PORT ANGELES — Sequim Mayor Walt Schubert, whose city is on the cusp of becoming the North Olympic Peninsula’s regional retail hub, urged Port Angeles business leaders Monday to join Sequim in robust economic development.
“What is good for Sequim is good for Port Angeles, and what is good for Port Angeles is good for Sequim,” Schubert declared.
“We are all in this together,” he said, addressing an audience of about 75 attending the weekly Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
The mayor owns a downtown Sequim real estate management company about a mile east of a 181,000-square-foot Wal-Mart “superstore” rapidly rising on a former cow pasture at West Washington Street and Priest Road.
Two other regional shopping centers — one to be anchored by The Home Depot home improvement warehouse and the other possibly by a Fred Meyer department store — are going through the permitting process and a court challenge by a citizens group.
Because both matters are pending before the City Council, Schubert told the chamber audience that he could not talk specifically about the proposed Sequim Village Marketplace or Bell Farm Center shopping centers.
The third “big box” retail property already under construction, Wal-Mart, is about 13 miles east of the seven-year-old Wal-Mart store east of Port Angeles, which is limited in growth by a septic system.
Sequim’s Wal-Mart shopping center will be served by city sewerage and may include adjacent retail stores.
‘Trail of opportunity’
Saying “business follows a trail of opportunity,” the Sequim mayor stopped short Monday of acknowledging to the chamber audience that the trail was heading east from Port Angeles to his city.
Schubert, who contends that Sequim City Hall has become more business-friendly since he took office in 1999, said economic development is inevitable.
“New business is coming to the local area whether we want it or not,” said Schubert.
“If we don’t allow new business within the city limits, it will develop outside the city limits. The city will receive none of the sales tax benefits and people will still go there to shop.”
Schubert encouraged Port Angeles leaders to focus on commercial and industrial development around the harbor, which he considers a major economic asset.
