Capitol Hill’s The Grinning Yogi has opened its first expansion just in time for the New Year’s resolutions — in Portland.

The neighborhood yoga studio has sat at the bottom floor of an older retail building on the corner of 15th Ave E and E Harrison for the past two and a half years. After its continued success, and some large life changes, owner Jamie Silverstein decided it was the right time to expand. She had a plan and everything.

“The plan was maybe to buy a condo here and open up another studio in Fremont,” Silverstein said. “The plan shifted slightly.”

Silverstein (Images: The Grinning Yogi)

The new plan found her moving down to Portland earlier this year and deciding to open up another Grinning Yogi studio there. With construction wrapping up, she planned the new studio to open in December with a formal grand opening in January.

“My sweetie is a doctor and residency is crazy,” Silverstein said of the match system that placed her fiancé in Portland. “It’s kind of all up to the fates.”

With not much warning, she said she had to make the decision of whether to stay in Seattle and visit her fiancé in Portland or move down there with him.

She found a compromise. Silverstein now lives four days down in Oregon and the other three in Capitol Hill. She said she doesn’t know if she will continue the commute for five years, but it is working presently.

“At this point, I see it as more of an opportunity,” she said of the move. “It somehow all came together.”

Silverstein, a native of upstate New York, began The Grinning Yogi in May 2012 after visiting the area a few times and discovering a need to shift gears in her life. She competed in figure skating for years before making the switch to follow her passion for yoga.

“I wasn’t even living in Seattle at the time,” she said. “I negotiated the contract for the space in a frozen yogurt place in New York City because they had free wifi.”

Silverstein said splitting her time away has brought her appreciation for 15th Ave E into focus.

“I think we have the best students,” she said about continuing to live and offer the people of the neighborhood. “I love Capitol Hill and everyone is so amazing here.”

She wants to continue bringing that appreciation to the area and sees the expansion as a way to enhance both areas.

“We’ll bring in teachers from Portland to Seattle and from Seattle to Portland,” she said of the prospective business plans. “It’s not really a separate business, it’s an expansion.”

The PDX studio (Image: The Grinning Yogi)

Silverstein recognizes a lot of changes have occurred suddenly for her and her business, but she has found many ways to spin it into a positive outlook on her future.

“It’s totally a cliché, but they say ‘you’re only dealt what you can handle,’” she said. “The most difficult part was my reaction because I had plans.”

She didn’t seem too phased over expanding the small operation over state lines. With an investor in either city and a manager in the Capitol Hill location, most the rest of the work sits on her shoulders.

“I think the most important thing is having the right people,” she said. “Also, cookies help.”

She continues to teach a number of classes in Seattle and plans to also lead them at the new studio.

Of that prospective Fremont studio, Silverstein said, “It’s still definitely in my brain.”

You can learn more at thegrinningyogi.com.