User:SounderBruce/Sandbox/Retail

=The Bon Marché Building=

The Bon Marché Building, also known as 300 Pine, was the flagship store and corporate headquarters of retailer The Bon Marché, located in Seattle, Washington, United States. The building was opened in 1929 and expanded in 1955 to seven floors; other renovations added connections to the Westlake tunnel station and modernized the building after it was declared a city landmark in 1989. It served as the flagship store of The Bon Marché until 2005, when it was rebranded as a Macy's store after a two-year transition. The upper floors were converted into an office complex for Amazon in 2017 and Macy's closed the store on the remaining lower floors in February 2020.

Design and architecture

 * Described as Art Deco
 * 1955 addition is described as Modernistic
 * Exterior: Indiana limestone (original four stories), skylights?
 * Exterior features: marquee/canopy
 * Skybridge to parking garage (built in 1960, fee charged by city of Seattle)
 * Westlake Station connection


 * Traditions
 * Holiday star
 * 2019 onwards: Amazon and Starwood contribute funds to renovate/replace the star
 * Seqouia tree on Stewart/Olive (Man in Tree)


 * Resources
 * PCAD

History

 * 1890: Bon Marche established at 1st & Cedar
 * 1900: Bon Marche moves to 2nd & Pike
 * 1912: Bon Marche moves to 6-story building at 2nd & Union


 * Previous site uses
 * 1873: North School opens at site
 * 1887: North School closes
 * Pine/Fourth block was formerly North Seattle Fire Station


 * Construction
 * April 1928: Construction begins on new flagship store
 * August 5, 1929: $10 million, 4-story department store opens
 * Opening ceremonies: Hahn Company officials with golden key; Times siren; band concert and orchestras on each floor
 * Introduction of escalators to city, "mammoth store"
 * 18 months of construction
 * Designed by John Graham, built by Teuful & Carlson
 * 1930s: Fifth floor added


 * First renovation and additions
 * 1952: Construction begins on 4-story addition
 * 1954: Addition of 4 floors to bring height to 8 stories, at a cost of $3 million
 * Addition would make the store the largest department store west of Chicago
 * Following F&N renovation two blocks away
 * June 27, 1960: Garage across 3rd Avenue opened and skybridge installed at 6th floor
 * Plans approved in October 1959 to serve 4,000 motorists using garage
 * Designed by George A. Gore and George Applegarth
 * Later assigned a special zip code (98181) around 1971?
 * 1962: 7th floor converted from storage to office space and furniture sales
 * 1965: Three escalators added
 * 1967: Escalators added from 7th to 8th floors
 * 1980s: Bronze anodized aluminum doors installed at all nine entrances


 * 1980s renovation
 * October 1987: $50 million renovation plan announced with 10-floor atrium with skylight, lower level food hall, other features to rival European stores; to open in 1990
 * Announced after company was acquired by Campeau Corporation (Allied Stores) in 1986
 * Renovation plans cancelled in December 1988 after falling behind schedule; high cost blamed, as well as parent company's financial difficulties
 * 1989: Bon Marche plans renovations to coincide with bus tunnel opening, granted landmark status and protections
 * 1989: Westlake Station opens
 * Basement floor renovated
 * 1991: $27 million renovation completed


 * 1995: Full-service restaurants closed at Bon Marche locations in Downtown and Northgate


 * Macy's
 * August 1, 2003: Bon-Macy's brand introduced
 * 2005: Bon-Macy's renamed to Macy's
 * Bon Marche signage removed on February 4, 2005
 * 2015: Top four floors of the building sold to Starwood for $65 million
 * 2016–17: Redevelopment of top floors into "300 Pine": 300,000 sq ft of Class A office space on floors 5–8 with rooftop deck
 * Leased by Amazon (Blueshift)


 * Store closure
 * Announced in 2019
 * January 2020: Remainder of building sold to Starwood for $68.7 million
 * February 2020: Closure of Macy's store
 * Closure on February 23, 2020, after month-long clearance sale
 * Marks downturn in Downtown retail


 * New use
 * April 2021: Sold to KKR and Urban Renaissance; "The Bon Marché Collective" announced as name for retail spaces from 3,000 to 16,600 square feet on bottom floor, with food hall potentially planned
 * Amazon assigns 1,800 employees to office, but most remain remote due to pandemic
 * March 2022: Amazon relocates all employees at 300 Pine due to concerns about surrounding area's safety
 * Employee-only Amazon Go store on sixth floor closed in March 2022 and shuttered in 2023
 * November 2022: Uniqlo opens in southeast corner space

Original department store


Frederick & Nelson was founded in 1890 by Donald E. Frederick and Nels B. Nelson as a used furniture store on Front Street in modern-day Pioneer Square. In the following decade, the store expanded into general goods and ultimately shifted towards a department store model. In 1897, the store moved into leased space at the Rialto Building at 2nd Avenue and Madison Street; by 1906, Frederick & Nelson had bought the entire building to accommodate their store's growing popularity. Much of the store's popularity came from its home delivery service, which later expanded into a mail-order business in 1904.

As the department store continued to grow in popularity and demand more and more retail space in the Rialto Building and neighboring buildings, Frederick (who took over Nelson's share after he died in 1907) looked north of the Metropolitan Tract, then the northern end of Downtown Seattle, for the location of a new flagship store. The company purchased the Snoqualmie Hotel at 3rd Avenue and Pike Street in 1913 for $500,000, a record price for the Pike Street area. On June 21, 1914, The Seattle Times published a front-page story revealing Frederick's intention to purchase the Westlake Market site at 5th Avenue and Pine Street for $735,000 and build a new department store. The move signaled a growing desire among Seattle retailers to move the retail core to the north side of Pike Street, but was derided as "Frederick's Folly" by established businessmen because of the site's distance from the then-current central business district. Prior to being purchased by the Westlake Market, the block was the site of a trolley barn for the Seattle Electric Company's streetcar system. To make way for the new department store, the Westlake Market moved to the site of the Snoqualmie Hotel, where it remained until moving again in 1921.

Construction of the six-story department store, designed by John Graham & Company, began in September 1916 under the direction of the James Black Construction Company of St. Louis, Missouri; the project, which was estimated to cost $1.2 million, was the most expensive in the city since the construction of the Smith Tower in 1910. The store opened on September 3, 1918, attracting 25,000 customers on its first day of business.

The original building had 437,500 sqft of floor area across its five stories, penthouse and basement, and was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, with a glazed terra-cotta exterior and marble flooring. The Frederick & Nelson store had several amenities and services available to its customers, including a post office, tea room, nursery, beauty salon and a men's grill restaurant. The building was designed to support additional floors in a later expansion, and incorporated modern fire protection systems, including a sprinkler system, fire alarms, and modern ventilation. A public auditorium capable of hosting public events and moving picture shows proved popular, bringing 300,000 attendees in 1937 alone. The new store was closed in early November after the arrival of the influenza outbreak in Seattle. The ban was lifted on November 12 and the store re-opened for business.

In 1925, the 18-story Medical Dental Building opened on the northern side of the block, facing Olive Way.

In November 1948, the department store displayed a television set with test broadcasts of KRSC-TV (later KING-TV) that attracted curious onlookers.

Renovation and later years
On June 4, 1949, the Frederick & Nelson parent company Marshall Field & Company announced a major, $6.25 million renovation of the Downtown Seattle flagship store. The renovation would add four additional floors to the current building, to be done as soon as plans were drawn up by architects. The Seattle Times hailed the announcement as "new evidences of Seattle's metropolitan importance" and "faith in Seattle's future". Construction of the addition began in April 1950, as the company celebrated its 60th anniversary; scaffolding was erected around the lower floors and barricades were added and decorated at street level to protect pedestrians. While work was originally scheduled to be completed by late 1951, but the addition of an extra floor and other modifications to the plans pushed back the opening into 1952.



