The hotel and restaurant most of us know as The Quay closed its doors Saturday, the latest long-established business to fade as Vancouver grows and changes.
It’s a stab in the heart for those who have been around long enough to remember Totem Pole Restaurant, Boyd’s 88 Cent Store, or even the more recently departed Steakburger and Golden Skate.
“Our tastes change. Technology changes,” said Pat Jollota, a local historian who served on the Vancouver City Council for 20 years. “We go to the new restaurant.”
The Quay was a sentimental favorite among locals as a spot for weddings, romantic dinners, Fourth of July fireworks viewing parties and Mother’s Day brunches.
In 1960, when the Quay Restaurant was built, about 32,000 people lived in Vancouver. The population has quintupled since then.
The restaurant and the hotel, which was added in 1962, operated under different ownership over the years: Thunderbird, Red Lion, DoubleTree and Red Lion again. The complex was marked for demolition to make way for a new Interstate 5 Bridge, and the community anticipated the Quay’s demise even as plans for the new bridge foundered.
Era of change
The chain-owned Quay notwithstanding, if it seems like a lot of longtime businesses are closing lately, the demographics of the baby boom bear that out, said Sherri Noxel, director of the Austin Family Business Program at Oregon State University. A large generation of small-business owners is hitting retirement at the same time.
What may seem like a loss to the community can actually be success for the business owners. When they sell, that money underwrites their retirement, and also may seed a new generation of businesses, Noxel said.
“It can be exciting for the family, and if they educate the customers about the transition, it becomes a celebration and not traumatic,” Noxel said.
Still, patrons find it hard to see beloved establishments go.
Take Steakburger, founded in 1956. Tina Condon, whose parents sold their Highway 99 property and closed the restaurant last year, has tried to keep what she calls “the taste of Clark County” alive with a mobile Steakburger food cart. Her customers complain about the restaurant closing.
“The public has a perception of almost like it’s theirs,” she said. “They’re quite offended that it sold.”
Loyal customers may feel ownership of the businesses they patronize, but they’re rarely privy to the toil and drama behind the scenes. And experts like Noxel help family businesses plan for succession, but that doesn’t always work out.
Condon worked in the family business until her husband became ill with cancer 12 years ago. When he died in 2011, she found it too painful to return to Steakburger, where she knew longtime customers would ask about her late husband.
When her parents decided to sell the property, she wasn’t ready to let go of Steakburger completely. Now she’s bottling Steakburger’s signature barbecue sauce and running the food cart.
“It was time for (my parents) to go and enjoy themselves,” Condon said. “Since they sold, they’ve been to Europe and all around the country in their fifth wheel.”
Evolving tastes
Local businesses will continue to evolve or close as tastes and technology change, Jollota said, pointing to Golden Skate as an example.
“In the old days, you’d go every Saturday,” Jollota said. In more recent years, even families that love roller skating went maybe every six weeks.
Movies are another example. Families can watch whatever they want at home on the 46-inch TV that’s become standard. If they do venture out, it’s to the corporate-owned multiplex.
Nostalgia doesn’t seem to shape week-to-week habits, as Dan Wyatt found after buying the Kiggins Theatre in 2012.
“I thought the Kiggins would be more of a slam dunk,” he said. Vancouver residents espouse great love for the single-screen theater, which opened in 1936.
He’s not sure if Vancouver just doesn’t have a dense enough population to keep independent businesses going, or if residents have developed habits that steer them to chains or to Portland.
He has access to the gross revenues of other independent theaters in Portland, and the Kiggins isn’t pulling in nearly as much.
“We feel we’re doing all the right moves, but we have to work harder,” Wyatt said, adding that the Kiggins stays open through “sweat equity and ingenuity.”
He used Kickstarter, the online crowd-funding site, to raise money for a digital projector, without which the theater would not be able show movies. Most of the price tag was not covered by small donations, but by investors who became business partners.
Events like last summer’s Harry Potter Birthday Bash bring in large audiences, but it’s not possible to pull off something like that every week, Wyatt said. The average weeknight is pretty slow.
Vancouver residents tell him they want second-run family movies, or to drink beer at the theater.
“When I finally get it to happen, where is everyone? It goes back to lip service,” Wyatt said. “I bought the building. I’m invested and dug in. But what the Kiggins is in 10 years, I don’t know.”
It takes more than sentiment to sustain locally owned businesses.
“When I see other businesses fail, it doesn’t surprise me,” Wyatt said. “I would like to see these retail places people say they love stick around, but that’s going to take involvement.”
