Yellow Pages
Bruce Springer couldn’t rent out his building at 314 W. Gates St. in Mount Vernon.
He purchased the building and remodeled it, hoping to rent it out to a retail business. But no one wanted the place.
With no prospects for retails, Spring decided to start another pub and restaurant, much like the Porterhouse he started and sold one block west on Gates Street.
Springer said he decided to return to pubs, which he has started and operated in Mount Vernon and Seattle, because he’s familiar with them.
“I know that business,” Springer said. “I know it makes money down here. It makes a lot more money than retail.”
Springer’s new Empire Alehouse is one of several new businesses in Skagit County that were started in the last two years, but opened their doors in the midst of an international economic crisis.
Mark Morgan opened Morgan Creek Outfitters, an outdoor sports shop at 822 Metcalf in Sedro-Woolley. He purchased the building next to his original business, Cascade Mountain Loans, in May 2007, and spent the year and a half clearing out the building and preparing it to display hunting and fishing gear.
Morgan said if he can get through the down economy and the snowy weather, he expects to do well in the long term.
“If we can make our business get by in this economy, it’s going to be a thriving business when the economy gets better,” Morgan said.
Morgan Creek Outfitters and the Empire Alehouse are founded on similar economic principals: Keep overhead costs low, avoid loans and do everything yourself.
“It means a lot of hours — after we close, before we open — doing all the things you may have hired out to do before,” Morgan said.
He also limits his stock to hunting and fishing gear that people use in the Skagit Valley. Morgan said Skagit fishers don’t need catfish lures, so he doesn’t carry them like larger outdoor shops might.
Springer said knowing your product and your clients helps too. He built the pub because his other retail business was not doing so well. He said Mount Vernon residents enjoy restaurants and might be more open to spending a little money on beer than on stuff. He and his wife run the River and Main gift store next to the Empire Alehouse, and he said this Christmas season, they have sold half what they would normally sell during the holidays.
Springer said that people may change their buying habits, but they still want to enjoy a good beer.
He sees customers become more conscious of sales and happy hours. Many come in for a quick drink before heading home for dinner, or eat first and then come down for the beer. He said that beer is inexpensive, and even if customers buy a little less, they keep coming in.
“We’re going to do better than I would if this was just empty or rented to somebody,” Springer said.
Morgan said he wants to get by on customers staying in town for a pack of shells or some lures rather than head into town. If those smaller purchases keep him going through the low economy, he thinks he’ll do better after the economy improves.
The new business owners also try and ignore the negative news about the economy and hope that people will still need to purchase food and goods.
“I think it makes everybody nervous, but you can’t stop what you’re doing,” said Nick Crandall, owner of the Train Wreck, a new pub in Burlington that opened its doors in November.
Morgan said businesses have to keep moving, or everyone will be worse off.
“You try not to let what the economy is supposedly doing affect your decision making,” Morgan said. “I think if everybody crawled into a hole we’d all be in trouble.”
Springer already has his mind looking forward to new pubs in downtown. He wants to see as many as four or five new pubs and restaurants open in the area. He said it draws more customers, and every business benefits.
“I think anybody that comes down here will do well in the long run,” Springer said. “I look at this like Fremont is in Seattle. We’re the last cool, little old-style waterfront town.”
Springer envisions a downtown where people come from Burlington, La Conner and Anacortes and walk down the street to pick their restaurant. Maybe they’ll eat at one and grab a beer at another.
• Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .
