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Gabby is on a huge vacation right now, mostly in Greece, with her husband Nick and her mom. It's nearing a close; she's expected back to the office on Monday, but she's been on PTO all last week and this week. But, I had to text her today because of huge news we got at work today. The same thing happened when we got the news that we'd be closing the Downtown store, which I knew she'd want to know immediately so I texted her. I think maybe she's in Rome right now? She texted me a photo in the middle of our exchanges this morning.
Anyway I'll get right to it: we are re-opening Downtown! Sort of. It will re-open as our first-ever "small format store," so it will only take up 6,500 square feet of the total 17,500 it used to occupy.
The rest of the space will become our new Central Office location!
Only a couple of days ago we all, in the office, got an Outlook calendar invite to a meeting this morning at 10:00, which was titled "2025 Strategy Update." I don't think any of us really thought much of what that might infer. I certainly didn't.
I can tell you I had no expectations, going into that meeting, of getting news that momentous. Krish, the CEO, led the meeting, and he opened with the news about reopening Downtown as a small-format stores. My internal reaction was:
Oh. Okay. Cool, that kind of makes sense. It was immediately couched as a way to help offset the fact that we are still beholded to the lease on that space, the rent for which was deemed actually cheaper than continuing to run a full-scale store
and pay the rent. We closed that store because they could find no path to profitability there, and Krish said very early on in this meeting that this really hasn't changed. But, opening a smaller format scale with far lower operating costs could help offset the cost of being beholden to the lease.
Then came the twist: that we would be filling up the rest of that space, which is about half the size of our current office (which is mostly empty on most days because of the new-normal of people adopting the hybrid work model).
My jaw actually dropped a little. Once the minor shock began to subside, it gave me space to steadily realize how much I like this idea. For a multitude of reasons, it's kind of a win-win scenario.
There was a lot of questions, of course, and that was what most of the hour of that meeting was dedicated to, after maybe 15 minutes of information dump. I did ask the first question: How long has this been being explored as an option? Krish gave a very nice answer to this, and started by saying that when the closure announcement occurred (the store closed in January; the announcement was last fall, specifically
November 1), a woman in the Deli actually came up to him and asked, "Why can't we just keep the Deli open?" Krish said this was really the germ of this idea, which then—and now I am paraphrasing—evolved over time and they explored what the options were.
I don't know how long it's been a finalized, done deal, but they did mention during the meeting that emails would be going out shortly and that they would be sending out media press releases today. And indeed, they never waste any time after finally informing staff of news like this: the All Store & Office Staff email announcement went out at 11:01—one minute after that meeting officially ended. By 11:40, there was a Member email sent out with the information, linking to
a public web page with more detail.
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So. Let's go through the questions that I had, and what their answers were.
1. As already stated, my first question was how long this has been explored as an option, which in one way or another was basically since the store closed in January. Even though I didn't get any specifics as to when they started looking into this as a
viable idea, I was still satisfied with the answer Krish provided.
2. I spoke up near the end of the hour, not to ask a question but to share a comment. I will do my best to share it here exactly how I said it: "This isn't a question so much as a comment. And I have no idea whether I was in the minority here, but I have never worked in any other physical space that I loved so much, so ever since there's been talk about moving, I've had some anxiousness about it, having no idea whether it would feel like some kind of massive downgrade. But I don't think I could have thought of a better move; I'm thrilled by this as an alternate idea."
This got a more notable reaction that I was even expecting, possibly more than anything anyone else said or asked. There was audible relief, I think largely because of how I began my statement; there were people actually saying "Aw!"; there was even a smattering of applause. Krish responded to this with even more detail, and expressed gratitude for what I said, as did Dana, the head of HR at the end of the meeting. There was a definitive shift in the room in this moment, even though others had already expressed excitement about this news. But I wanted to represent, at least myself if not others who felt the same way, the people who
really love this office space, and what the prospect of this move means to them.
There actually are so many positive things about this. What Krish probably thinks of as the most positive is the one I am most inclined to downplay: that we need another space that "better reflects our values," a phrase Krish in particular repeats on a regular basis. This is in response to the number of office staff who resent how nice this office is, with its spectacular panoramic views of Elliott Bay and downtown, and its beautifully designed interior. This came up more than once even when Kate was CEO and spearheaded this move, and she always responded with how we got all the office furniture at a discount, and our lease was at a discounted rate. None of that changes the optics among store staff, who I am frankly inclined to dismiss as being crybabies about it—office and retail spaces are just different, period—but, if this move helps foster a more positive relationship between store and office staff, even I will concede that is a positive thing.
