Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Gary Sandgren, the former owner of Skookum Bay Outfitters, visits his former business in downtown Olympia. He was turned down for disaster relief by the Small Business Administration.

Downtown stores rebound from quake

MICHAEL BURNHAM, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published December 27, 2001

OLYMPIA -- Ten months after the Nisqually Earthquake rocked South Sound, business and city leaders say downtown took its licks but still stands tall.

"In a nutshell, it's been a pretty good recovery from the outset," said David Schaffert, executive director of the Olympia/Thurston Chamber of Commerce. "The business community rebounded rather well."

The months after the earthquake delivered mixed blessings for South Sound.

Some say that federal disaster relief agencies didn't turn out to be the funding panacea everyone hoped for.

But they're just as quick to point out that the quake enabled construction of a new Fourth Avenue bridge to begin in November -- six months sooner than expected.

"The earthquake -- besides making the bridge happen sooner than expected -- really brought people together," said Olympia Downtown Association coordinator Connie Lorenz. "I don't think you can be a small-business owner without being an optimist."

Millions of federal disaster relief dollars have been handed out since the Feb. 28 quake. Federal Emergency Management Agency aid for Western Washington includes:

- $50.8 million for home repairs.

- $3.1 million for individual family grants.

- $2.3 million for economic injury disaster loans.

- $1.7 million for rental assistance.

- $246,585 for disaster unemployment assistance.

- $13,676 for lodging and reimbursement expenses.

And 29,425 individuals were eligible for temporary disaster housing.

While FEMA aid may help pay for public transportation repair and private needs not covered by insurance policies, the Small Business Administration acts as the primary business source for federal assistance through its disaster loan program.

In Washington's 22 counties declared to be disaster areas, the SBA received 11,763 aid applications, said SBA spokesman Mike Howard.

The SBA approved 6,230 applications, totaling about $82.67 million; $53.6 million of the aid went to homeowners and renters, and the rest went to businesses.

The SBA is still reviewing nine aid applications, Howard said.

Struggling to survive

Some downtown Olympia business owners who didn't receive federal aid either closed up shop for good or continued through repairs.

The building that houses Drees home furnishings on Legion Way needed complete retrofitting.

The repairs were covered by The Rants Group, a major South Sound leasing and development company that owns the building.

Residents on the building's upper floor needed to move out for two months.

Through October, one-third of the Drees store space was partitioned off to allow repair work, said Drees owner Ruth Ann Goularte.

"Now that we've got our store back, we're fine," Goularte said.

Skookum Bay Outfitters owner Gary Sandgren isn't so fortunate. Sandgren sold the Capitol Way store's name and inventory Dec. 17 to an Olympia-based company.

The new owner could open the store on Port of Olympia property as soon as February.

"The outlook looks bleak for me," Sandgren said.

The one-story, Capitol Way shop needs $500,000 in repairs, which equals about 40 percent of the building's value.

Sandgren applied three times for about $1.4 million in SBA aid, which would cover repairs, lost business and mortgage costs. He received a letter dated Sept. 18 from the SBA informing him that the agency had rejected his loan request for a final time.

While the Capitol Way building remains an empty shell, Sandgren moved his store to temporary space along Legion Way.

"I'll probably have to default on the loan on the business because of this," said Sandgren, who has operated the business since 1989. "I had basically planned my retirement around that building."

Sandgren said he disagrees with the SBA's assertion that his store wouldn't have made adequate money to pay back the loan.

"The whole idea of SBA and FEMA is to help people in a disaster," Sandgren added. "I had a disaster."

A guessing game

The ODA's Lorenz said a slowed economy and winter weather have made calculating the economic rebound after the quake a guessing game for downtown business owners.

"A lot of shopping is weather-dependent," said Lorenz, who added that many of downtown's shops rely on the holiday season to rake in their biggest profits.

Expected state job cuts and Deschutes Parkway's continued closure pose new challenges for downtown.

Repairs to the closed stretch of Deschutes Parkway will likely cost about $5 million and are scheduled for completion by winter 2003. U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration funds would cover about $4.3 million of the cost.

"If you're a small-business owner, you feel like you've been recovering from one thing to the next," Lorenz said.

Michael Burnham covers Olympia for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-704-6869.

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