SEATTLE — Seattle may not be The Big Apple. But its downtown core, once ripe with stores, is looking a little barren these days.
Forever 21 is not a forever fixture anymore. The company filed for bankruptcy and closed their downtown store.
Macy's, once famous for their one-day sales, will one day be out of downtown Seattle for good.
And now Barnes & Nobles is closing the book on Seattle business, ending a 22-year run. The downtown location at 600 Pine St. closes Saturday, Jan. 18.
The bookstore posted on Facebook this week thanking customers for their patronage over the years.
The closure leaves Seattle's downtown core without a general bookstore.
The downtown store's sign says shoppers can still find them at the Northgate Mall location at 401 NE Northgate Way, Seattle. The West Seattle branch of Barnes & Noble closed in January 2018.
The bookstore closure comes as other longtime businesses have also left or made plans to leave the downtown core.
Last year, Macy's announced it would sell its flagship store downtown by February of this year.
In a bit of irony, Amazon, which has been blamed for brick and mortar retail problems, will fill space vacated in the Macy’s building.
Jon Scholes, President of the Downtown Seattle Association, acknowledged "we do have concerns” about the sudden vacancies, but that the DSA believes it is “more about their business fundamentals than downtown.”
Scholes says a New Arena, new Convention Center, and millions in current and future Pike/Pine improvements will offset the retail issue.