PORT TOWNSEND — The periodic reshuffling of downtown retail establishments is now in progress, including the closure of a landmark store and its relocation to a smaller, more efficient space.
Quimper Sound’s last day at 230 Taylor St., was Saturday.
It is being moved into one of four slots in the Undertown, where it will reopen sometime later this month with a greater concentration of vinyl records, its owner Mark Haring said.
“There has been a real drop in CD sales,” said Haring, who has run the store for seven years.
“People enjoy the tactile experience they get from touching a record. It’s an emotional experience.”
Haring said that a vinyl store offers something that is not available from an online retail source, which has become the greatest competition for brick-and-mortar music stores.
Coffee service will not return in the space, which is accessible through stairs at the corner of Water and Taylor streets, as Haring will not be offering espresso in the new location.
The Undertown, which closed in January as a coffee and wine bar, is now full, with Quimper Sound and Frameworks Northwest joining the Red Raven Gallery and the Candle Store.
“It’s great to have all the spaces down there occupied,” said Main Street Executive Director Mari Mullen.
“A lot of people missed the Undertown.”
The current changes are precipitated by the expected renovation, to begin next summer at the earliest, of the Hastings Building at 940 Water St.
Hastings Estate Co. LLC plans to renovate the 122-year-old Hastings Building into a five-story boutique hotel that will open sometime in 2015 or 2016.
Project manager Heather Dudley Nollette, whose family owns the building, estimated in August that the project will cost more than $10 million.
While recent moves impact retail outside of the Taylor Street block, that block is reaping the greatest benefit, merchants say.
“You can walk down this street and see a lot of retail energy happening down here,” said Lynn LeMaster, co-owner of Lehani’s Deli and Coffee, 221 Taylor St.
Anna Quinn, co-owner of The Writer’s Workshoppe, 234 Taylor St., moved to her location three years ago from a smaller space on Water Street at which time “my business tripled.”
“It’s becoming a little Pearl District down here, with a lot of artistic energy,” Quinn said, referring to a rehabilitated Portland neighborhood.
Frameworks owner Megan Foley expects the new location to improve her business, especially since she is taking over the second entrance which opens on an alley adjacent to Tyler Street.
“This allows me to expand,” from her previous site at 118 Taylor St., she said.
“In my other location, I was alone and was the only business on the street.
“Here I will be more accessible.”
As a restaurant, the Undertown occupied four rooms of about 1,000 square feet.
Foley has all of one space and one third of the space to be occupied by Quimper Sound at its front.
As a restaurant, many people would “pass through” the Undertown without purchasing, something Foley does not expect will continue.
Haring said his new space is about half of the old one, although it has the capacity to display a greater number of albums.
He could not say how many albums are in the store, but draws inventory from a total of 60,000 records with many stored off-site.
In addition to the moves to the Undertown, The Broken Spoke, a bicycle shop, will move from 835 Water St., in the Hastings Building, to the Quimper Sound location over the course of the next few weeks.
The Wandering Angus, which closed this summer after operating at 929 Water St., will reopen later this month in 922 Water St., a small space occupied by the Red Raven Gallery, which moved into the Undertown.
Two additional Hastings Building tenants, About Time and Thomson Art Forms, have not disclosed their plans, although there is no rush, according to building owner Heather Dudley Nollette.
“We have informed all of the tenants that the renovation will begin in July at the earliest,” she said.
“We are working with them any way we can in order to do what’s best for their businesses.”
Nollette said she will encourage “pop up” businesses, which occupy retail space on a temporary basis, to consider locating in the Hastings Building during the time leading up to the renovation.
One of these pop ups opened over the weekend as Rosie Itti has moved Closet Space into an empty space at 1034 Water St. for the holidays.
The store, which has operated as a “mobile boutique” since 2012, and includes a variety of women’s fashions.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
