PORT ANGELES — Three downtown businesses are packing up and moving away and a fourth Port Angeles business will shut down.
Matay Lunch and Lattes, Red Region Tattoos and Quilted Strait are all leaving the Port Angeles downtown.
Page Turners bookstore, 901 S. C St., will permanently shut its doors this year.
Aarron Laidig, owner of Red Region — a tattoo, piercing and clothing store at 108 W. First St. — said he would “very temporarily’ move to Electric Beach Salon at 117 N. Oak St. before looking for a new place in either Sequim or Port Townsend.
“We’ll be there for about four months and then we’re not sure,” Laidig said.
“To me the downtown is dead — I don’t have any foot traffic.”
The tattoo salon had been at Electric Beach when the business was flooded as fire hoses were aimed at an upper-floor apartment that had caught fire in January 2008.
Red Region will be on Oak Street “until we decide what we’re doing,” he said.
Matay, 113 W. First St., also will be moving out of town, owner Kaysie Peabody said.
The espresso shop has been in Port Angeles for about four years, she said.
“We’re going to relocate to Silverdale,” Peabody said.
“I’m also going to expand and do a wine bar once we are there.
“I’m really excited.”
Peabody, who closed the doors to the Port Angeles shop on Saturday, said that she also had noticed a dip in foot traffic and believed Silverdale would offer more opportunities.
“I plan on opening up in May,” she said.
Quilted Strait owner Kris Cornell couldn’t be reached for comment, but the business announced its move on its Web site.
“We will be moving Quilted Strait to the old stables building at Port Gamble in April 2010,” the announcement said.
“We will be in our new location in time for the 2010 Western Washington Shop Hop.”
No closing date for the Port Angeles store was available.
The Shop Hop is a week in June when quilt enthusiasts can visit various stores in the region.
Page Turners bookstore owner Terry Smithton said she will close sometime this year.
“I have been trying to sell the business because I am moving to California to be near my girls,” she said.
Her twin daughters, Ruth and Rachel, live in Orange County, where she will move.
Smithton, who is also the president of the Port Angeles Business Association, said a combination of factors played into her decision to close down the store, which has been open for about 5 ½ years.
“My girls really want to me to live down in California, and near the first of this year I fell and broke my ankle, which was a very long and slow healing process, and then my father also died this year,” she said.
“That caused me to re-evaluate why I was working so hard to make a go of this when I was struggling so much.”
She said that when the Eighth Street bridges were closed for reconstruction, her business dramatically dropped.
The bridges reopened in February after closing in August 2007.
The store, which is located between the two bridges, suffered because of the lack of traffic.
“You could visually see the difference because people just weren’t bothering to come over here,” she said.
“I know that there were alternate routes and it wasn’t that gigantic of an inconvenience, but any time there is a roadblock, people will take the path of least resistance — and for me that meant they weren’t coming here.
“It is really sad to shut down because even though we had some really hard times, now the business is making money.
“My regular customers are very upset.”
Liquidation will start this week, she said.
“I don’t have a set timetable because I still have to put my house up for sale or rent it so I can pack up and move,” she said.
Other downtown businesses — Beckett’s Bikes, Lyre Club, Delaney’s Other Side, Copies Plus and Gottschalks — also have closed this year.
Meanwhile, about 13 businesses have opened downtown this year, including most recently: Aglazing Art at 207 W. First St., Tiger Lily Clothing at 106 N. Laurel St. and Black Diamond Bridal at 109 E. First St.
The Shell gas station on Lincoln Street and the Kokopelli Grill at 203 E. Front St. both reopened under new ownership.
__________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
