Power is back on UWT campus. These small businesses on Pac Ave ready for you to return
After nearly two weeks without power, businesses have trickled back to life on the Pacific Avenue corridor of University of Washington Tacoma.
The university announced a three-step plan last week to restore electricity to the downtown campus, which went dark July 6 after a high-speed fatal car crash destroyed an essential switch gear. Since then, businesses have been reconnected via generators — a temporary fix while they wait on replacement gear. Eventually, UWT anticipates a broader infrastructure redesign.
Retailers returned over the weekend. Restaurants and beverage outposts began restocking their fridges and reopening earlier this week. By Wednesday, just about every one of the nearly 20 affected businesses was back in action.
“What a crazy couple of weeks!” wrote Zeeks Pizza on Instagram. The pizza restaurant marked the northern end of the outage. It reopened Wednesday.
“It feels like a second ‘soft open!’” Water from Wine said before reopening Tuesday. “Please come out in support and help us regain some of the losses from this two-week blackout!”
Metro Coffee owner Stefani McCullough shared Monday that the cafe would reopen Wednesday morning. It and other businesses permitted by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department had to schedule a pre-opening inspection.
Speaking to The News Tribune last week, McCullough described the impact the closure was having on the business she has owned for 15 years and on her personal financial situation. She hoped UWT would extend some form of rental relief.
“I feel like that would be fair,” she said, noting that she had used savings to pay bills that came due despite not actively making any money. “It’s been a huge impact, personally and professionally, and I hope that the university understands that — and I know they have a lot of unexpected costs right now, too — but we’re all going to need their support right now. This has been a huge detriment.”
Several of the small businesses banded together to host block-party sales the past two Thursdays.
Here’s a list of the businesses that have now reopened on Pac Ave.
BUSINESSES OPEN AGAIN NEAR UWT
▪ Metro Coffee
▪ Zeeks Pizza
▪ Water from Wine
▪ Jimmy John’s
▪ Pho Thanks Brother
▪ Sam Choy’s Poke to the Max
▪ S Level Tea
▪ The Studio Modern Pilates
▪ Starbucks
▪ Onimi Sportswear
▪ UW Tacoma Shop
▪ Subway
▪ Tinkertopia
▪ Grit City Greens
▪ Indochine Asian Dining Lounge
▪ Channing Baby & Company
▪ Stocklist Goods