Mercer Island Business District Hurting -- Merchants Marooned

MERCHANTS ON Mercer Island are feeling the effects of Interstate 90 - and the attitudes of some local residents who don't want a booming business district in their midst. -------------------------------------------------------------------

The last couple of years have been "like hell" for Kay Huseby and other business owners on Mercer Island.

Ever since the construction of Interstate 90 blocked visibility of the island's downtown - and of Huse- by's Travelodge in the process - business for many merchants has been slow. So slow, in fact, that they are still suffering the consequences.

In the past several months, two downtown grocery stores on the island - Thriftway and Safeway - have shut down. The McDonald's has changed hands and some gas stations have closed.

"We were dying on the vine," Huseby said, explaining that she no longer attracts as many customers who are driving across the island because the motel's sign is not visible from the underground highway.

On the old four-lane highway, drivers who zipped past the downtown could at least see the business district. Besides the Travelodge, the island's Denny's, McDonald's and gas stations attracted customers from the highway. Now, I-90 offers a more scenic view of the water and mountains, which, as Huseby puts it, "looks nice but isn't profitable."

Since I-90 construction was completed across the island last fall (except for links to the replacement bridge under construction across Lake Washington), Mercer Island's downtown has remained in a state of flux.

It is quieter and prettier now, and residents and merchants say the area could be on the verge of something great.

Meanwhile, local businesses downtown are still trying to understand where they stand and how the freeway has affected them.

Some blame the rerouting of highway traffic and, in the case of Safeway, the closing of on-ramps, for the area's changes. Getting off the highway to shop on the island, they say, is no longer convenient. But that seems to apply mostly to businesses that provide services to travelers and commuters.

Some merchants said they opened on Mercer Island because of its central location and because they thought I-90 would bring business to the island, not take it away.

City Council President Thom Newell, owner of Boardwalk Motors, which deals in expensive, collectible cars, said I-90 is a popular scapegoat for the problems of local businesses. But he said much of the blame should go to the economy and poor marketing.

"Businesses whose business is in direct relation to traffic would be adversely affected by I-90 . . . and I can see that many of those will not make it," Newell said.

But he said merchants who rely solely on island residents for business will also find it hard to survive.

Newell said island residents can support service-oriented businesses such as cleaners, beauty salons and banks, but other retailers need to market off the island to draw customers.

In the case of Safeway and Thriftway, Newell said, it was not I-90 that caused their closings, but poor facilities and competition from a new QFC in south Mercer Island.

Mercer Island's business district, about one square mile, is spread along a few heavily traveled streets.

Most prevalent in the few blocks are dry cleaners, banks and restaurants. There is also a big PayLess drug store, various specialty shops and boutiques - and, of course, the Travelodge, an icon known to travelers across the island since the late 1950s.

The city's business owners face other issues besides the new freeway as they try to survive in this affluent Seattle suburb. Some sense that many island residents do not want a booming business district on the island - and will do little to help the merchants who are there.

Many residents "want to keep it a bedroom community," said Sharon Swanberg, manager of Arjuna, a small women's clothing boutique. "They want the services and a few places to eat. That's it."

And Huseby said one resident told her they do not like the businesses because they attract the "riffraff" from off the island.

Newell and others say residents are not necessarily anti-business, but just do not like change in their small community. Jerry Bacon, director of Mercer Island Community Development until last year, said residents fear their business district could become another downtown Bellevue.

Megan Dascher, a Mercer Island resident who works and does most of her shopping at Bellevue Square, said she thinks the increase in traffic in the island's business district indicates Mercer Island is "getting too big for its own good."

"If they stuck a big huge Nordstrom's Rack or something downtown there, it would take away the magic of Mercer Island," Dascher said.

Bacon also said the property owners of vacant or unprofitable land are hesitant to sell to developers either because they do not want to bother with selling and developing the land or because they are expecting already high property values to rise even more.

As a result, empty buildings and open spaces surround the still surviving businesses, giving patrons fewer reasons to venture into Mercer Island's downtown.