Perhaps the most significant local business development of 2023 was something that didn’t happen: a recession, feared in late 2022 to be ahead in the new year, never materialized.
Still, a number of notable business stories woven throughout Cascadia Daily News’ coverage — from retail to real estate — did have visible movement or reach a conclusion during the year, and several profiled Northwest Washington businesses and people continued to make news after their initial stories were told.
Across the border
One key business story reached north, into Canada. In April, reported cross-border travel numbers for 2022 showed passenger vehicle traffic between Whatcom County and British Columbia was still 30% to 40% percent lower than pre-pandemic levels and had not recovered despite the lifting of pandemic travel restrictions.
That led to concern about the full return of retail and tourism dollars from Canadians, affecting everything from sales tax collections to Skagit Valley Tulip Festival attendance. The dip also factored into the year’s discussions about the impact of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on the transportation corridor between tournament cities Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, for which game border traffic planning began in June.
However, traffic picked up over the summer, said Laurie Trautman, Ph.D., director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University, based on crossings at Peace Arch and Pacific Highway in Blaine.
“We saw a nice increase by August. We are almost at 80% of August 2019 numbers, which is up from 55% in August of 2022,” Trautman said. “So, we are slowly creeping back up to our pre-pandemic travel volumes, although we may see the rate of that increase begin to taper off.”
In the air
Air transportation from the two main commercial aviation hubs for the northwest corner of Washington state got a boost and a new leader.
In November, Alaska Airlines added its longest flight from Paine Field in Everett, a nonstop to Honolulu and the airline’s 10th destination from the newly rebadged Seattle Paine Field International Airport.
Bellingham International Airport added a seasonal nonstop Southwest Airlines flight to Denver, and a new director of aviation, Kip Turner, said in November that Southwest would increase its Denver service for 2024.
Still not completely at altitude: Alaska Airlines’ flight frequency between Bellingham and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which suffered in 2023 due in part to a shortage of pilots after the transition from Q400 turboprops to Embraer 175 jets. The airline has said it’s expecting to increase flights between the two cities in spring of 2024.
On the ground
Despite relatively high mortgage interest rates in 2023, median home sale prices in Whatcom and Skagit counties barely budged from their elevated 2022 levels.
Whatcom County’s median price was $579,950 in the third quarter of 2023, down only 3.2% from the same quarter a year earlier, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service numbers analyzed by Peter Ahn of The Muljat Group. A similar analysis from Brown McMillen Real Estate for Skagit County pegged that county’s median sales price in the third quarter up 2.5% year to year, at $568,670. Both reports said solid demand and low home inventory were reasons prices held steady.
Retail space had a mixed year, at least in Bellingham. After showing relatively steady demand and reduced vacancy rates through the second quarter, Bellingham retail vacancies increased in the third quarter to 3.1% primarily due to a near doubling of the downtown rate to 6.7%, according to numbers from Ryan A. Martin of Pacific Continental Realty. A major contributor: the closing of the downtown Rite Aid, which Martin said accounted for nearly a third of the increase.
Good news, though, at the mall with what Martin called a “significant gain” in Bellis Fair retail occupancy under its new owners of one year, 4th Dimension Properties.
David Prince, Bellis Fair’s assistant property manager, said the new ownership team has “allowed us to try and bring in smaller local-type businesses, work to try and be more involved with the community, and the traffic has definitely picked up in here.”
On the job
Northwest Washington caught up with the rest of the state in showing evidence of pandemic job recovery by the end of the first half of the year, in what one Washington State Employment Security Department economist said had been a “lagged recovery” for Whatcom and Skagit counties.
By November, unemployment rates were 4.3% in Whatcom and 4.8% in Skagit, ticking up from the initially reported non-seasonally adjusted 2023 lows of 3.1% and 3.3%, respectively, in June.
