Pike/Pine has a new 6,200-square-foot center of Flush Pink retail joining the likes of longtimers like Elliott Bay Book Co. and newcomers like Capitol Thrill.
Glossier Seattle opened last Friday with long lines of fans excited about the return of the brand’s real-world retail creations and beauty message — “You Look Good” — here on Capitol Hill.
CHS reported in July on the company’s decision to start with Seattle in its revival of global brick and mortar retail ambitions after a pandemic-forced hibernation with Capitol Hill joining plans for new stores in Los Angeles, London, and New York City. It is the strongly-backed and even more strongly hyped start-up’s return to plan to grow from its direct to customer, online roots into a new kind of retail giant — “Glossier in 3D,” the company says.
Glossier hopes to grow in this environment, boosted by the area’s LGBTQ history and culture, and its surviving arts venues, clubs, bars, restaurants, and nightlife. If it works, the arrival of Glossier could be a two-way exchange supporting a new undergrowth of smaller businesses boosted by the new foot traffic. In the meantime, some favorites are being lost in the churn of commerce and rents.
The first in the company’s return to in-person retail after closing its stores worldwide, the new 10th Ave showroom fills the Pike/Pine space left empty in the summer of 2019 when the Gary Manuel Aveda Institute moved two blocks west. Capitol Hill real estate and development company Hunters Capital owns the building also home to Poquitos and Havana. The “tenant improvements to ground floor retail in existing building” included extensive work to upgrade the auto row-era brick building’s “brace parapets” in a project with a more than $600,000 base budget, according to city records.
The Pike/Pine store expands on what Glossier created here in 2019 as the company got a taste for the Seattle market with a much-hyped pop-up store on Broadway that drew long lines to the shop filled with Millennial pink, live plants and rolling turf hills. “In Seattle, a city of forests and lakes, our store design plays with the juxtaposition of nature and technology,” CEO Emily Weiss said about the Capitol Hill look and feel of the retail space.
“Moss-covered rocks pierce through the store’s foundation and gigantic, Willy Wonka-esque mushrooms sprout through the sleek, minimal architecture,” senior design lead Kendall Latham said about the project from landscape designer Lily Kwong. “There are communal areas throughout, including a giant tiered seating area that mimics natural topographies, all of which are juxtaposed against futuristic details like a hologram butterfly mirror.”
In addition to the healthy crop of fake mushrooms, there will also be, Glossier hopes, healthy sales. The company has said its 2019 Broadway appearance produced “the highest customer conversion rate” at 70% of any of its pop-ups. The 10th Ave store includes a new team of traditional beauty roles, plus, the company says, “editors” to curate the experience.
The strong conversion metric probably shouldn’t be surprising as Seattle continues to grow as one of the most expensive and wealthy cities in the nation. Perhaps more surprising is Pike/Pine keeping pace with LA, London, and NYC as a focus for ambitious global retail brands.
Only last summer, the city’s CHOP occupied protest formed with months of unrest, police violence, and a revolutionary garden a block from where the new makeup store stands.
One year later and still in the midst of a pandemic, Glossier’s global ambitions are being nurtured on the block.
Glossier Seattle is open at 1514 10th Ave. Learn more at glossier.com.
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