Uwajimaya Cancels Old-Town Portland Market

Uwajimaya Market blames economy for cancelation

I’ve mentioned the negotiations to bring Uwajimaya Asian Market to Chinatown several times since 1988. Now the city has received a letter from the company saying it is dropping plans to locate here –

“It is with great regret we must inform the City of Portland and the Portland Development Commission that Uwajimay, Inc. is no longer able to proceed at this time with development of a new store on Block 33 in the Old Town-Chinatown District of Portland in conjunction with Sockeye Development’s proposed mixed-use project.

Over the last few years, Uwajimaya has worked diligently and collaboratively with Sockeye Development and its development team, David Gold and the PDC staff to try and bring an exciting, signature mixed-use development to Old Town-Chinatown. The principal reason for our withdrawal from the project has to do with the slow recovery from the economic downturn of the past few years. While our Beaverton store has held up relatively well, and our new store in Bellevue, WA is performing above expectations, our downtown Seattle and Renton, WA stores are not currently performing to their potentials. We must concentrate on improving the performance of these stores prior to expanding elsewhere. In addition, the costs of opening the new Bellevue location have tied up capital that would otherwise have been needed for the Portland expansion.

Although we are ending our consideration of a new store for the time being, in future years we do hope to expand our presence in Portland where we already have a loyal client base and great support of our unique product offerings.

Sad to hear, as many of you seemed to be looking forward to this project moving along.