BIZNOTES; Unicorn White Center crowdfunding; new tenant for ex-studio
Two White Center business notes:
UNICORN BAR: The Capitol Hill entrepreneur hoping to open a south outpost of his one-of-a-kind club – at 9832 17th SW – is crowdfunding to save his dream. From the GoFundMe page:
Three years ago my wife & I made one of our dreams come true. We purchased a 24k sq ft building in White Center. Our goal was to create a magnificent space like no other in the world and have a space that we owned & would be safe from the ridiculously high rents of Seattle where we could have a sustainable business; we also wanted to give small business & first time entrepreneurs the same chance that I was given once when I started Unicorn (Capitol Hill ) so we spent the time & money earthquake retrofitting the entire building as well as replacing a 24k sq ft roof . We rented out the five storefronts on 16th sw to five awesome unique,first time business owners (three of them are open, the other two coming soon).
Money has been tight from the beginning as real estate in the NW is always ridiculous, but somehow, by some miracle we were able to get this building and were chosen over a developer that told us ” I was going to put bars & restaurants in it & then “scrape it” in ten years “…. I cried for twenty minutes straight after finding out that we had been approved for the purchase. I started off bartending at a “dive bar” in Seattle and saved my money to start Unicorn. Unicorn Capitol Hill has been wildly successful over the past decade and I used my share of the profits to purchase this space as our own- away from the cruddy business partners & exorbitant rents of Capitol Hill. We want this space to live on forever… and then the Covid came our way. We haven’t had any income whatsoever in the past 4 months from Unicorn Capitol Hill & instead have had to pay 100k + in rent & now we are just racking up an insane “rent tab” for our Capitol Hill space and who knows when we will be able to open again …. if ever.
Read the rest – and donate – by going here.
NEW TENANT: In downtown White Center, a liquor-license filing lists a new tenant for the former Miss Sheryl’s Ballet space at 9613 16th SW, La Tipica Oaxaqueña, described as a “grocery store.”
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August 3rd, 2020 at 8:14 pm
La Tipica Oaxaqueña is a grocery for Oaxacan goods. It’s moving there from about a half block away—it was formerly on the corner of 16th and Roxbury. Very cute little place.
August 4th, 2020 at 7:38 am
La Tipica Oaxaqueña is a great addition to the strip, and it would have been easy to get more info about it online (or stop in and pick up some great items!) in order to give a POC-owned business the same level of coverage the Unicorn crowdfund received.
August 5th, 2020 at 4:44 pm
Sorry, we do the best we can, and I always wish we could do better. Will keep trying.
August 5th, 2020 at 7:50 pm
Tracy, thank you for what you and the WSB community are doing to maintain the White Center Now blog. Happy that SM confirmed what I thought might be the case. Wish both businesses the best of luck during this hard time.
August 8th, 2020 at 8:54 am
In looking at La Tipica Oaxaqueña face book page it does not have much information . Other than they are a grocery store that sales items for Mexican and Oaxacan people .
On their website https://www.latipicaoaxaquena.com/about Does not seem to have much information other than same information as their facebook page but does not mention grocery just fine Oaxacan products that they are a mexicana owned bussiness .
So seems the editor might of had a hard time in finding more information on this business of people of color . Not done in away to see race or skin color in a wrong way or treat anyone or business in the wrong way . As a person by the name of KG has try to state that they did not get equal coverage to the other business mention .
August 8th, 2020 at 2:44 pm
Kind of seems like the Unicorn guy tried to exploit cheaper real estate in the south end as an investment scheme and got in over his head. Too bad. Wonder how much of this $1.5M goes to Unicorn and how much goes to his other unfinished construction project (second home?) in Highland Park. That’s a lot of money to ask for with zero equity or benefits.
August 15th, 2020 at 9:05 pm
Like the developer Kaiser said ” Use other peoples money as best you can before using your own”
August 20th, 2020 at 4:24 am
What happened to the Unicorn crowdfunding? It’s deactivated now.
August 21st, 2020 at 10:27 pm
Well, always the prerogative of somebody to cancel their campaign…