THE DOWNTOWN: Area reflects stages of city's evolution:

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Progress Sunday, March 24, 2002

Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Danny Turner of Lakewood visits the shops of downtown Lacey while waiting for a car repair diagnosis. He said he enjoys the quiet nature of Lacey.

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Sackrison

THE DOWNTOWN:
Area reflects stages of city's evolution

LIONA TANNESEN THE OLYMPIAN

LACEY -- Horses and buggies weren't ever tied up in front of the Fred Meyer here.

Model T Fords were never parked in front of Target -- or its forefather on the site.

That's because at the beginning of the 20th century, there was no downtown Lacey at the site of the current downtown.

The city wasn't incorporated until 1966.

But city officials are working hard to cultivate a downtown.

"We have a challenge like a lot of cities never blessed with old downtowns," said Lacey Community Development Department Director Jerry Litt.

The area is in a rebirth phase, said city spokesman Scott Spence.

Downtown present

Some outsiders -- and some insiders -- wonder what counts as Lacey's downtown.

"Lacey has no downtown," said Linda Medcalf of Lacey when she left the Fred Meyer store.

City officials struggle against that notion.

The city's official downtown is a square that is marked by the back of the South Sound Center on the west, Pacific Avenue and Lacey Boulevard on the south, College Street on the east and Interstate 5 on the north.

"As far as the ingredients of a downtown, we have them," Spence said. "It's an employment center. It's a retail center. It's a financial center."

The downtown's biggest stores are Fred Meyer and now Target in South Sound Center.

About 2,500 state employees work in buildings clustered around Huntamer Park in the center.

The area also has more than 16 banks.

People in Lacey can stop at shops for pet supplies, cinnamon rolls, auto repair supplies, sub sandwiches or furniture.

They can have their cars, vacuum cleaners or shoes repaired.

The area has few residents, living in houses on islands left from a more rural stage in the city's lifespan.

Cars rush through the city all day on Pacific Avenue, a main east-west route in the county.

The downtown quiets down in the evenings, with a couple of restaurants open.

Lacey's downtown doesn't have a movie theater -- Lacey Cinemas is in Olympia -- or nightclubs.

Downtown past

Shirley Dziedzic, president of the Lacey Historical Society, does not agree with the city's definition of downtown.

Dziedzic, a former Lacey city councilwoman, said the community started farther east along Pacific Avenue at Carpenter Road and then moved west.

The city's roots should be included in its downtown, Dziedzic said.

Pacific Avenue always was the backbone of the community, which existed long before it was incorporated, Dziedzic said.

Lacey -- like Grand Mound or Littlerock -- was a known community with its own identity, Dziedzic said.

The community got its first post office in the 1890s at the Carpenter Road and Pacific Avenue end.

The first school with the name Lacey was built in 1913. The school served as a community center, Dziedzic said.

Other businesses went up along Pacific Avenue in the next decades.

The largest one was the South Sound Center at the opposite end of Pacific Avenue in 1966.

The mall was a busy place when Litt dropped his wife off when they visited in 1994.

By 1996, the mall began to lose stores, including a Nordstrom store.

Downtown future

City officials say the area is coming back again, now with Target moving in and new buildings going up on Sixth Avenue.

The city put together a plan -- starting with citizen input in 1997 -- to shift the downtown area from a vehicle-oriented shopping area to a pedestrian-friendly downtown with places to shop, work and play.

Upcoming plans for the downtown area include changing Lacey Boulevard and part of Pacific Avenue to one-way streets -- possibly starting this spring -- and to realign Sixth Avenue next year.

"Not only will (realigning Sixth Avenue) help solve traffic problems, it will also really urbanize the core area," said Priscilla Terry, who was on the committee that helped shape the vision of the city and is one of the owners of a new office and retail building on Sixth Avenue.

Terry is a broker and vice president for Prime Locations -- a company that leases, sells and manages commercial and investment property.

Prime Locations moved into the two-story yellow building with a bright red roof this year.

"I thought it was a dynamic location," Terry said.

The downtown is near I-5, the modern-day equivalent of a city on the banks of a busy river, Terry said.

In February, the building's hallways smelled like new carpets and paint, and workers' pickup trucks were parked in the back lot.

Upstairs, offices house lawyers and a lobbyist group.

Downstairs will house two restaurants -- Quizno's and Saphiro's, which opened recently -- as well as a wine and tobacco shop.

Terry said she would like to see more boutiques, a kitchen shop and a bookstore in downtown Lacey.

Mayor Graeme Sackrison said he would like to see more businesses that allow people to congregate and shop.

"Financial institutions provide an absolutely necessary service, but they don't add much to the dynamism of downtown, and they're not places where people congregate," Sackrison said.

Sackrison said he would like to see a good hardware store and a good bookstore.

Some older stores are making changes. The Fred Meyer store is planning a $1.2 million remodeling.

Lacey does have challenges to creating a downtown, Sackrison said.

The city's downtown has limited space.

"You could plop it on the west side of Olympia and not notice a difference," Sackrison said.

The downtown also doesn't have people who live in it or nearby, Sackrison said.

A few individuals own a large amount of the property, Sackrison said.

"So, sometimes it's hard to come to a meeting of minds on a vision or direction," Sackrison said.

The city can control parks and streets and set up a vision, Litt said.

"Beyond that, we really have to hope the property owners can follow through on the vision," Litt said.

City officials hope more entertainment and restaurants will settle in the downtown.

Multiple downtowns

The city's downtown might not be the only one, Litt said.

The city is developing other activity centers at places such as Hawks Prairie and Yelm Highway and College Street, Litt said.

"Maybe in a few years we'll have two downtowns," Sackrison said, referring to the Hawks Prairie area.

Meanwhile, Lacey's downtown is getting ready to come into its own, Terry said.

"I would consider it a city with an eye on its future and not on its past," Terry said.

Liona Tannesen covers Lacey for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5427 or ltannese@olympia.gannett.com.

Lacey by the numbers

- Incorporated: 1966

- Population: 31,600 within city limits and 27,824 people in the urban growth area in 2001.

- 1990 population: 19,279 within city limits and 25,127 in the urban growth area.

- Forecast: By 2020, Lacey is expected to have 45,760 people within city limits and 43,770 in its urban growth area.

- Demographics: 78 percent white, 4.8 percent black, 1.3 percent American Indian/Alaska native, 7.8 percent Asian, 1 percent Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 2.2 percent other, 4.7 percent two or more races.

- Landmarks: the Kite Girl statue on Pacific Avenue, the Kluh Clock, the Flag Plaza by Applebee's Neighborhood Bar and Grill and Interstate 5, and Huntamer Park in the center of the downtown.

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