ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic Sullivan's Dry Cleaners on Yakima Ave. Friday, May 9, 2008. The building will be torn down to make way for a Walgreens. Links   E-mail             Print            Advertisement

The curtain has already fallen on Cascade Shade.

Any day now, the same fate awaits Sullivan's Dry Cleaners and its neighbor, Instant Press.

In their place a new Walgreens drugstore will soon rise, remaking a block of downtown Yakima Avenue that has always been an ever-changing mix of old, new and in-between.

Old comes in the form of the modest circa-1915 storefront known for most of its existence as the home of the Cascade Shade and Awning Co. It might be non-descript, but few buildings in this town are older.

For 14 years, the business was owned and operated by Jackie Parke, who likes to call herself The Shady Lady and is the inspiration for the bad pun that led off this story.

Parke and her employees cleared out in February, and since then, the building at 606 W. Yakima Ave., has stood vacant. Soon, probably in a few weeks, it will be torn down.

Parke says she didn't want to go.

The problem was, she never owned the place, which was sold out from under her last year to make room for Yakima's second Walgreens.

Cascade Shade may be homeless for now, but it is still very much in business and still hand-crafting shades and awnings, Parke says.

"I keep getting calls from people who say, 'I'm sitting in front of your building. Where are you?'" Parke says. "Well, when you call, that's where we are. We've usually got to make house calls anyway, so it's not the end of the world."

Over at Sullivan's Dry Cleaners, longtime customers have also been learning the hard way that both the business and the building, an art deco-style landmark since 1947, are history.

Sullivan's began turning away customers trying to drop off clothes on April 23. The dry cleaners' last day is May 23. All the equipment has been sold. It remains open for pickups only.

Owner Mike Carey, who bought the business and the property from founders Gene and Joe Sullivan more than 25 years ago, concedes he has mixed feelings about selling out to Walgreens.

He says he's heard that members of the Sullivan family -- which includes such luminaries as Michael Sullivan, one of the region's leading historical preservationists and co-principal of
Tacoma-based Artifacts Consulting, and his cousin, U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan in Seattle -- have been dropping by to have their pictures taken in front of the family namesake.

Still, he says Walgreens, which opened its first Yakima store on 40th Avenue 18 months ago, has a history of community service and that improvements to the property will substantially improve the city's coffers.

"Change is constant," says Carey, who is retiring only from dry cleaning and is currently, as he put it, exploring other options.

As part of the development deal, developer Scott Grainger agreed to move the third business on the site, Instant Press, to the long-vacant Pinnell office building on nearby Summitview Avenue.

Seth Startup, a representative of Grainger's Belle-vue-based development firm, says Sullivan's and Instant Press have asbestos and that abatement is necessary before demolition can begin. Asbestos has already been removed from the Cascade Shade building.

Startup predicts demolition will take place in early June, followed by prep work on the site. The new Walgreens store is scheduled to open in about six months.

Startup says the 13,680-square-foot building will be flush with the sidewalk, occupying the space where Sullivan's currently sits, and the entrance will be at the northwest corner of the building on the sidewalk.

The parking lot will be where Instant Press, the site of an old Shell gas station, currently stands. A drive-up window will be accessed from the alley on Seventh Avenue.

It remains to be seen whether the site plan mollifies critics of a suburban-style Walgreens store in downtown Yakima. There is currently no other drugstore downtown.

Parkes says she bears no hard feelings against the chain. Besides, she adds, baby boomers are starting to retire -- and prescriptions must be filled.

"Everybody tells me, 'Well, I'm never gonna go in there,'" she says. "And I say, 'Yeah, right.'"

* Chris Bristol can be reached at 577-7748 or cbristol@yakimaherald.com.