Argonne Village Occupants Waiting For Recovery

The construction trucks carried his customers away.

For the past 19 years, manager Kevin Olson has worked the sales floor of Super Save Drug Center.

The drugstore used to be busy with zippy customers and loaded shopping carts. These days, Olson just hopes the business can survive the summer.

“We just can’t continue to lose money,” he said. “Eventually we will have to close. I mean, what do you do?”

Olson’s customers slowly vanished when Spokane County started construction on the Argonne Road underpass two summers ago. The project was completed in October 1996.

Super Save is the last “big” store in the once-thriving Argonne Village at Montgomery and Argonne. Just months ago, the drugstore was part of a sprawling community of small businesses. Now, it is a dying string of semi-vacant buildings.

“Argonne Village has been in such dire straits for such a long time,” said Mike Jones, owner of Spots Argonne, a dry cleaner in the complex. “That whole side of the mall is empty.”

Hard times began for the merchants in December 1992 when Albertsons, a major tenant, moved out.

Then came the trucks.

County crews started work in June 1993 on Montgomery Avenue 600 feet from Argonne Road, including the Argonne-Montgomery intersection. That project took four months.

In July 1995, Argonne Road was closed to build an underpass so cars could subvert passing trains. That project was completed last October, said Jim Haynes, county engineer who headed the project.

Super Save Drug Center took a 40 percent hit in sales during 1996, which was directly related to the construction, Olson said.

“We probably didn’t cut back as much as we should have,” he said. “We’ll never get back up to where we were before.”

Other merchants faced even more dramatic drops in business.

Bob Hitchcock, owner of Crafter’s Showcase, closed his store after a 70 percent drop in sales.

“It was just disaster. Just disaster,” Hitchcock said. “I was spending thousands of dollars on TV ads and our customers were shrinking. That’s got to tell you something.”

Other businesses closed or moved out.

Popular Pet City shut down completely. The Hungry Farmer restaurant experienced a 50 percent drop in business, and Allstate Insurance finally moved.

“Nobody could make a decision. Nobody could do anything,” said Robin Oos of Allstate, who left the Village to buy her own building. “My business is a lot better right here because of the exposure.” Oos moved to her present location, 2117 N. Argonne, after becoming frustrated with the leasing environment in the center.

The Village also has undergone several ownership changes unrelated to the construction. The center is currently under receivership in Spokane County Superior Court. Tomlinson-Black is the “interim landlord” until the matter is resolved.

“The major influence over the shopping center over the past two years has not been the litigation, it has been the construction projects along Argonne Road,” said John Bennett, president of TomlinsonBlack.

Business owners in the complex say some county officials tried to work with them, but many showed a disregard for the struggling shops.

County officials admit that the construction had an adverse impact on the tenants.

“Obviously their business was influenced somewhat,” said Haynes, “Our construction people just bent over backwards to help them so that they would have the best possible access.”

A few merchants agree with Haynes.

“Some of the county officials did what they could,” said Olson, citing Haynes as an example. “But a lot of them didn’t.”

Certain county officials have been ambivalent toward the Village, despite repeated requests for cooperation, Olson said.

So Hitchcock created a coalition of businesses and school district leaders, hoping to press the county to speed up the project. But his efforts had little effect on the county’s timeline. The project was actually on schedule.

“We were the ones who had to call all the meetings,” said Hitchcock. “People were getting detoured away from Argonne, and we were getting left in the dust.”

The county also refused to provide merchants with a traffic count, Hitchcock said, which would have helped store owners prove the negative impact of construction.

“They didn’t want people to know,” said Hitchcock. “They conducted one prior to the construction, and they’ve probably done one since the construction was over.”

The county has tried to work with the merchants, said Burt Haight, county right of way supervisor, but personalities sometimes get in the way.

“We have a difference of opinion,” said Haight. “We feel there are some special benefits from this project that they should be paying for.”

For now, the Village people - depleted of ideas, money and energy - wait for recovery.

“We can’t advertise like ShopKo. We’re a bunch of local merchants who had convenience and service.” said Olson.

“But they took that away.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo