SEATTLE — For people who live and work in downtown Seattle, the new Ben Bridge Jeweler flagship store on 5th and Pine is a glimmer of hope for the Emerald City.
"It feels safe, the more people that are around here the more businesses that are open the more safer it feels," Alex Trost said.
And that's exactly the kind of impact President and CEO Lisa Bridge said she was looking to make when they thought about the company's future.
"In 2019 we started talking about expanding and what that looked like and in 2020 it was really the opportunity to look around and say well if we're going to grow is this the right spot," Bridge said.
But if you think back to downtown Seattle in 2020, the city was shutting down taking big-name retailers like Macy's with it.
Meanwhile, Ben Bridge doubled down on its investment.
"We've been in Seattle for over a century and we've seen a lot of things over that time," said Bridge who's great great grandfather started the company after being a watchmaker for local train conductors.
Bridge said 2020 was not the first time their family businesses weathered a retail storm. Now they are looking ahead.
The new flagship store is a third larger than the jewelers' previous location on 4th and Pike and features high ceilings with nods to the Pacific Northwest.
"Whether it's moss, whether it is geo specimens, a lot of wood being in this space," Bridge said.
City leaders have taken notice.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell was at Ben Bridge's open house reception recently. The Downtown Seattle Association said the store's presence is bringing confidence back into the Westlake Park area which saw 23 store close since 2022, including Nike.
"Those were gut punches you never want to lose long-time retailers," said Jon Scholes, the Downtown Seattle Association president and CEO.
But Scholes said they have welcomed new retailers with 42 stores opening downtown in that same time. And there's more on the way like the new retail and dining space Cedar Hall opening soon.
"We need to double down we need to increase the urgency around the investments we're making the policies were putting in place dealing with the fentanyl crisis we do those things were going to see more retailers like Ben Bridge hat want to invest," Scholes said.