The renovated Frederick & Nelson store opened on August 4, 1952, attracting several hundred customers during a day-long celebration. The renovation brought the building to ten total stories, including one basement level, and added 56,000 sqft of floor space. The lower floors contained clothing, jewelry, a bakery, accessories, and a salon. The upper floors contained household furniture, books, shoes, toys, and a tea house. The ninth and tenth floors were home to the company offices, a candy factory producing Frango chocolates, and storage spaces. An additional 400 full-time employees were hired to staff the larger store, bringing the total to 2,900. The glazed terra cotta exterior for the additional stories was made to match the original building, while sporting a more "modern" look.



The store underwent few major alterations after the 1952 renovation, mostly consisting of re-arranging the store layout from the inside. In 1981, the "budget basement" level of the store, long home to the Paul Bunyan lunch room, was remodeled into "The Arcade", with 20 miniature shops that sold kitchenware goods, cameras, books, candy, and stationary, among other items. The seventh and eighth floors were converted into art gallery spaces in the 1970s for the Little Gallery, which later became a branch of the Foster/White Gallery in 1983.

During the mid-1980s, the Frederick & Nelson chain began closing its suburban stores and the chain was put up for sale by the new owners of Marshall Fields. Frederick & Nelson was bought by local developers Basil Vyzis and Herman Sarkowsky in 1986 and considered moving out of its flagship store and into a smaller space in a new hotel-office complex on 6th Avenue. The downtown flagship store attracted interest from national retaliers looking to expand into Seattle, including J. C. Penney, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, as well as Seattle-based Nordstrom, which had outgrown its flagship store. Ultimately, Frederick & Nelson decided against moving, instead investing $7 million in an interior remodel to attract shoppers. From 1987 to 1990, the building's exterior was renovated to add entrances to Westlake station in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, located below Pine Street. The station's mezzanine level was built with entrances to Frederick & Nelson's Arcade level, as well as the neighboring Westlake Mall and the flagship stores of The Bon Marché and Nordstrom.

Bankruptcy and vacancy
Frederick & Nelson was later sold to a Seattle real estate developer David Sabey in 1989, reportedly driven by the value of the downtown flagship store's property. Despite attempts at improving sales, including sponsorship of the 1990 Goodwill Games, the chain suffered from increasing debts and was forced to cut evening hours and lay off employees at all of its stores in early 1991. Frederick & Nelson declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 1991, and agreed to a tentative sale of its non-flagship stores to Gottschalks the following year.

The downtown Frederick & Nelson flagship store was liquidated during a large sale in February 1992, and the store closed on May 26, 1992. The store's landlord put the building for sale in August 1992, with an estimated asking price of $27 million to $35 million, but would remain vacant for several years. The store drew interest from Nordstrom, looking for a new flagship store, and was floated as a possible city hall and public library by the municipal government. Many of the store's traditions, including Christmas displays, would be continued by the nearby Bon Marché and Westlake Center mall in the absence of Frederick & Nelson.

Nordstrom flagship
Nordstrom was founded in Seattle by John W. Nordstrom in 1901 as a shoe store that later expanded into a chain and converted to a general department store in the 1960s. The company moved to their long-time flagship store at 5th Avenue and Pine Street in 1937, where it remained well into the late 20th century. Despite undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion in 1973, the Nordstrom flagship in downtown Seattle lacked the necessary retail space for the expanding store by the 1980s, with company offices spread across three buildings in downtown. Nordstrom had repeatedly proposed moving into the Frederick & Nelson flagship and, after the store's bankruptcy and the property's vacancy, began negotiating with the new developer and the city government. Nordstrom also considered moving its headquarters and flagship to Bellevue if the deal fell through.

During the negotiations, Nordstrom made public demands to reopen Pine Street, which had been pedestrianized in 1990, to automobile traffic as a condition for moving into the Frederick & Nelson flagship. The proposal angered Nordstrom customers and members of the public, who called into the city council to oppose the reopening of Pine Street. The city council voted to reopen the street, but placed the decision on the March 14, 1995 ballot in response to petitions from citizen groups opposing the move. During the election, 61 percent of Seattle voters approved the reopening of Pine Street, and surveyed voters cited the Nordstrom negotiation as a factor in their decision. Pine Street was reopened to automobile traffic on January 6, 1997, to little fanfare.

