Many Port Angeles businesses are struggling to survive, and many have already closed their doors or moved.  I interviewed one business owner who had a business in the central downtown district of Port Angeles.  Business was so slow she moved her business to Sequim.  It’s hard to know how many businesses have called it quits in this recession, but the number is big, even for a small town.  Driving around  town one can see For Rent signs in many store fronts.  One local business owner told me there were 70 to 80 empty retail spaces in Port Angeles.

Some commercial buildings, like this one on Lincoln Street in Port Angeles, which boasted “Espresso Soup & Sandwiches” has been closed for a long time.  The building is now owned by the City of Port Angeles and remains almost entirely empty.  Of course, buildings like this are likely to remain empty for a while, because most entrepreneurs are not likely to start a risky business in a recession.  Restaurants of all businesses are in the category near the highest risk, because they are most likely to fail within the first year.   The most recent restaurant to fail in the area was the Sauer Kraut in Sequim.

Retirees who want to continue working for themselves would be well advised to start a business that is not capital intensive and which has a higher probability of success.  An old rule, which I think has great merit, is to stick with what you know and what you are passionate about.  But I think another wise approach for any retiree who wants to be in business here is to limit risk by the business you choose, and make sure the downside is not going to financially wipe you out.  This is not the time to take great risk.

As with every economic cycle, there are opportunities, and I believe that even in this recession there are grand opportunities for creative and intelligent entrepreneurs to make money and have a great time doing it.  So, what is your passion?  How are you going to find your niche?

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Port Angeles is watching its new Wal-Mart Supercenter currently under construction directly across from the old Wal-Mart store on the east end of Port Angeles.  The new location has been a vacant commercial property for years, previously occupied by a K-Mart store.  That K-Mart store went out of business a couple of years after Wal-Mart opened their store in Port Angeles.

Wal-Mart Supercenters are hypermarkets with an average size of about 197,000 square feet, and they stock everything a Wal-Mart Discount Store does, plus a full-service supermarket, including meat and poultry, baked goods, delicatessen, frozen foods, dairy products, garden produce, and fresh seafood. Many Wal-Mart Supercenters also have a garden center, pet shop, pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous alcove shops, such as cellular phone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, local bank branches, and fast food outlets, such as Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s or Blimpie. Some also sell gasoline distributed by Murphy Oil Corporation, Sunoco, or Tesoro.

Why would Wal-Mart build an entirely new Wal-Mart directly across the street from a perfectly good Wal-Mart building and parking facility?  Good question, and there is a logical answer.  (I love it when I get to ask myself a question and then answer it.)

The new Wal-Mart will be a Supercenter, so it will offer much more to the community in products and services, and that will give Wal-Mart a much greater gross profit.  It is likely that their grocery store will take business away from Costco in Sequim, at least for the Port Angeles residents that currently drive to Sequim to shop at Costco.  It is also likely that Wal-Mart’s grocery store will hurt the Safeway store nearby.  For anyone who has been in a Wal-Mart Supercenter, you know that their grocery store is pretty impressive, has fresh produce, and the prices are unbelievably low.

The other logical reason Wal-Mart builds a new store and leaves the old is a defensive strategy.  The old property will eventually go up for sale no doubt, but you can be sure that Wal-Mart will have a restrictive covenant that prohibits the property from ever being used by a competitor.  Pretty smart strategy, isn’t it?

Port Angeles can be thankful that at least one big corporate store is building in town.  For the past decade Sequim seems to have been getting all the large anchor businesses.

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I had a great day showing Port Angeles properties to a couple from the east coast.  If you’re a potential buyer of Sequim real estate or Port Angeles real estate, you might find this interesting.  We started in the morning meeting at a local gourmet coffee shop to discuss my client’s goals, to review their parameters for the ideal home or land and go over the properties we had selected for viewing.  They also wanted my thoughts on where the market was going in the months and years ahead.  Their primary concern was timing, in other words, is this a good time to buy a home here?

The reason we were looking at homes and land was because this couple had not yet made a final decision on whether to buy an existing home or have a Sequim or Port Angeles home builder build their retirement home.  Part of their decision making process is to see what is available right now and what homes and land are selling for in this area.   We had a great time, and one of the reasons I love what I do as a professional Realtor is that I get to meet and work with some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met.  I swear that the people who retire to Sequim or Port Angeles are the kind of good, hard working Americans with old fashioned values and strong character that you love almost immediately when you meet them.  This is true for me as I meet my clients from all over the U.S.

Here are a few highlights.  We looked at a beautiful spec home, a 2-story craftsman style home with a deck that wrapped around three sides of the home.  This home is almost 3,000 square feet and has a garage with 10 foot ceilings with a double door and a single door.  This was a custom home built as a spec home by a builder who got in trouble because he overbuilt.  This home was completed in 2007,  and the bank foreclosed on the builder.  Believe it or not, it’s been for sale since then and no one has ever lived in it.

Having worked with home builders intimately, I’ve learned how to estimate the cost of developing a lot and building a home like this.  The lot is almost two-thirds of an acre.  The cost to buy this lot today, develop it and bring utilities in, and get the house permitted and built would be about $400,000.  It’s a nice custom home with good quality materials, but it’s not a top of the line custom home with the best possible materials, flooring, and cabinets.  The listing price?  Try just under $300,000.  Wow!  There’s no doubt this house is a steal.  It’s in a neighborhood of beautiful custom built homes on large lots, and there’s a golf course visible through the trees across the street.  Nice.

We also looked at lots, and nice lots in this area with paved streets and utilities installed are $73,500 and up from there.  And then we also looked at a lot that is several acres with a gorgeous creek running through it and a lot of privacy.  That lot is $250,000.

So what did my clients do?  They are hardly going to sleep tonight.  They are thinking about how fast they can wrap things up back home and get moved.  Happy dreams tonight!

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Best Value – Port Angeles home for sale near a park $209,000:  Perfect if you like to take walks or walk your dog.  This is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with a very energy efficient 1,148 square feet, wood stove fireplace insert, in a great area, 1428 West 7th Avenue.  View this video tour, and for more detailed information and photographs, see Port Angeles Homes For Sale.

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Port Angeles weather forecast:  Winter is here.  This photo taken today, November 20th, 2009, of the mountains south of Port Angeles toward Hurricane Ridge foretells a cool snowy winter.  Fresh snow on the mountain was a portrait of nature at its best.  Still temperatures have been in the comfortable mid forties lately, at least down here in the lowlands near sea level.

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Just new on the market is this West Port Angeles ranch home completely redone in 2004, which means it is like new throughout with a brick fireplace maintained by a pro annually, custom wood shutters, interior vertical blinds, all new doors and windows. There are full roof gutters that were just cleaned and a 30-year roof that is 2 years old. This home is in perfect condition and a few hundred yards from a park, perfect for walking dogs. There’s room in the back for a 40 foot motor home, and this home is handicap accessible. This home is ideal for a retired couple who want a low maintenance home, or a Coast Guard bachelor or couple. This is a really great location.

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