Bon’s Future Downtown Undecided Key Retailer Says A Decision Isn’t Likely For Two More Years

When The Bon announced plans Thursday to open a new store in the Valley, pessimists speculated the retailer would pull out of downtown.

But officials at The Bon assured developers and merchants Friday that The Bon’s store at Wall and Main will stay open - for now.

“It’s way too early to start talking about what will happen to the downtown store,” said John Buller, senior vice president of marketing for The Bon.

The Bon will remain downtown for at least two more years, Buller said. When The Bon’s new store opens at the Spokane Valley Mall, scheduled for August 1997, officials will reassess the downtown venture.

Buller’s comments posed a challenge to downtown merchants and developers: Make downtown a viable shopping district, or The Bon will leave.

“We intend to stay downtown as long as the retail environment there remains sound and intact,” he said Friday in a phone interview from his vacation retreat on the Oregon coast.

Downtown merchants and developers are hopeful that a proposed redevelopment of River Park Square will prove sufficient incentive for The Bon - as well as Nordstrom, which observers figure would leave with The Bon.

Citizens Realty Co. and Lincoln Investments Co., owners of River Park Square, said The Bon’s announcement has not altered plans for the $80 million public/private development.

“Our primary focus, as it was from the beginning, is on Nordstrom and The Bon,” said Betsy Cowles, president of Citizens and Lincoln.

“The anchors we have now are the ones we want to see for the next 20 or 30 years,” Cowles said Friday. She added that Citizens and Lincoln, affiliates of Cowles Publishing Co., are currently in lease negotiations with The Bon and Nordstrom.

Many downtown retailers in the city’s core said they weren’t worried about competition from the 100-store Spokane Valley Mall, which Salt Lake City developers announced Thursday will be built in the next two years.

“It’s a nice thing for the Valley, but I don’t think The Bon and other stores would leave downtown in favor of the mall,” said Massoud Emami, co-owner of Anderson & Emami Men’s Clothier. Emami was divisional sales manager at The Bon 10 years ago.

“They’re established downtown, they have a nice building and downtown has a good potential for the next several years. They’ve always been supportive of downtown,” Emami said Friday.

If the Seattle-based retailer opens a third store locally, Spokane will be the smallest city with three Bons, according to the company’s 1994 corporate fact book. Boise and Bellingham have two each. Seattle also has only two stores, but seven more are located in nearby suburbs.

Buller said the possibility for three Spokane Bons isn’t out of the question. Local sales are strong, he said, and both existing stores cater to a unique niche of shoppers.

“Obviously the downtown store has its own circle of shoppers. So does the North Side, and hopefully so will the Valley,” Buller said.

The Bon has been considering expansion to the Valley for at least 10 years. In fact, Buller remembers hearing rumors about a new Valley store floating around the company’s corporate headquarters in Seattle 20 years ago, when he first started working there.

The Valley Bon will likely feature many of the same designers, products and services as the downtown and NorthTown stores. But the new store will have a different layout.

Unlike the NorthTown and downtown Bons, which had to be retrofitted to existing buildings, the Valley Bon will be constructed to the company’s newest prototype. It will be similar to Bons in Olympia’s Capital Mall and Silverdale’s Kitsap Mall.

, DataTimes