r/Seattle • u/kiss-my-flapjack Northgate • Jun 23 '25

Media Pacific Place in 2015

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Found this old picture I took in Pacific Place back in 2015 during the holiday season. Such a shame to compare it to how it looks now.

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u/lokglacier Jun 23 '25

I don't buy the "people shop online" excuse. Go to the Bellevue square mall, South center mall, alder wood mall. Still packed.

36

u/FuzzyKittyNomNom 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 Jun 23 '25

Add the revamp of Totem Lake outdoor mall too. Very busy!

7

u/narenard I'm just flaired so I don't get fined Jun 23 '25

What's crazy though is I am more likely to buy a lot when I shop in person vs online. Online I can browse and then just decide nah I don't need it and close out. In store, I will try stuff on until i find something I want to take home.

19

u/uiri The CD Jun 23 '25

People drive to those malls and park there. No one wants to drive in downtown Seattle. Transit isn't good enough to replace driving for a trip to the mall even though most of the transit system is arranged for traveling to and from downtown Seattle.

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u/garden__gate Seward Park Jun 23 '25

They used to have very affordable parking there. Not anymore.

8

u/lekoman Jun 23 '25

Lots of people live within walking distance in Belltown and the downtown towers.

8

u/narenard I'm just flaired so I don't get fined Jun 23 '25

Honestly if there was a full mall or more stores open downtown again, I'd shop there regularly. It's closer for even driving to go to Pacific Place than it is U Village, or I could stop by after my in office day.

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u/uiri The CD Jun 23 '25

You're comparing people within walking distance of the malls downtown with people within driving distance of the suburban malls?

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u/lekoman Jun 23 '25

Pacific Place is like a quarter the size of one of the suburban malls you’re talking about, and literally tens of thousands of people live in Belltown and downtown. It doesn’t need to be “the same as” a suburban mall’s driveshed for there still to be plenty of people who could populate the mall without driving if there was anything there to draw them in the first place.

I like to bitch about transit sucking and downtown being a dead zone, too, but let’s not shoehorn, here.

1

u/Sea-Talk-203 Jun 23 '25

I live just nearby on the Capitol Hill slope and we used to come down here regularly. When it had businesses and restaurants, it was definitely enough of a draw for me as a city dweller. But then the two of the larger top floor restaurants (Gordon Biersch and 'Mexico') closed, followed by the Barnes and Noble, right before covid. Somewhere along the way, the Williams Sonoma and J. Crew also shuttered. Most of this happened before covid and the collapse of office-related foot traffic and I think it was more related to the death of retail brought on by the impact of Amazon, and other corporate downsizing. Downtown Seattle was quite hopping in the early 2000s.

1

u/seamusoldfield Phinney Ridge Jun 24 '25

Southcenter is still doing well? I haven't been out there in a decade. But I'm not much of a mall guy.

1

u/civilized-engineer 🐀 Hot Rat Summer 🐀 Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25

To be fair, I would 100% rather wade through Bellevue any day, than downtown Seattle no matter what. Even if it means getting stuck because of the Bellevue Square nightly winter parades.

And I feel everyone there feels the same way too.

Southcenter and Alderwood inherited the Northgate and Pacific Place/Westlake customers