Shoppers Flood Mall’S Debut Crowds Pack Downtown To Be Among First In River Park Square

Accompanied by a high school marching band drumroll and stray balloons drifting into a blue sky, River Park Square officially opened for business Friday.

About 2,000 people were on hand as developers and politicians declared the $110 million shopping center a catalyst for downtown Spokane’s rebirth.

“I’m so proud of the people in Spokane, Washington, who said, `We’re going to make it happen here,”’ Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told the crowd. “Today is a day of new beginning.”

When the doors opened early at 9:15 a.m. and the throng poured into the River Park Square atrium, the focus was less on civic pride and more on shopping.

The 11 stores were instantly flooded. Cash registers rang early and often as shoppers flocked to stores like Williams-Sonoma and Ann Taylor, stores that once required a trip to Seattle.

“It’s a shorter commute,” said Cheryl Sikes, who joined two friends for the opening.“There’s more time for shopping.”

The biggest draw Monday was the new Nordstrom, which had customers lined up for a block by 9 a.m.

First in line was Joan Richards and her 10-year-old grandson Brandon Schoowinski, who arrived at 6 a.m.

“We thought it would be totally crowded,” Richards said. “I love downtown. I’ve been waiting for this to open.”

Inside Nordstrom, it was mad-ness. Escalators were jammed as the crowd streamed through the three-story store. Customers banged elbows at the cosmetics counters. Pumps and high heels flew on and off as sales people strained to help shoe buyers.

Pat Van Roy was touring the new store with friends from the Valley.

“We’ve needed this for a long, long time,” she said of the new Nordstrom, which is replacing a 25-year-old store. “You go often enough and it becomes routine. This is refreshing. I’m so glad they got their act together to do this.”

It wasn’t easy.

First proposed in 1994, the redevelopment of River Park Square had a long and controversial gestation.

Aided by a low-interest loan guarantee from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, backed by money from Spokane parking meters, the project was attacked as corporate welfare.

River Park Square survived numerous legal challenges, and Friday, the first phase opened with more than 200,000 square feet of retail space and movie theaters.

Phase two opens next year with additional stores and theaters, as well as a food court.

Developer Betsy Cowles said it was worth the struggle.

“We’ve been through a lot, but a healthy city and a healthy downtown is the best reward,” said Cowles, president of River Park Square LLC. The firm is an affiliate of Cowles Publishing, which owns The Spokesman-Review.

Even enemies of the project’s funding, like Mayor John Talbott, who campaigned on the issue, were among the crowd exploring River Park Square.

“I liked the idea from the beginning,” said Talbott, who was shopping at the Chico’s women’s store with his wife. “It’s something downtown needed. It was the process, not the concept” that was the problem, he said.

On Friday, the lone indication of the controversy was a single protester with a sign that read “Nordstrom Corporate Welfare.”

Despite all the goodwill, not everything went smoothly Friday.

With construction not quite done, some River Park Square details, including a front door, were missing.

One drinking fountain showered people with water. Elevators got stuck. Panes of glass in the atrium cracked after installers fastened screws too tightly. People complained that the parking was expensive and chaotic.

But most customers were able to overlook the hiccups and revel in a new shopping playground.

Traci Loewen joined three friends from the North Side to wait for Nordstrom to open.

The group decided to be at the opening weeks ago, and also decided they would have no pre-set spending limit.

“Whatever we want we can have,” Loewen said. “That’s what we told our husbands.”

“We’ve been spending what we want for a long time,” Deb Prouty said.

As the circus of shoppers swirled around him, Everett Hagen of Deary, Idaho, slumped in a Nordstrom shoe department chair and watched the crowd buzz.

A tree farmer in his early 70s, Hagen has been coming to downtown Spokane since the 1930s.

On Friday, he said the city had the compact feel he remembered as a young man.

“I don’t like to run from one mall to another,” he said. “Here, you can walk from one store to the other like we used to in the 1950s and ‘60s.”

Hagen said he was impressed enough to make a repeat trip.

`One of these days I’m going to come and buy a necktie,” he said.