Historic Ellensburg Fighting For The Little Guy

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Story Published: Nov 4, 2007 at 6:49 PM PST

By Sade Malloy

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Ellensburg -- Downtown Ellensburg is a funky, fun place to be.

Fennelle Miller says, "We think we can have regional retail without having a mall."

You can find everything from coffee, to records, to rugs.

All sold to you, by local mom and pop stores.

Calvin Pasta says, "A big department store besides Fred Meyer might be kinda nice."

But the little guys aren't cutting it anymore.

And Ellensburg City Council is looking into a new mall.

But critics say there's a catch.

Fennelle Miller says, "Because of the 40 acre minimum there's only one property owner that qualifies and they're out at the west interchange."

That means this is the only place the mall could go.

Right off I-90 and far away from the downtown district.

Calvin Pasta says, "Most of the time I'd probably just say downtown but if there were something cool I'd head down there."

Calvin might shop at both places, but the small business owners in downtown are scared that a majority of their customers wouldn't.

Carol Cox says, "Some creative city planning instead of the cliché let's put a big box store out on the edge."

Members of Historic Ellensburg say they're not against growth.

Fennelle Miller says, "The mall basically sucks the life out of the downtown and it will take anywhere from 10-20 years to recover from it."

They just don't want stores picking up and leaving downtown like they did in Yakima.

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