In late September, downtown Bellingham lost three of its evening anchors within about ten days. Rock and Rye Oyster House scheduled its last service on State Street for Sept. 26. Red Star Taco Bar closed the day before, a block up. Temple Bar planned Saturday, Oct. 3 as its last business day on Champion Street. The leases being signed behind those closures point to coffee bars, lounges and creative workspace. Many of these places stay open late, none of them take reservations, and they are built for people who want somewhere to sit for a while.
Most of the September Losses Were Dinner Service
These were long-running businesses. Rock and Rye had been on State Street for 12 years when it announced in June that it would close this fall. Temple Bar has been part of the cultural arts district for 26 years. In a Sept. 24 Cascadia Daily News report on downtown turnover, full-service restaurants were the category having the hardest time, and owners pointed to higher costs across the board and fewer people dining out.
Red Star's closing shows that pressure most clearly. Padraic Markle, one of the owner-operators, told The Bellingham Herald that the team had been "stretched incredibly thin trying to operate two full service restaurants for two years now." They kept Sweet Bay Café, which already shared the space at 1327 N. State St., and plan to expand it into the Red Star side. Markle called it "more of a consolidation of our operations than a full closure."
The hours tell the rest. Red Star ran 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and until midnight on Fridays. Sweet Bay's regular hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. So the address stays busy, but it now does its business by day. Markle has hinted at "exciting things coming down the pipe" and pointed followers to the café's Instagram. No new hours or concept have been announced yet.
Temple Bar may not be gone for good. Owner Vincent Lalonde has been trying to sell the bar's assets and name, and he hopes a buyer will keep the brand going. He also announced plans this summer to close the downtown Mount Bakery café next door so he can focus on the Fairhaven location. In the Sept. 24 report, he was still looking for that buyer.
Five New Licenses for Every Closure
The closures stand out, but the business-license count runs the other way. A quarterly report from the Downtown Bellingham Partnership, which tracks downtown business licenses for the Washington Main Street program, shows about five new licenses for every closure.
That ratio sits next to another number. A city report released in April found that almost 15% of ground-level commercial space in Bellingham's walkable center was vacant. Both can be true at once. Downtown has a lot of empty space, and the spaces that do turn over can fill quickly. Jovan Hall of Daylight Properties, which owns and manages 19 mixed-use downtown buildings including the Rock and Rye property, said a boba tea shop owner signed a lease in mid-September for the former Avellino Coffeehouse space on Railroad Avenue. A lease for Rock and Rye's space was already in the works. Neither incoming business had been named publicly as of the Sept. 24 report.
The city also added someone to help fill those gaps. Former city planner Darby Galligan became Bellingham's urban transformation specialist in September. The job is a single point of contact for people who want to open a business or invest in downtown property, and she describes it as "telephone operator, matchmaker and problem solver."
The Incoming List Leans Toward Lounging
Here are the downtown openings announced since late August, with the latest status each one has reported:
| Address | What's coming | Latest reported status |
|---|---|---|
| 1135 Railroad Ave. | Late Nite Aquarium Café, from Café Hazeltree and Emmaquatics | Grand opening scheduled for Oct. 3 |
| 300 W. Champion St. | Jackalope Coffee & Lounge, in the former Welcome Road Winery | Expected to open in September; owners post updates on Instagram |
| 1530 Cornwall Ave. | Paper Whale studios, coworking and events at the former Public Market | Possession expected Oct. 1; building preparation planned over the following months |
| Railroad Ave., former Avellino Coffeehouse | Boba tea shop | Lease signed mid-September; name not announced |
| 1153 N. State St. | Lost Gentlemen's Club gift boutique | Announced for fall; no date |
| 1327 N. State St. | Sweet Bay Café expansion into the Red Star space | Planned; details pending |
The aquarium café pairs a full-service coffee bar with an aquarium lounge. It describes itself as a low-pressure third space for studying, socializing and free events, and it has a free hot-tea station. Guests can still use the lounge when the coffee bar is closed. Café Hazeltree's advertised hours are 2 p.m. to midnight, Wednesday through Sunday. Emmaquatics, which moved from 1208 Cornwall Ave., keeps shorter afternoon hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 2 to 7 p.m., and Saturday 12:30 to 7 p.m. With Red Star now shifting to daytime, this is one of the few downtown spots advertising service until midnight.
Jackalope's co-owners, Nathan and Amanda Warner, describe the Champion Street space as a cozy community gathering place. The plan includes Lotus Coffee, tea, beer and wine, with a small comfort-food menu in development and a spirits license application to follow. It is two doors from Temple Bar, so the 300 block of West Champion is changing on both ends this month.
Paper Whale's plans are the largest. The Bellingham nonprofit placemaking agency signed a lease with the Whatcom Transportation Authority for the former Public Market at 1530 Cornwall Ave. It plans artist studios, creative coworking, exhibitions, performances, workshops and community events there. The building will also become a year-round home for its Fire & Story Festival, Noisy Waters Mural Festival and Rising Tide Speaker Series. The organization says programming will expand over the coming months as improvements and permits are completed. If you followed the mural work in our piece on why the temporary part of Bellingham's waterfront got permanent first, this is the same group moving indoors and uptown.
Why the Downtown Partnership Keeps Saying "Third Place"
The incoming businesses use the same language the Downtown Bellingham Partnership has been using with business owners. Jenny Hagemann, the partnership's development and communications director, told Cascadia Daily News that many of the bars and restaurants doing well have added experiences like puppy yoga or makers markets, or serve as an essential third place for their customers. The partnership's message to owners is direct:
"Lights on and doors open isn't enough anymore."
Paper Whale executive director Nick Hartrich used nearly the same words for the Public Market. He described the plan as turning it into "a third space, one that is focused on driving the local creative economy." The aquarium café calls itself a third space in its own announcement, and Jackalope's owners describe theirs as a community gathering place. Three of the new downtown concepts are pitched as places to spend an afternoon or evening rather than places to book a table.
Hall, speaking from the century-old Herald Building, said she thinks the streets are busier than they've been since before COVID. Lalonde remembers his Mount Bakery block being dead when he took it over in 2007. He credits wider sidewalks and the cultural arts district for turning it into a busy area with crowded restaurants. The newer tenants are betting on that same foot traffic, just with a different business model.
The Rest of October Downtown
Several downtown events this month use the same streets:
- Bellingham Celtic Festival, downtown, Oct. 8 through 11
- Hamster Crawl, downtown, Saturday, Oct. 10
- Sippin' on Cider Festival, Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal
- Bellingham Farmers Market, Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Depot Market Square, 1100 Railroad Ave., through the third week of December
- First Fridays, 6 to 10 p.m. on the first Friday of each month; October's was Oct. 2, so the next is Nov. 6
- Holiday Wine Walk, Nov. 13, with tickets already on sale through the Downtown Bellingham Partnership
The Farmers Market sits half a block from the new aquarium café on Railroad Avenue, so you can do both on a single Saturday. The Downtown Bellingham Partnership's First Fridays page lists the monthly dates. Paper Whale says it will post studio, coworking and programming details for the Public Market at paper-whale.com as they're ready. For more on the city's neighborhoods, see our Bellingham neighborhood page.
Downtown storefronts that turn over this quickly affect what the blocks around them feel like day to day, and that matters if you own property nearby or are weighing a move closer in. Flannery Group tracks those changes block by block, and we're glad to talk through what downtown's current leasing activity means for a property you're considering. Schedule a local market consult.
