Local businesses face dubious future

Originally published Saturday, November 16, 1996

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Ballard's changing economy has small businessmen such as butcher Jim Jones wondering about the future of his small shop. The Jones family owns the 1901 building housing Jones Bros. Meats and has been talking with developers interested in converting it to an upscale bed-and-breakfast or a small hotel.

But how many restaurants and coffee shops can Ballard support? Some merchants bemoan the changes in Ballard's retail base, which once included J.C. Penney.

Bruce Hawley, a longtime Ballard real estate agent, is philosophical. "Things change," he said. "I don't see any doom and gloom out there as long as you can adapt."

What does worry Hawley and others is preserving Ballard's industrial core, one of only two remaining manufacturing centers in Seattle. An estimated 10,000 people are employed in the Ballard/Interbay industrial area, many by small, start-up companies. Almost a third of the companies are "water-dependent," including fish processors, seafood wholesalers and marine equipment suppliers.

Ballard's industrial side has spawned many success stories. Take Fenpro, a company specializing in steel and aluminum products. The company's plain exterior gives no hint that Fenpro's handiwork is being shipped to Los Angeles as part of a huge expansion of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Hundreds of tons of finished aluminum gridwork -- part of a $9 million contract -- will secure the museum's exterior glass and stone facade.

Over the years, Fenpro President Ed Robinson said Ballard has been a good place to do business. Ballard is the kind of place where you can still bump into high school pals and even people you knew in grade school, said Robinson, a graduate of Ballard High School. "You can go to a Rotary Club meeting and half the guys have been going for the last 30 years. If you don't know them, you probably knew their dad," he said.

The small-town ambience that Robinson and others enjoy is one of the things that attracts newcomers.

"I don't feel like Ballard has changed in a long, long time," said Dave Krause, who lives with his wife, Sharon, aboard their 36-foot sailboat in Shilshole Marina. "You get a small-town feeling with this huge city around it. But you don't feel the pressure of the city quite so much.

"Neighbors Guy and Melissa Stevens moved to their 39-foot sailboat last year, joining some 200-300 live-aboards at Shilshole.

"Ballard's a cool place," said Stevens, who used to live in Redmond. "When we first got here we thought it was a little funky, but it's really neat."