If you last took a walk down Fourth Avenue in downtown Camas a year ago, you might not recognize the place today.
The heart of the small city has undergone a number of sweeping changes in the past several months, with the closure of several well-known businesses, fixtures of the historic downtown’s lively shopping and dining scene, and the opening of new ones. Those closing their doors in the past year included an upscale bar and restaurant, a swanky champagne lounge and a popular pizza place. A handful of other businesses have also moved or temporarily shut down for renovations.
All the while, the busy little street has continued to bloom with new businesses filling empty spaces or preparing to enter the downtown scene. This year, some big additions are on the way.
Even in the Great Recession, Camas’ downtown avoided the harsh pitfalls that hit other areas of Clark County, Mayor Scott Higgins said.
“We’ve been real fortunate,” Higgins said. “I mean, even through the recession, we’ve never really had a point where it was just dead.”
In the past year, downtown Camas has welcomed a lengthy scroll of new businesses: A Beer at a Time, Fuel Medical, Feast at 316, Cake Happy, Flutes and Rocks, and the list goes on. As a number of places closed or moved, the vacant spots never seemed to struggle to fill up fast, Higgins said.
“Downtown Camas has just firmly established itself as a destination,” he said. “There’s a real park-like feel to it, and I think a lot of people, once they discover it, fall in love with it.”
Next week, Nuestra Mesa, a high-end Mexican restaurant on Fourth Avenue, will reopen after a major expansion project. The owners, Todd Moravitz and Tania Rohlfs Moravitz, recently bought out the space next door where Twilight Pizza once stood, and plan to build a bar and nearly triple their seating capacity to almost 100 people.
It will host an open house at 5 p.m. Friday, with an official opening to follow on Monday, Todd Moravitz said. It’ll be free to attend the open house, and the wait staff will serve free hors d’oeuvres.
Inside, the wooden floors date back to the 1930s, and they’re covered with little oddities. A fake trap door. A hole in the shape of a butcher knife filled in with resin. Moravitz is keeping all of it to maintain the quirky character.
“Our place was on the inside of this wall,” Moravitz said, pointing to the original bricks that have always lined the inside of his restaurant. “It was just a tiny little thing, like 800 square feet. And now, it’s a lot bigger.”
Also on Friday, the city will host a ribbon-cutting at Dance Evolution, a new dance studio on Fourth Avenue between Cake Happy and the Journey Church. Much more change is ahead. In April, Birch Street Uptown Lounge will kick off its own expansion project, extending next door into the space where Café Piccolo sits. The café’s owner, Jodi Vaughan is trying to find another location for her business in downtown.
“I think they’re close to finding an additional space downtown,” Higgins said. “I know, as of today, they’re having conversations about that.”
Just around the corner, Camas Antiques, now in its 11th year of business is up for sale. JoAnn Taylor, who owns the store and the building, hopes to find a buyer who’ll keep the antique store in place, said Carrie Schulstad, the executive director of the Downtown Camas Association.
“She has built a successful business and it is an anchor business in downtown,” Schulstad said, “so it would be a strong investment for anyone looking to take over.”
Work is also underway on a new fish and meat market on the corner of Fifth and Dallas streets. It is set to open on May 1, she said.
The key to downtown Camas’ most recent growth spurt is a collaborative effort between city officials, the Port of Camas-Washougal and business leaders, Schulstad said.
“The city works very closely with new businesses to make sure permits and inspections go quickly and smoothly,” she said. “It is in the spirit of creating certainty … for prospective businesses that they have achieved such success so far.”