Workers locally flexed their muscles after months of retail staffing shortages. REI workers in Bellingham voted to unionize in June, Bellingham Starbucks employees at three locations joined a nationwide one-day strike in November and Macy’s staff picketed the retailer’s Bellingham store the day after Thanksgiving, later rejecting a contract offer.
High-profile Cascadia companies and organizations saw leadership changes. Nature’s Path Organic Foods, a Richmond, British Columbia-based company with major manufacturing operations in Blaine, announced in July that Arjan Stephens had been named president, the son succeeding the family-owned company’s founders.
Nicole Roozen replaced retiring longtime Executive Director Cindy Verge at the helm of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The nonprofit Mount Baker Foundation hired Zeenia Junkeer to take over from its founding, and now-retiring Executive Director Debbie Ahl. And the Downtown Bellingham Partnership said its executive director of seven years, Alice Clark, would step down at the end of the year.
Down the road
Other stories didn’t quite develop as anticipated in 2023, from a long-promised Amazon facility near Burlington that still hadn’t opened by the time the holiday season arrived, to a long-germinating agritourism policy refresh in Skagit County that now may not bear fruit until 2024.
More in line with timeframe expectations might have been the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger as it continued to lumber toward a long-forecast early 2024 close, a major story that may hold changes for the regional Haggen chain owned by Albertsons. It’s a merger that, in early September, did have the two grocers announce the planned divestiture of more than 400 stores, though the Haggen brand was not explicitly called out.
After the profile
Businesses are not static. Of the dozen deeply profiled in Cascadia Daily News in 2023, half had updates to share by year’s end.
The Portal Container Village, a unique retail and events center featuring repurposed metal shipping containers on Bellingham’s waterfront, expanded for its 2023 season with a larger connected bike park, more parking and the addition of Portal Putt mini golf. Port of Bellingham’s Mike Hogan said for 2024, Portal Putt “is adding a back nine for a full 18 holes,” and new containers are being fabricated to add Bin 13 Wine Bar, Zeeks Pizza and a second rotating retail shop for local artists to sell their goods.
Water taxi startup Island Opportunity Charters launched in March, intending to fill a void for passenger and freight services between Bellingham and the San Juan Islands. Owners Craig Hougen and Mark Riedesel said they had a busy summer that “exceeded all expectations” and even into November, “we’ve remained steady with the boat still providing transport almost daily.” They plan to add a whale-watching permit in 2024 for more sightseeing trip options.
Bellingham hot sauce maker Funky’s Hot Sauce Factory continued to win awards for its fiery concoctions — eight more in 2023 alone, according to founder Matthew Mini — plus acquired BBQ sauce company Trilby’s Kitchen in Ferndale and moved into a new kitchen with “plenty of room to grow into.” Mini said they hope to open a small retail space at their location in Bellingham’s Haskell Business Park in 2024.
Allies, a Bellingham boutique with nonsurgical products for women who are breast cancer survivors, moved in September to 1301 Fraser St., Ste. 101, and expanded its storefront. Owner Laura DeWitt said the new space is about two-and-a-half times larger than the previous store across from PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center. DeWitt said they will “expand both mastectomy and compression garment offerings over the next couple of months,” and added that Allies now has a dedicated space in Anchorage for its Alaska fit events.
Handmade waxed canvas outdoor gear company PNWBushcraft in Deming, best known through its online storefront, is planning to extend its product line into “handcrafted knives,” said CEO and co-founder Heather Saulsbury. The nearly decade-old business also still expects to expand its shop physically to accommodate growth.
Finally, Bellingham Angel Investors said it has had success in increasing its membership. Executive Director Katy von Kuhn said the startup investment group has added five new members after a pandemic that saw it expand its reach nationally. Von Kuhn said they’re also working hard on community engagement as “a resource to help founders with pitch deck creation, fundraising development and offer assistance with business direction where we can, especially to companies that are in very early stages.”
And, perhaps, lead to companies that become subjects for year-end business coverage recaps to come.
Frank Catalano writes occasional business columns and stories for Cascadia Daily News.
