Key Retailer Arrives In Woodinville

WOODINVILLE

Downtown Woodinville is taking another step toward becoming a destination retail center.

Barnes & Noble, the fourth anchor store in TRF Pacific's massive development, is to open Nov. 4 with two of the chain's latest concepts: a music section where shoppers can preview hundreds of compact discs and a cafe with a bakery.

The popular bookmonger will follow on the heels of Top Food and Drug, which opened two weeks ago. The super-duper market, featuring several restaurants, a bakery, and a produce section with the likes of star fruit, aloe-vera leaves, Thai chili and plantains in its 67,000 square feet, is wowing many shoppers.

Joyce Kobold, on her first visit to the store, recalled wondering as she watched it being built, "How are they going to fill that place up?" After seeing how they filled it, she said she's likely to become a regular Top Food and Drug shopper.

To Roy de Soto, gesturing toward the colorful display of bulk candies, the store is "an example of how Woodinville is changing from a little bitty town to a major shopping area."

Molbak's, on the other side of Woodinville's main street, Northeast 175th Street, may still be the biggest store in the city (counting the uncovered nursery area that comprises half of its 200,000 square feet). But since Target and Cineplex Odeon's Woodinville 12 opened last spring, the unnamed TRF Pacific development has become Woodinville's key retail engine.

The developers' intent is to capture a share of the $610 million Woodinville-area residents are spending out of town. Sales and property taxes generated by the development are eventually expected to bring $400,000 to $600,000 to the city treasury each year.

When completed, the 450,000-square-foot extension of the downtown business district will take its place alongside Redmond Town Center, Totem Lake Mall in Kirkland, Crossroads and Factoria Square shopping centers in Bellevue, and Pickering Place in Issaquah as a "community shopping center" - the retail industry's moniker for a shopping destination larger than a neighborhood strip mall but smaller than a regional mall such as Bellevue Square.

The newest community centers, Woodinville and Redmond Town Center, are designed to fit in with the existing downtown shopping districts.

Growth of midsize shopping centers is fueled by residential development and by shoppers' reluctance to fight their way through traffic jams to more distant destinations, said J'Amy Owens, president of the Retail Group in Seattle.

And if Bob Parks, TRF Pacific president, is right, his company's project will set in motion other changes.

"We expect that, as we capture more of this potential demand, more people will be able to do more business in Woodinville," he said. "It should trigger additional development or redevelopment of the rest of downtown."

Retail extra

Anticipation is growing around the possibility that Bellevue Square developer Kemper Freeman Jr. will land Saks as a fourth anchor store. A Saks spokeswoman declined to comment on Freeman's statements that he is in discussions with the upscale retailer. Since Bellevue Square has replaced bankrupt Frederick & Nelson with a variety of smaller retailers, the mall would have to be expanded to accommodate Saks.

Ron Sher, founder of Bellevue-based Third Place Books, has signed up four ethnic restaurants and a bakery for his first large store: a 44,000-square-foot bookstore and gathering center at Lake Forest Park Towne Centre. It's scheduled to open the middle of next month. . . . Two new stores, Petco and Party Universe have opened in Sher's Crossroads Shopping Center.

Molbak's of Woodinville has no immediate plans to build more stores after opening a branch in Seattle's University Village. But Kirsten Molbak, vice chairwoman, isn't ruling out the possibility of expanding in the future.

HomeGrocer.com, Bellevue's home-delivery grocery store, has added more than 700 varieties of beer and wine to its inventory. . . . Turn Off the TV, but leave the computer on. For shoppers who don't find its Westlake Center and Bellevue Square locations convenient, the Redmond-based family game company has built an Internet store. It also will open a Redmond Town Center store Nov. 1 for the holiday.

Shop Talk looks at new businesses, trends and changes on the Eastside's retail shopping scene the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.

------------------ TRF Pacific stores ------------------

Shops open in the downtown Woodinville development: Amanda Cleaners, Cineplex Odeon Woodinville 12, Cold Stone Ice Cream, GNC, Great Clips, GTE, Hollywood Video, Kinko's, Kits Camera, Museum Quality Discount Framing, Starbucks, Taco Del Mar, Target, and Top Food and Drug.

Planned stores and estimated opening dates: Barnes & Noble, Nov. 4; Mongolian Grill, December; Party Universe, mid-November; Payless ShoeSource, Nov. 1; Petsmart, March; Red Robin, March; Samurai Sam's, December; Seattle FilmWorks, December; and Zuka Juice, November.