Aurora Village: Time For Change -- Remodeling Welcome For Many Tenants

-- SHORELINE

Fluorescent orange signs shout the end of an era for Alan Turner Jewelers, one of the original tenants of the Aurora Village mall.

The close-out sale signs are as distasteful to Ann Turner as a flaw in a diamond.

``I hate those,'' says Turner, wrinkling her nose at the hand-written signs plastered inside and outside the store. She is trying to liquidate her inventory of fine jewelry before the mall closes this winter for a multimillion-renovation.

Thirty years ago Turner and her husband, Alan, set out to create a prestigious shop in an area that promised upscale clientele and well-respected neighbors to accompany Nordstrom and Frederick & Nelson department stores.

The Turners imported green marble from Italy and put their name up in big gold letters on the store facade. They attracted a loyal following of customers. The same young couples who bought engagement rings and wedding bands returned over the years to buy anniversary gifts and wedding presents for their children.

But like a once-cherished silver tray shoved behind everyday china and plastic dishes, the jewelry store lost some of its appeal as it became surrounded by a hodgepodge of novelty stores.

The growth of regional malls contributed to Aurora Village's demise. Turner said enclosing the open-air shopping center came too late to stem the flow of customers to Northgate and Alderwood malls.

Gone are the gold-striped canopies and smartly dressed women in hats and gloves - the touches of elegance that Turner remembers from Aurora Village's early days. By April, the mall itself will be gone except for the space occupied by anchor tenants Frederick & Nelson and Nordstrom.

``Aurora Village is ready for a change. Too many stores are not upscale like this area demands,'' Turner said.

Pan Pacific, a Vancouver, B.C., development company, bought the 510,000 square-foot Aurora Village last year and decided to tear down the mall.

Turner, who has a second store in Edmonds, plans to return to the mall once it is renovated.

But other business owners say they don't want to go through another upheaval.

Patricia Scudder, owner of the Aurora Village Travel Agency, moved her business a block away to Aurora Avenue after she learned that part of the mall would be demolished instead of renovated.

``Twelve years ago, when I bought this business, it was a different retail climate at Aurora Village mall. Every space in the mall was filled, it was busy and bustling,'' Scudder said.

She said she was lucky to find a new location so close to her base of operation. Many former Village tenants have been unable to find commercial space in the area and are faced with starting over in a new community.

Darrell Vange, general manager of Pan Pacific's Seattle office, said about 12 long-term leases were bought out to clear the way for the mall's redevelopment. About 10 businesses remain open in the mall, but about 20 businesses have closed since summer.

Vange said he will be more selective about tenants in the new Aurora Village mall. The buzzword in shopping malls is focus.

``You don't just want to go out and take anyone who will step up and pay the price. A successful redeveloper looks for businesses that will support other businesses,'' says Steve Palevich, project manager for Terranomics, which renovated the Crossroads Shopping Mall in Bellevue.

The center's two current anchors will be joined by Emporium Department Store, based in Eugene, Ore., which plans to open a 50,000-square-foot store.

Vange said he expects to have 80 percent of the mall leased by its opening in 1992, but he won't name names yet. Nordstrom and Frederick & Nelson will continue to operate during construction.

Rebuilding on the 35-acre site at Aurora Avenue North and North 205th Street has been a long time coming. Throughout the past decade, the prospect of improvements were dangled by one owner after another.

Even those who aren't mall tenants have a stake in the mall's prosperity, says JoAnne Mills, director of the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce. The more successful the mall, the more spinoff business to local merchants.