Ross Gives Boost To Retail Core -- Flagship Superstore Will Occupy Vacant Woolworth Building

Ross Dress for Less, an off-price clothing retailer, will open a flagship superstore in the empty F.W. Woolworth Building in the heart of downtown, injecting new life into an area that had deteriorated in recent years.

The new store of the Newark, Calif.-based discounter was announced yesterday with banners in the windows of the building at Third Avenue and Pike Street proclaiming, "Ross is coming."

Ross leased the 80,000-square-foot building with plans to open before the holiday season, said Dan McGinnis, the Colliers Macaulay Nichols International broker who represented the owners, a group of Seattle family trusts.

Jack Chesbro, the Seattle Pacific Realty broker who represents Ross, said that with 45,000 square feet of sales space, the downtown Seattle store will be nearly twice as large as Ross' area outlets.

He said the store will offer name-brand merchandise, including apparel, accessories, footwear, fragrances and linens.

Ross will renovate the art deco-style building where Woolworth operated for 54 years until it closed in January 1994 as part of a nationwide restructuring. Ross still is negotiating a permit with the city for upgrading the building.

The banners announcing Ross' arrival were put up prematurely, but the discounter's interest in Woolworth's had been widely discussed for some time.

Filling a need

Downtown retailers say Ross' entry into a market that has focused heavily on upscale customers in recent years will fill a niche that has been neglected since J.C. Penney closed its store at Second Avenue and Pike Street in 1982.

"In every way this looks like a plus," said Fred Weiss, a realty broker and owner of the Joseph Vance Building at Third Avenue and Union Street.

"This is terrific for Third and Pike. Pike has the potential to be the best street in Seattle."

The street leads from the Washington State Convention & Trade Center near Interstate 5 to the Pike Place Public Market at its western end.

Other developments

NikeTown and Planet Hollywood are planning to open later this year at Sixth Avenue and Pike Street.

Banana Republic has recycled the Coliseum Theater at Fifth and Pike into a major store, and other new life is promised with Nordstrom's planned moved to the old Frederick & Nelson site across Pine Street.

Weiss said Pike Street was "great between Sixth and Fourth, but things have deteriorated around Third Avenue. This will be a good draw."

Besides customers from nearby office buildings, Ross is expected to draw from the many new residential buildings developed in the Denny Regrade and around the Market, Chesbro said.

A decade of growth

Ross was founded in 1982 with six stores in San Francisco and has grown to 275 stores in the United States.

It opened 34 stores last year and its sales in the last fiscal year were $1.26 billion, with profits of $36.8 million.

The chain already has 11 stores in Washington, including one recently opened in Issaquah.

A lease on the Woolworth building leaves only one more major empty downtown building to be restored - the former I. Magnin store at Sixth Avenue and Pine Street, which has been empty since June 1993.