There is much more than that, however. It has been
decades since the Central Office shared space with one of the stores, and now it will. This has the potential to have a fantastically symbiotic relationship: benefits for the store; benefits for office staff, both professionally (with staff in business spaces right next to each other) and personally (many office staff will be able to walk right next door for a lunch from the Deli).
And that brings me to . . .
3. I actually asked this question in a follow-up "Team Huddle" meeting Dave hosted, in the same conference room as the all-Office meeting (which itself was hybrid, several of us in-person and several of us on Teams). With the office space being cut in half—we were told the square footage will be 12,000; the figure I have for the current office is 26,000—most of the desks will become floating desks, used by whoever happens to be in the office that day. I asked about the few of us who currently come to the office five days a week: right now that's just Benny, who works in Deli, and me. Would we also have to use floating desks (and by implication potentially have a different location depending on the day), or would we still get a dedicated space?
Dave seemed fairly confident that those of us who work in-office every day will still get a fixed, dedicated space. Gabby has already told me she will advocate for this for me whenever we do move to a new office. So I'm feeling pretty okay about that right now.
4. In the "Team Huddle" meeting, I also asked: "I have a question that is kind of odd, totally unimportant, and a little self-involved." Erik, who was sitting in front of me, chuckled and said, "That was a lot." Sometimes I'm a lot, okay! (I didn't say that.) I continued, "I live only about a mile from that location. Does ayone else live closer?"
Beth piped in that she lives in 2nd and Wall. That's Belltown, technically the same neighborhood as this current office. "That might be closer," I said. I just mapped this, and Beth will be a 0.9-mile walk to Rainier Square Tower. And I will be . . . a 1.2-mile walk. Beth wins! Goddammit. I wanted to win!
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I have other, personal reasons for loving this move. If I could be the one to choose, and none of the other needs and economic or social pressures were a factor, I think I would still opt to stay right here. But there's a ton that will be convenient for me about this, not least of which is shaving more than a mile off my commute. It's going to make walking, cycling, or even taking public transit easier. I may even take Light Rail, as Capitol Hill Station is only half a mile from home and Univeristy Street Station—excuse me, the newly renamed
Symphony Station—is all of a block and a half from there. I'll need to look further into this, but that may actually be the most officient transit option, even including busses (although to be fair the bus stop on Pine is only about three blocks away, not the hugest difference).
There's also the fact that . . . I fucking love Rainier Square Tower! I would die to work in a high-floor skyscraper office, but even being on the ground floor, I'll be
working in a fucking skyscraper, something I never, ever thought would be possible working for PCC. I'll have to see if I can work any angles to get access to any higher-floor views, but we'll see. That aside, that whole block is occupied by both Rainier Square Tower (Seattle's second-tallest building since topping out in 2019: it's 58 floors and 850 ft tall) and Rainier Tower (the famous building designed by World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki, with its sloped-in pedestal), and in between them, on the third level above the street but accessed through the lobbies, is the wonderful public space that is the
Rainier Square Terrace.
Laney and I have already done a couple of our day-drinking, park "Happy Hours" there, and are sure to do more in the future. I'll probably be spending a lot more time there now! Shortly after I post this, I'm going to email Merchandising with some of these tidbits, including the fact that there is a pedestrial tunnel, specifically called the
Skinner Hall Concourse, which allows for movement from Rainier Square to Union Square two blocks to the east without ever going outside; and via that route you can also get to the Convention Center one block further east without ever having to use the street.
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There's probably a lot more I could say about this. Particularly about how many city officals already know about and are thrilled about this, especially given how many people have cited the closure of the Downtown PCC as emblematic as the "death" of Downtown. Krish even said the Mayor texted him this morning. But anyway I need to post this and try to get some actual work done.
Krish did come by just a minute ago while I was writing this post. "Thank you for what you said," he said. "I think it went to the heart of what a lot of us were feeling." I was tempted to ask him to be more specific, but I decided not to, and just thanked him.
"I hope you liked the cupcake."
I had, indeed, returned from the "Team Huddle" meeting to find a mini cupcake on my desk. It was ideed plenty tasty. "Oh, that was from you?" I asked. Krish chuckled as he walked away.
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[posted 1:11 pm]
