Friedlander's To Leave Downtown

Say goodbye to another Downtown Seattle institution. Friedlander's Jewelers is leaving Downtown after more than a century.

Since 1886, Friedlander's has operated Downtown, establishing itself as the place to shop for ladies of the Sunset Club and gentlemen of the University Club.

Like Frederick & Nelson, it was the prestige place for bridal registries.

But now, the lease is up and the Ohio-based owners say they can do better at the malls.

The Downtown store operated for 57 years at Fifth Avenue and Pike Street and moved in 1985 to Fifth Avenue and Union Street.

Now, butcher paper covers the windows, announcing the closure effective at the end of the month.

Mark Light, executive vice president of Sterling Inc., of Akron, Ohio, owner of Friedlander stores, says the company may return to Downtown sometime if the right location were found, but there are no plans to do so now.

His company, which bought the Friedlander stores in 1986 from the Friedlander family, will continue to operate Friedlander stores at Northgate and Southcenter malls.

Sterling Inc. runs 888 jewelry stores under various names, and nearly all are in malls.

Light said most employees of the Downtown store would be offered work in other Sterling stores. Sterling at one time had planned to establish the Downtown Friedlander as the flagship of a new "guild" (fine jewelry) division. Light said the store did well but not as well as

company expectations or as well as the Friedlander stores in malls.