Russell neighbors brace for exit

The experience of losing a downtown, hometown anchor is nowhere near unique for those who do business in Tacoma.

With the announced departure of Tacoma-born Russell Investments, some business owners have begun looking forward.

One also looks back.

“It’s a shame,” said Steph Farber, co-owner of LeRoy Jewelers – which counts 58 years with a downtown location.

“We’re unhappy they’re leaving,” he said. “On the other hand, the Northern Pacific left Tacoma. Weyerhaeuser left Tacoma. As a city, we survived.”

And as business headquarters headed north, or as major downtown retailers withered, Farber said, “a much more interesting community has arisen.”

“It’s a bigger pond filled with medium and smaller fish,” said Phyllis Harrison, LeRoy co-owner, owner of The Art Stop and former president of the Downtown Merchants Group.

“I think that Russell was the big fish for a long time. We’ve seen that change. They’ve become less visible, less involved, and other players have stepped forward. Individually, Russell workers have been very involved. But at the corporate level, they’ve been stepping back. I’m confident that we can live through this,” she said.

Karen McGrath owns Watermark Gifts, located a block away from Russell’s A Street operations center.

“Of course we’re really disappointed, really disappointed,” she said Wednesday morning. “I’ve got a lot of long-term Russell employees as customers. Change is necessary, but not always pleasant. Change happens. It usually works out.”

She predicts that the current Russell building will find a new tenant.

“They’ll fill up that building,” she said. “It won’t go to ruin like the Luzon Building.”

She does expect that the loss of some of those long-term customers will affect her business.

“I don’t want to think about it,” she said. “It will definitely affect us – temporarily. Good luck to all of us.”

“It’s going to hurt everybody,” said Brooke Upton, owner of Noggins Barbershop, located downtown on Broadway.

She estimates that nearly a fifth of her customers work at Russell Investments.

“What do I do? Do I open Saturday? Are they going to have their hair cut in Seattle? I’m worried that I’m not going to have a business any more.”

“It seems like every time I move, people leave,” said Bernardo Tuma, owner of Bernardo’s Aroma Cafe in the Wells Fargo Plaza – where he moved nine months ago after leaving a space less than a block from Russell.

“I think Tacoma will survive,” he said. “It’s going to be sad to see them go. It will have an impact downtown.”

There is already an impact, according to Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber President and CEO David Graybill.

It’s been a positive impact, he said, because of “the teamwork and the effort” people have shown, and for the package of tax and other civic incentives offered to Russell “that will still be valuable and relevant for other tenants and other investors.”

Tacoma, he said, is the kind of a city that “dusts itself off and moves forward.”

“There are 40,000 employees in the central business district,” he said. Still, “900 employees are very important to the overall downtown mix and street-level activity. Although we have a year to prepare for any lapse in occupancy, there is bound to be some impact. I know the chamber and the city will do everything they can to help.”

“It’s a hole that you suddenly see that you wish wasn’t there,” said Chip Venzone, general manager of Pacific Grill Restaurant and Catering in downtown Tacoma.

Guests connected to Russell, he said, “certainly ate and drank well when they came in. They have been a very good customer over the years. They typically engendered high guest checks.”

Shahrokh Saudagaran, dean of the University of Washington Tacoma Milgard School of Business, hopes the move will not lead to the dissolution of the relationship that has blossomed between the school and Russell.

Early this summer he met with a Russell official to take stock of four initiatives concerning the school’s MBA program, recruitment and internships, guest instructors and a proposed simulated trading floor at UWT.

“With the move, I for one do not give up hope easily,” Saudagaran said. “I’m still hoping some of these things will happen. Time will tell.”

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535

c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com