Rejuvenation hopes to be retail fixture in Sodo district

Rejuvenation, a popular Portland-based period lighting and hardware company, will open its second store — its first in Seattle — in the spring.

The store was on the wish list for many Seattle customers who journey to Portland to buy antique-looking fixtures for their homes. Seattle is a strong market for the store, company officials said. Rejuvenation's mailing list includes 20,000 Seattle-area addresses.

Although 70 percent of Rejuvenation's sales are generated from its Web site, www.rejuvenation.com, and its catalogs, customers like to browse in its 38,000-square-foot store.

"People always ask us, 'Why don't you just open more stores?' " said Mary Roberts, president and chief executive officer.

Like its bigger and better-known rival, Restoration Hardware, Rejuvenation is cashing in on the home-renovation trend.

Low interest rates, rising home prices and a tight economy have pushed more Americans into nesting and putting their time and money into home-improvement projects as an investment — and for fun.

Restoration Hardware has about 100 stores in the United States and Canada, including two in the Seattle area. Marketing director Dave Glassman said he didn't expect Rejuvenation to be much competition.

Both companies sell antique-looking fixtures that add instant charm to remodeled homes. Restoration Hardware sells fixtures, furniture and textiles inspired by antiques. Rejuvenation focuses on authentic reproductions of fixtures and sells furniture and textiles in its Portland store. It plans to sell those products in Seattle, too.

Rejuvenation officials settled on the Nisqually Building on First Avenue South in the Sodo district to be near other home-design stores. The building has sat vacant since the Nisqually quake in February 2001, and Rejuvenation officials and the building owner are rehabilitating it.

"It had some cracks in the side walls you could put your fist though," said owner Marc Vendetti, who is leasing the first floor of the building — about 6,000 square feet — to Rejuvenation for more than $1 a square foot.

Rejuvenation will spend $275,000 to help rehabilitate the 1900s-era building, Roberts said.

"It will be a boon to the neighborhood," said Larry Kreisman, program director at Historic Seattle, a nonprofit group that works to preserve historic buildings.

Sarah Anne Wright: 206-464-2752 or swright@seattletimes.com