In June 1995, Nordstrom signed a $100 million agreement with the developer of the vacant store to begin construction on a new flagship store and corporate headquarters. The Nordstrom flagship would become part of a $400 million development project along Pine Street, also including a new five-story shopping center, later named Pacific Place, between 6th and 7th avenues. Part of the negotiation involved the City of Seattle intentionally overpaying real estate developer Pine Street Development by $23 million for a parking garage to secure the Nordstrom deal; the city was later cleared of any wrongdoing, but not without public outcry over the misuse of funds.

Construction inside the vacant store began in May 1996, including interior demolition, seismic retrofitting, and restoration of the exterior terra-cotta features, and was scheduled to be completed by March 1998. The scheduled opening of the new store was delayed by several months due to delays in the planning of Pacific Place, which would house the Nordstrom parking garage and be connected via a skybridge over 6th Avenue. The building's exterior and roof were designated as a historical landmark by the city in 1997, as part of the requirements for Nordstrom's renovations.

Nordstrom opened their new flagship store on August 21, 1998, attracting 5,000 customers before the 9:30 a.m. opening, and selling out of commemorative merchandise within three hours. The night before, over 1,000 employees moved merchandise to the new store in front of onlookers and television cameras covering the event.


 * 1998-08-21: Nordstrom opens new flagship store
 * New elevators, escalators, floors; other changes noted by PSBJ (full issue)
 * More details
 * Renovation designed by Callison Architecture, Inc.
 * Renaissance for downtown/Pine retail corridor: Pacific Place, Bon, Old Navy
 * Wave of new mixed-use development and national brands moving in
 * 1998: Time capsule buried, opened in 2023
 * 1999: Former Nordstrom store occupied by Coldwater Creek (closed in 2010) and "Seaboard Center" offices


 * Later events
 * 2015: Renovation to street-level front
 * 2021: Windows smashed, costing $50,000 each


 * Modern store
 * Size: 693,450 sq ft total, 383,000 sq ft retail, 278,000 sq ft corporate/administrative space
 * Most corporate workers in nearby buildings at 1617 7th and Qwest
 * Walk of Fame

Architecture and design

 * Terra cotta exterior
 * Terra cotta exterior
 * Marble flooring
 * Removed in 1998 renovation?


 * Amenities
 * baby-sitting room, barber shop, post office, theater

Traditions

 * Seafair floats
 * Holiday Santa Claus photo
 * Window displays since 1930s
 * Tea room
 * Frango chocolates
 * Doorman
 * "The last to go"
 * Restored in 1998 by Nordstrom; discontinued immediately

History

 * First proposed in 1960s by Central Association (now DSA)
 * Approved in 1986 after several attempts and litigation
 * Opened on October 20, 1988
 * Monorail terminal opened on February 25, 1989


 * Renovations
 * 2014: Pine Street exterior gets new facade and Zara
 * 2016–17: Food court relocated to 2nd floor
 * 2021: Planned renovation of monorail station for NHL Seattle

Design and layout

 * Metro level: Nordstrom Rack and separate elevator with access to transit mezzanine
 * First floor: stores with west food court
 * Outdoor plaza with Starbucks; used for Christmas tree and lighting ceremony
 * Second floor: Bites on Pine eateries
 * Third floor: Saks Off Fifth and monorail terminal; former food court
 * Former public balcony, later addition of direct escalators to ground level
 * 25-story office building with separate entrance on Olive Way
 * Mayflower Hotel on Olive Way

Surrounding area

 * Retail district

Tenants

 * Nordstrom Rack (flagship)
 * Saks Off Fifth
 * Zara

Transit connections

 * Monorail terminal
 * Connection to DSTT station
 * Buses on surface with nearby stops