‘Fever pitch’ of All-Star weekend marks turning point for struggling Pioneer Square businesses
On the eve of All-Star Weekend, Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood saw an uptick in foot traffic.
Lisa Howard, Executive Director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square reports over the last three months, 18 new businesses signed leases or opened in the historic area.
”I think you could say we’re in a renaissance,” said Howard. “Walking around there’s people putting up new signage, painting the storefronts.”
Howard says the All-Star Game activity is an added bonus, but special events aside tourism is up, more retail spaces are opening and workers are returning to offices.
“This summer we’ve slowly been picking up,” she said, noting that June was the area’s best month since the start of the pandemic in 2020. “And I think All-Star is just going to be a little bit of a fever pitch.”
“Being able to dig back out of that hole and make progress and be ready and open for the All-Star Game is really to a testament to progress being made overall,” she added.
Overall, Howard says she’s happy with the city’s commitment to making recovery a top priority, although she would like to see more investments in behavioral health and drug use response efforts. Those issues in particular remain highly visible in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, she points out.
