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Glossier pop-up set to fill a rare empty space in Broadway’s Capitol Hill Station-boosted core


If a start on a new life for the old Broadway Grill didn’t grab you and the addition of an axe-tossing bar doesn’t convince, maybe the arrival of a project from the hugely hyped cosmetics start-up Glossier will sell you. Broadway retail is looking good these days.

CHS has learned that the make-up and lifestyle brand launched as a style blog and grown into a direct to consumer retail juggernaut by entrepreneur Emily Weiss is sizing up Capitol Hill for its Seattle pop-up, the latest in a string of limited time only Glossier experiences following efforts in stylish cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and London.

Glossier’s last spring pop-up in San Francisco (Image: Glossier)

The Seattle location will be the space left empty by the exit of American Apparel in 2017.

The Glossier pop-up format is typically a lavishly designed retail space offering the company’s range of products in a posh commercial district. You might have to start considering the corner of Broadway and John — across the street from Capitol Hill Station’s main entrance and two blocks of intense, transit oriented mixed-use development currently underway — in new light.

We’re not sure what Glossier — which describes itself as “a people-powered beauty ecosystem” — has in mind in the former American Apparel space and no opening date has been announced. The company hasn’t responded to our questions about the project but its social media campaign launched coincidentally to our inquiries.

Glossier says the Seattle pop-up will arrive “later this spring.”

Broadway landlords and businesses expected an improving environment for the street after the opening of Capitol Hill Station in March 2016. But many also knew the better business environment would likely come with a sad cost — longtime shops, restaurants, bars, and cafes that managed to survive years of construction ultimately priced out by the growth in the neighborhood.

Glossier’s arrival doesn’t necessarily fall into the “priced out” scenario and the temporary nature of the pop-up also doesn’t necessarily solidify it as a sign of boom times on the street. But taken together with most storefronts in the core full and new projects to come near the light rail station, it does seem like, for now, there’s a new look on Broadway.

UPDATE 5/7/2019: Confirmed —

 

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Adam
Adam
4 years ago

Woo girls, rejoice

Iluvcaphill
Iluvcaphill
4 years ago
Reply to  Adam

I think woo girls get their makeup exclusively at Walmart or CVS. ;)

Prost Seattle
Prost Seattle
4 years ago

So Memorial Day weekend there were young women lined up out the door and around the corner to the Ethiopian restaurant on John St. They must be doing something right.