PCC Natural Markets to open new store

(Seattle, Wash., January 10, 2013) – PCC Natural Markets (PCC), the nation’s largest natural foods retail cooperative, will open a new store in the Columbia City neighborhood in Seattle in 2015. PCC has signed a long-term lease to occupy a new mixed-use project to be developed by Seattle-based Security Properties – called the Angeline – located in the block at the intersection of Rainier Ave. S. and S. Edmunds St. in Southeast Seattle.

The project gives PCC a second opportunity to collaborate with Security Properties, which developed the Epicenter in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, another mixed use project that has been home to the Fremont PCC since 2003. The Angeline will feature residential and retail space, including 193 apartments. The new PCC will occupy about 25,000 square feet of the project’s 29,500 square feet of retail space. PCC is expected to employ about 130 full and part-time employees at the new store. The new location represents a relocation of its present store in Seward Park, a much smaller and dated facility located about one mile east of the Columbia City site.

Members of Columbia City’s business and cultural communities, as well as area residents and PCC’s Board of Trustees, have encouraged PCC to make the move to this growing and culturally-diverse neighborhood. “We have long wanted to better serve the Southeast Seattle area with a larger store; greater variety of fresh, local, natural and organic products; and adequate parking,” said Tracy Wolpert, PCC’s CEO. “We were unable to do so with our much smaller Seward Park location and we are pleased that this new site will make the best of what we offer – in products and service – so accessible to current and future PCC shoppers.”

“We are thrilled to have PCC as our anchor retail tenant at this location,” said John Marasco, chief development officer for Security Properties. “Columbia City has been lacking a full-service grocery, and PCC will be a perfect complement to this vibrant and growing neighborhood.”

The same team of professionals behind PCC’s most recent stores in Edmonds, Wash. (2008), Redmond, Wash. (2006) and in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood (2003) will be involved in PCC’s Green Lake Village (to open in early 2014) and Columbia City stores, and includes Seattle-based Velocipede Architects, Woodman Construction and Bruce Hale Design Studios. Both new stores will incorporate many of the environmentally-friendly features and practices of the company’s Edmonds and Redmond stores, which earned LEED Platinum and LEED Gold certifications, respectively. LEED is a distinction awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council for excellence in building design and operation.

About PCC Natural Markets (PCC): Headquartered in Seattle, Wash., PCC Natural Markets is a certified organic retail cooperative with annual sales of approximately $180 million and an active membership of more than 45,000 households. PCC operates nine stores in the Seward Park, View Ridge, Greenlake, West Seattle, Fremont, Kirkland, Redmond, Edmonds and Issaquah neighborhoods.

About Security Properties: Security Properties is a national real estate investment and operating company headquartered in Seattle with a 43-year history in both affordable and conventional multifamily rental housing. The company’s broad range of capabilities includes acquisitions, development, financing, asset and property management, dispositions and advisory services. As one of the largest owners of multifamily real estate in the country, Security Properties has acquired or developed nearly 66,000 conventional and affordable housing units spanning over 450 properties.

Media contact

Diana Chapman
PCC Natural Markets
Email
206-547-1222, ext. 106
206-390-6657 (cell)