Esther Short Commons, even from a downtown Vancouver enthusiast’s perspective, has never quite matched its performance with its preceding fanfare.
But as newer and spiffier residential developments take shape on the Columbia River waterfront and elsewhere downtown, Esther Short Commons’ retail component can claim a milestone achievement of sorts.
That’s because, to the best of anyone’s memory in the project’s roughly 17-year history, the 20,000 square feet of retail space is about to be filled. Some tenants attributed this achievement to downtown’s growth while past-and-present retailers noted the hassle of grappling with parking ticket inconveniences, unwanted surprises from upstairs Commons residents and an ever-present homeless population.
Atom Massage Spa at 595 W. Eighth St. will be the final piece to the Commons’ retailing puzzle. There was a glint of possibility that the retailing would be filled in 2015, but it didn’t happen as one of the incumbents closed shop.
Atom’s proprietors — husband and wife Hai Wang and Marie Li — plan to open Feb. 4. They will take over the long-vacant corner space previously occupied by a dental office. Atom’s hours will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday; 12:30 to 7 p.m. Sunday.
“I just liked it,” Li said Tuesday of the decision to lease in the Commons. “It is close to the Columbia River.”
Plans for the Commons were announced in February 2002, calling for nearly 90 percent of the 100 or so apartments to be reserved for people at or below 60 percent of the community’s median income. Two private developers, the Vancouver Housing Authority and the city of Vancouver, joined to build the five-story, nearly $20 million building.
Besides its premier location on Esther Short Park’s west side, the Commons also would boast an 8,000-square-foot permanent indoor home for the Vancouver Farmers Market on the Esther Street retailing side. Construction started in July 2003 and opened for leasing the next year.
And the popular market did make a go of it indoors, from spring 2005 until it pulled the plug in autumn 2007.
Today, an Anytime Fitness occupies much of the former market space. Next door, at the corner of Esther and Eighth streets, Kafiex Roasters opened its gourmet coffee cafe on Sept. 11.
The 1,500-square-foot space offers a location for the business’s wholesale coffee production that moved from Orchards, said Seidy Selivanow, who co-owns the business with husband Matthew Selivanow. The couple chose the location in May when they saw it was empty, having been vacated by Umpqua Bank.
Walk-in traffic has been “better than what we expected,” Seidy Selivanow said. “The community has been very supportive.”
Their business is next to an Edward Jones office operated by financial adviser Mark Miller. It’s a great location, Miller said, with the exception of parking tickets that are sometimes issued to his customers as well as the occasional homeless person who tries to enter the front door.
Anytime Fitness, Kafiex and Miller lease their space from the city, which charges $20.62 a square foot, said Linda Carlson, a city property management specialist.
The city has had a 30-year lease from the housing authority since 2005, paying the VHA $11.70 a square foot. The lease started some dozen or so years ago at $8 a square foot, escalating 2.75 percent annually, said Leah Greenwood, VHA property and asset management director.
Tom Tucker of Portland-based Tucker Enterprises owns six of the West Eighth Street retail spaces. He could not be reached Tuesday.
Those spaces include Atom Massage Spa’s future home.
“I hope in the future our business will grow up and provide a good service for people,” said Li, the co-owner.
