Category Archives: Development & Planning

Citizens for Sammamish push Initiative Vote Right Dec. 4; also Comp Plan changes on the agenda

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Citizens for Sammamish plan to push Tuesday for the Initiative at the City Council meeting. Harry Shedd, head of C4S, sent this email to the Council last week:

Next Tuesday’s meeting will offer you one more chance to certify the “Initiative Process” for Sammamish citizens. It is a simple offering and you have discussed it in the past. Personal freedoms should trump any reasonable alternatives. Please don’t kick this matter down the road…vote YES to allow this right to the citizenry and end your year on a high note.

As I’ve written previously, I’m conflicted about the Initiative process.

Also on the agenda Tuesday is an item starting the process for changes to the Comprehensive Plan, including the Town Center. Citizens and land owners may suggest changes in zoning, policies and permitted uses.

Ace is slipping away

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The clock is running out on Ace Hardware’s effort to find a place to build and stay in Sammamish.

The lease expires at the end of August 2013. So far, every effort to work with the City of Sammamish to find a new location and clear the path to build has failed. It’s not for not trying.

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Petco confirmed, coming to Safeway complex

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The Sammamish Review has confirmed what was reported here earlier by a reader: Petco is coming to Sammamish. Here is the story.

Petco is moving into the vacant space previously rented by Hollywood Video. It’s also taking over space of the displace Rancho Grande restaurant, which was forced out due to a “leasing inconvenience.” Also displaced is the Sushi restaurant.

I’m still trying to confirm multiple reports that Trader Joe’s is what will displace Ace Hardware, whose lease expires in August 2013.

First Ace Hardware, now Rancho Grande

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As just about anyone who reads anything in Sammamish knows, Ace Hardware lost its lease and would have had to move by September 2012. A public outcry, and pressure from the city, got the property owner, Regency, to extend the lease one more year.

But now Rancho Grande, two stores down from Ace, lost its lease and has closed last week. A sign on the window blames a lease issue.

A reader commented on another of our posts that Petco is supposed to take over the old Hollywood Video and the Rancho Grande space. The reader also claims Trader Joe will take over Ace’s space. Neither is confirmed.

I did talk with a doctor at Swedish Pine Lake Medical Center. Swedish had wanted the Ace space, but, the doctor says, it’s no longer available.

If the Petco story is true, this will essentially force Civilized Nature out of business.

Regency doesn’t seem to care one whit about our local businesses.

Update on Ace Hardware

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Regency continues to ignore Ace Hardware and efforts to extend its lease, according to reliable information.

Meantime, other tenants in the Sammamish Highlands (Safeway) complex fear that they are next on the Regency hit list. Tenants in the Pine Lake Center (QFC complex) ought to be worried, too.

Ace’s owner, Tim Koch, continues to seek a solution, including buying land and building, but with a lease termination in September 2012, doing a new-build means almost certainly Ace will close unless Regency extends the lease for at least a year.

City Staff is trying to find a solution for Ace as well.

Koch faces a greater challenge: if he wants to buy-and-build, the cost of doing so may be tough. However, I think that if other Regency tenants, with solid reason to fear for their future, combine with Koch, maybe there is a business case to present to Sammamish citizens to invest in a commercial structure that can lease space to the “Regency refugees.”

Residents in Pt Townsend did something similar when the city’s only general store closed. Residents invested in a new business (I do not know the business structure) to reopen a general store.

It is time for creative thinking and solutions.