Anacortes Looks to the Future
Getting Fired up over a New Epoch for Business, Nightlife and Tourism

by Jack Hamilton

A cursory glance at the empty storefronts along Commercial Avenue might lead one to think that an all-to-familiar downturn has begun in Anacortes, boding a return to the cyclical boom-and-bust patterns of her maritime traditions. What’s actually happening, however, according to civil leaders, is an ongoing transition driven by a fundamental paradigm shift; with each passing year, they say, Skagit County’s second city is becoming more of a vital, economically diverse and forward-thinking community.

While retirements, crosstown moves, remodels and new projects give the impression of empty spaces, business and community leaders are actually energized. Anacortes Chamber of Commerce executive director Andy Mayer places the town’s current mood in context, pointing out that “we have been so stable for so long that we think it unnatural to have cycles and, of course, there’s the boom-and-bust fear — but this is a transition, not a bust.”

One aspect of the transition that’s still defining itself is the move toward high technology, embodied best by SHS.com. The software-development company has had a dramatic effect on the community in terms of consumer patterns, affluence, property values and, to a certain extent, even the culture of Anacortes. City government is actively working with the chamber and the Economic Development Association of Skagit County (EDASC), in an effort to attract more businesses of this type to Fidalgo Island. “We are talking with the businesses to establish what kind of communications’ infrastructure is needed,” says Mayor Dean Maxwell, adding, “Providing fiber-optic redundancy is a real key to bringing more technology industry here.”

Prospective new businesses need not look far for a good location. Maxwell points to the recently annexed area south of March’s Point as a perfect spot, saying that “the area is zoned for light industry and office complexes and the highway gives it great exposure.” Infrastructure-development work in the area is continuing and with favorable results, judging by the number of nearby business owners requesting further annexation.

As this move toward a hi-tech economy continues, and as Tesoro Petroleum prepares for a massive upgrade bringing yet another influx of workers to the old Shell refinery, one may wonder how Commercial Avenue merchants are adjusting.

 

Box stores have a place

Maxwell and Mayer both see a shift in the making. According to Maxwell, “Main Street America is becoming a service sector. You can get any service you need on Commercial Avenue, but if you want to do warehouse shopping, you need to cross the bridge.” As much as islanders hate crossing bridges to less-isolated communities on the mainland, Maxwell seems comfortable with this state of affairs, pointing out that the community has “long valued culture over box stores.”

Mayer feels that box stores and malls found in Mount Vernon and Burlington, while not appropriate for this community, are nevertheless instructive to the businesses that are. “People don’t like these big box stores,” he says, “but they are doing some things right.” Warming to his subject, Mayer elaborates: “They have a clear identity, high-quality products that are always in stock and excellent customer service. That’s the model. If you can’t deliver those things, then you can’t compete.”

This sort of “if you don’t want to join them, beat them” mentality seems to be catching on. Downtown merchants are also fired up about the new Anacortes. Tim Dussault, owner of Artsmart of Anacortes, sees a healthy challenge in all this.

“I think things are positive, just different,” Dussault says. “With technology enabling people to live where they want, we are seeing an influx of people who are choosing a small-town lifestyle, but expect big-city service, and we have to adjust to that. We have to change the way we do business. Even the consumers are having to change their thinking.”

As merchants are changing their thinking, a new project in the downtown area will likely be changing traffic patterns. After a long cinematic dry spell, Anacortes is finally getting a three-screen movie theater, currently under construction at the corner of Fifth Street and O Avenue. The initiator of this project was actually a junior high student, who circulated a petition directing the city council to address the issue. “We had some petitioning and the council was asked to do something about it, so we did,” Maxwell explains. After the publicity around the issue attracted an Oak Harbor-based cinema company and a local developer to the table, the city offered to lease the land involved for the express purpose of building and operating a theater.

This project is seen as a boon in many ways. Anacortes citizens are excited because they will no longer be forced to drive 15 miles one way for a date. Local restaurateurs are excited, because a date traditionally includes dinner and a movie. Merchants are excited because they see the new theater as one more downtown draw, and even more important, one less reason for people to cross the bridge (and perhaps run other errands while they are “over there”).

 

New cinema a big plus

Andy Mayer is excited because this all fits into the new model. “You know, people bash malls, but this anchor-tenant concept works,” he enthuses. “This new theater will definitely pull more people into town, and not just for the movies.” The anchor-tenant concept is that people come for what they need and discover what they want, which will theoretically impact other shops on other trips. “A night out includes dinner, a movie and maybe strolling around in between,” Mayer states, adding that people can “walk past the bookstore and say, ‘Hey, I need to come back when this place is open.’ The restaurants and bars will get an immediate boost, but I firmly believe the whole community will feel it.”

Building on the theme of attracting and holding local consumer focus using regional and national models, the Anacortes Chamber of Commerce has committees working on some interesting variations. The retail committee is, according to Mayer, “looking at the viability of more locally owned national chains, like Radio Shack.”

With a Jack In The Box franchise and a short-term loan shop coming in uptown, Anacortes is certainly looking more American mainstream every day, but that’s not the point. The point is to provide the community with a more complete set of the necessary goods and services currently being purchased elsewhere, but to do it the Anacortes way, the officials say.

Although technology and its ramifications seem to occupy the forefront of many people’s minds in this business community, there is another big buzz word contributing to the new attitude in Anacortes: Tourism. With eco-tourism becoming more mainstream, and an increasing number of Americans preferring mental and physical activity on their time off, Mayer feels this community is uniquely suited to becoming a destination.

“We are aggressively promoting Anacortes as a destination,” he says, asserting, “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be seen as a base of operations for the total Northwest experience. You can kayak from here, you can whale-watch from here, you can mountain-bike from here. We have a great climate, forest lands, excellent services and infrastructure; we are just in a great position.”

In the past, Anacortes’s position was a boom-and-bust fishing village perched precariously at land’s end, her fortunes literally at the whim of the tides. But as tourism and technology replace the salmon and snow crab as economic engines, and the Main Street merchants embrace new ways of doing business, it’s clear that Skagit County’s own “city by the bay” is firmly in command of her future.