and free Wi-Fi to promote downtown businesses. Council members also flagged upcoming review of an auditor's report on organized retail theft and implementation progress.

The roundtable did not produce formal votes but yielded priorities the council said it would explore further: a long-term retail recruitment position, permit-process improvements, expansion of interim-activation programs, parking pilots to lower barriers for shoppers, and continued partnership on safety measures and camera integration.