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Another upscale shop shuts down on Capitol Hill (and another will take its place)

Another upscale shop is downscaling operations and shuttering its Capitol Hill retail presence. Revival Home and Garden owner Leah Steen announced she is closing her 12th Ave store and scaling back to a by-appointment office in Pike/Pine:

Enough with the cryptic philosophizing — after four years, we are closing our retail storefront to focus on our interior design business. And we couldn’t be more excited! The world of retail has been a wild ride and has opened doors to so many people, places, and things we would never have otherwise known, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Steen moved to the Hill in 2009 after launching her design business and home decor boutique in Georgetown.

In late January, CHS reported that children’s fine clothing retailer Flora and Henri was shutting its brick and mortar retail operations and leaving the Odd Fellows building. No new tenant for that space has been announced.

The 12th Ave space in the Ballou Wright Building, however, won’t go empty for long, we’re told. A representative for building owner Hunters Capital said a new design business is lined up for space.

If you’re going to try to establish trends in the Capitol Hill retail space from the move, make sure to include two recent openings in your equations. Nightlife entrepreneur Marcus Lalario recently opened skate fashion shop Alive and Well on E Pike while a trio of fashion entrepreneurs have restored vintage on 10th Ave with the opening of Kaleidoscope Vision in the previous home of Atlas Clothing.

Meanwhile, downtown got some unfortunate retail news depending on where you come down on JC Penney. The Seattle Times reports city real estate sources are saying the national retailer’s new CEO has nixed plans for a downtown store at 3rd and Pike. Last we heard, a Target is still planned for 2nd Ave. We speculated on what these major retailer moves meant for Capitol Hill here. What’s it all mean now that JC Penney won’t be moving in? We give up. Maybe you can tell us.

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oliveoyl
12 years ago

I think there might be more to the closing of the storefront at Revival than “retail is a wild ride” that said, there are many things that might contribute to the her closing … first among them being there are no other retail businesses that are open during the day adjacent to Revival. I’m guessing most foot traffic was in the evening. If she had been over by Retrofit she might have been able to make a go of it, but nonetheless, her hours were not in sync with the neighborhood.
Flora & Henri is another story completely, this is the 4th location for this retailer in the city. It really should be down in Madison Valley, Madison Park or in Bellevue. The demographics of the neighborhood do not jive with the target customer. Additionally, the “design” of the store with the big chest blocking the view inside combined with the poorly lit interior could make people feel unwelcome or unsure if the store were open, since the lone employee was often behind the chest. They might know how to design beautiful children’s clothing but I’m not sure they have any idea how to design and sign a store.

amyh
12 years ago

Leah is great to work with. Always helpful no matter what the budget. I met her when she was in Georgetown and was excited when she moved 6 blocks from my house. I wish her well with her interiors business.

Roberta
12 years ago

She thought there was a market for gardening supplies in Seattle, much less upscale gardening supplies? Good riddance. Hopefully something useful will take her place.

We need more Ice Cream shops N

Right on Roberta! Because any shop that doesn’t cater to the specific needs of anonymous, unemployed commenters on a neighborhood blog shouldn’t have the right to be in business. If variety is truly the spice of life, it must be something pretty useless like cumin.

JimS.
12 years ago

Cumin isn’t worthless. I use it all the time. :-)

gloomy gus
12 years ago

I still call the building by its former name. Hunters/Malone bought the building, kicked out all the live-work artists there, and renovated for purely business use, at very high rental rates few would bite on. Fascinatingly, the building was once upon a time home to the largest big-game taxidermy company in the world, which had a second Hill location where R Place is today.

Best of luck to Ms. Steen.

GMB
GMB
12 years ago

Isn’t it too much to all it “shuttering”?…
Is Cap Hill really a neighborhood of an “upscale”?…

That’s not my (long time resident) of CH.
Personally, I’m glad this one is gone. One of many trying to change this community into something it is not.

GMB
GMB
12 years ago

Corrected (thanks dumb Apple for your auto-correct…) and partially rephrased posting:

Isn’t it too much to call it “shuttering”?…
Is Cap Hill really a neighborhood of an “upscale”?…

That’s not my (long time resident) vision and idea of CH.
Personally, I’m glad this one is gone. One of many trying to change this neighborhood into something it is not.