SEATTLE — The Nike store in downtown Seattle will close Friday.
Nike is following several other downtown businesses that have recently closed, including multiple Starbucks locations.
The store located at 6th Avenue and Pike Street opened in 1996.
A sign in the windows of the store posted on Tuesday read, "We look forward to serving you at Nike.com."
According to Nike's website, the next closest locations will be the Nike factory store in Bellevue, the Nike clearance store in Auburn and the Nike factory store in North Bend.
The mayor's office sent KING 5 a statement Wednesday morning in response to the Nike closure.
"As economic trends shift around retail and remote work, we must ensure downtown is a neighborhood where residents want to live and people across our city, region, and country want to visit," the mayor's office said in the statement. "This underscores the mayor's commitment and urgency toward improving public safety and revitalizing downtown as an activated, vibrant, and culturally and economically diverse neighborhood. We are continuing to develop a long-term downtown activation plan in collaboration with businesses, nonprofits, and community leaders, and that work will continue."
The closure comes as Seattle is working to recover from closures during the pandemic.
According to the Downtown Seattle Association, November of 2022 saw more than 2.1 million visitors, which is still less than pre-pandemic numbers in November 2019, but it is slightly higher than last year. On the weekend after Thanksgiving, downtown's retail core had more than 115,000 visitors, a 6% increase over 2021's count.
KING 5 reached out to Nike for comment, but did not hear back.
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