PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Gottschalks has closed its doors for good.
The downtown retail store at 200 W. First St., which employed 30 people, went out of business on Saturday after the West Coast chain filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
K.O. Erickson Trust, which owns the 34,900-square-foot Port Angeles building, hired Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty in Port Angeles to market the 63-year-old building to prospective buyers or leasers.
Dan Gase, president of Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty and co-lister of the building, said no prospective buyers or leasees have stepped forward.
But it’s still early in the game, he said.
“We’ve been working on it for about three weeks now,” Gase said.
“We’ve talked to a few people. . . . . It’s a long, slow process.”
Pat Hyden, secretary and treasurer of K.O. Erickson Trust, is optimistic that the local charitable group will have a new tenant in the building before the holiday season.
“We want something good for the community,” she said.
“We don’t want see any more empty buildings.”
On a national level, the retail market is still struggling, and there is hesitation about expanding into new areas, Gase said.
Marc Thomsen of Uptown Realty is the other co-lister.
Kent Myers, the Port Angeles city manager and a member of K.O. Erickson Trust, said the city has shown that a retailer can turn a profit in the Gottschalks building.
“I don’t think the general public is aware that the local Gottschalks had a very thriving business, based upon the numbers we saw,” Myers said.
“The fact that it’s going out of business is not a negative reflection on Port Angeles.”
Remaining optimistic, Gase said the struggles faced by national retailers have opened doors for local businesses.
“Now there’s an opportunity for local businesses looking to expand that maybe have never been able to get a building like this,” Gase said.
One possibility, Gase said, is spitting up the building into sections for multiple tenants.
“There are opportunities for local people,” he said. “We’re talking with local people.”
Myers said K.O. Erickson Trust would be open to a local buyer or leaser.
“We would certainly support that,” Myers said.
“It is a challenging market,” Gase says. “But I’m confident that we’re going to be able to come up with something. … It’s a pretty neat piece of property.”
The property is unique because of its high visibility and the foot traffic it gets, Gase said.
K.O. Erickson Trust pumped money it generated from Gottschalks back into the community through charitable donations.
“The trust is interesting, being the owner,” Gase noted. “They have a different set of priorities. The trustees are really, really community minded. Their priority is getting charitable contributions back to the public.”
Storm said the marketing effort to find a new tenant for the property is underway, with brochures and “feelers” being circulated.
“We hope to get another retail store in there, but we’ll see what happens,” Storm said.
The listed price for the property is $1.5 million.
If the building is leased, the K.O. Erickson Trust would continue to filter money into charities.
If it is sold, the trust would put the money into an investment account, Myers said.
Asked if he is concerned about the loss of income that streams into local charities from the store, Myers said: “On a short term basis, I would not have a lot of concern. We do have reserves built up.”
But if a new tenant isn’t found within a year or so, it would “tend to undermine the ability to fund local organizations,” Myers said.
“I hope we get another retailer like a T.J. Maxx or a Tuesday Morning,” Myers said.
“We just want to make sure the community knows that there’s lots of effort going in to try to find an occupant and/or purchaser, because we know how important it is to the community,” Gase said.
Founded in 1904 and based in Fresno, Calif., Gottschalks Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 14.
A company-wide liquidation sale began April 3 after a Delaware bankruptcy judge approved the liquidation of Gottschalks Inc.
A consortium of liquidators — SB Capital Group of New York, Tiger Capital Group of Boston, Great American Group of Los Angeles and Hudson Capital Partners of Massachusetts — purchased Gottschalks at an auction in March.
Gottschalks had 58 department stores and three speciality stores in Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Idaho and Nevada. The company employed about 5,200 people.
Gottschalks management and staff would not speak publicly about the closure, citing orders from corporate headquarters.
“We’re sorry to see them go,” said David Storm, managing trustee for K.O. Erickson Trust.
“They’ve been good tenants — Gottchalks — for us and therefore Port Angeles.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com
