Oak Harbor’s downtown hits it big
The action is at the ‘Harborside Shops’
by Marina Parr

Oak Harbor’s downtown has seen its share of ups and downs. During the 1960s, business was booming in the city’s central business section, which stretches for about five blocks along a scenic hillside perch overlooking Oak Harbor Bay.
Forty years ago, downtown boasted a couple of drug stores, several shoe stores and a giant department store, recalls Oak Harbor native and businesswoman Jill Schacht.
“Saturday you met everybody you knew,” Schacht remembers. “It was fun. I really loved having that small town atmosphere.”
But beginning in the 1970s and accelerating in the 1980s, businesses began to relocate to Highway 20, bypassing downtown entirely.
At times, Oak Harbor’s downtown began to look like a lot of other downtowns across America—forgotten, forlorn and seemingly fossilized.
Fast forward to 2005 and downtown is once again a happening place, brimming with new businesses and remodeled old ones.
Take Schacht’s family business, The Casual House. Schacht’s mother opened the women’s clothing business in 1963 and now Schacht manages it.
Inside, clothes, shoes and jewelry are laid out in handsome displays, reminiscent of a highbrow boutique. The new look is the result of an old connection. Schacht’s family knows a merchandiser for Ralph Lauren.
The merchandiser’s friend, who now works independently, helped update the store’s interior.
“It’s fashion,” Schacht said. “You want to keep things updated. So it was time. The next step is painting the exterior of The Casual House and doing some new signage. Then we can call the project done.”
Schacht’s family owns the building that houses their business and last year, with the help of Oak Harbor architect Terry LeDesky, they gave it new polish, complete with inlaid shell carvings and a dramatic awning above the adjacent business space.
It was this modern look that attracted William Moody and John Groote to open Fox Pointe, Ltd. in April.
The pair—seasoned retailers—moved to the area recently from the Midwest. They scouted out several cities, including Anacortes, La Conner and Mount Vernon before settling on Oak Harbor for their newest venture.
Their store features everything from traditional art and silk florals to antiques, along with gourmet chocolates, gourmet coffee beans, candles and cards.
“For one thing, we really liked the little village atmosphere that the downtown has, being on the water,” Moody said.
Moody and Groote also liked the city’s ambitious $32 million plan aimed at the waterfront and downtown.
More immediately, they were pleased to see that downtown business owners had revived a long defunct downtown association, renaming it Harborside Merchants Association.
(The association takes its name from the new name given to downtown, Harborside Shops).
“The other businesses are very interested in attracting customers and tourists and that sort of thing,” Moody said.
Moody and Groote also liked the ground-floor excitement that comes with discovering a city on the cusp of big things.
“We kind of felt like (the other cities) were overrun with shops and had a lot going for them. It was ‘oh, do we just want to add to the mix? Or do we want to do something on our own?’” Moody said.
Phillip Sikes, who owns Whidbey Wild Bird with his wife, Lydia, was recently named president of Oak Harbor’s new downtown association.
“With all the revitalization going on in downtown Oak Harbor we needed a good, strong downtown merchants’ association,” said Sikes, noting that the Harborside Merchants Association officially began at the beginning of 2005.
“We’re moving along smartly and already have several standing committees working on events and marketing,” Sikes said. “We’re doing a lot of co-op advertising and looking to do common purchases, maybe a common shopping bag.”
Sikes’ own business is just one more dynamic element of downtown Oak Harbor’s comeback. The wild bird shop is one of many unique, specialty businesses that now line the street, along with a bustling coffee shop, several ethnic restaurants, gift stores, clothing stores and antique shops, among others. A gourmet restaurant, run by a local chef, is in the works. So is another coffee and gift shop that will occupy a brand-new building.
Sikes, who moved to Oak Harbor with the Navy in 1976, had worked as a flight simulator technician at the naval air station. But his first passion was backyard bird watching.
“The one thing that was really missing was a good outdoor nature store,” he said.
He and his wife looked around Oak Harbor before finally settling on downtown. The store recently celebrated its second anniversary.
“The revitalization of downtown is really essential at this point. We have the big-box stores that everybody has and we shop there for items but it’s really wonderful to have that downtown corridor and be able to walk the city streets and see the variety,” Sikes said.
Further drawing people downtown is a planned $6.8 million municipal pier along Bayshore Drive that will bring commuters and visitors to the water’s edge by passenger ferry or floatplane.
Sikes said he’s also looking forward to plans that call for redoing downtown sidewalks and streets and the installation of information kiosks.
“It’s going to be wonderful for tourists but also wonderful for residents,” Sikes said. “And that’s what this is for—for us, the Oak Harbor residents. We have to remember we all live here, too.”