Kassab Jewelers’ flagship keep closed in spring of 2020, but it reopened for company on Friday.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Friday brought news yet once more about the fortunes of a longtime downtown retailer, but this 1 went towards the grain. Fairly than closing down, Kassab Jewelers is opening back again up.
The flagship Kassab retailer on Broadway Road near Alder closed down in the spring of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic took hold — initially going appointment-only in March prior to transitioning away from in-retail store small business by the starting of April.
At the conclude of Could 2020, rioters broke into the downtown site and looted it during Black Life Make any difference protests ignited by the demise of George Floyd at the arms of Minneapolis police.
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“We, as a little loved ones owned business, have always felt that our suppliers are a direct extension of our property, and you have always been our honored company,” Kassab posted to Fb at the time. “Sad to say, our residence was violated, robbed and vandalized. We have hardly ever in any way supported violence, hatred, or racism and this sort of act is unjustifiable.”
Approximately two years later on, the flagship Kassab Jewelers keep is back again in business.
“2020 was difficult … but a diamond just can’t be produced with no huge stress,” explained firm president Rana Kassab.
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The Kassab relatives has major hopes that the crowds and consumers of the previous will return to downtown, and they say they’re already looking at a adjust.
“It feels like it is really coming again to exactly where it was prior to 2020,” Rana said. “It feels a great deal safer.”
Kassab has been in organization in Portland for more than 30 a long time.
No matter, modern months have established that longevity is no assurance of good results. Margulis Jewelers in the vicinity of Pioneer Courthouse Sq. declared in early March that it would be shutting down after 90 a long time in business enterprise.
Owner David Margulis said his shop has faced declining buyer targeted traffic during the pandemic, and attempts to carry consumers back with a modern big sale didn’t pan out.
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In a letter to prospects, Margulis cited the pandemic, the homeless disaster, vandalism and a “normal sense of nighttime lawlessness” as factors for the struggles of downtown corporations.
“The notion of the persons is that you can find just a broken downtown, and men and women never want to arrive downtown,” he reported. “The staff usually are not coming to their buildings, the shoppers are not coming down, and our city has carried out way too minor, too late to enable downtown and the unbiased retailers.”
On the other conclude of the downtown spectrum, The Roxy diner also shut its doors at the close of March. Like Margulis Jewelers, the pandemic and a drop in foot website traffic hit owner Suzanne Hale’s enterprise tricky, but the closure also hinged on the City of Portland’s willpower to overhaul a fire-harmed and aged developing.