Tag Archives: closings

U-Haul closes Port Orchard store

soh_uhaul_logo U-Haul closed its Port Orchard location on Sept. 8, just a few months after it opened.

The Olney Avenue U-Haul store shut down because the company was unable to obtain an extension on its contract to purchase the property and its lease ended, according to a news release.

The store had been providing truck and trailer rentals, as well as moving supplies.

South Kitsap residents won’t have to travel far to find U-Haul trucks. The moving and storage giant operates stores in Gorst and Bremerton, and works with several independent dealers in the area.

The county recently approved plans for a large U-Haul self storage center in Gorst.

Genuine Burgers calls it quits in Silverdale

Tad Sooter

b0012681623-683837 Silverdale’s Genuine Burgers was a bold culinary experiment.

The restaurant served traditional fast-food fare with a slow-food philosophy, making nearly everything on its menu — the burgers, buns, milkshakes, fries, even ketchup — from scratch each day.

b0012681629-651327 The staff ground grass-fed beef each morning for the fresh burger patties, which were cooked a full 15 minutes on lower heat to avoid drying out the meat.

“We do things a little bit differently here,” owner Stephen Foster-Shaner told the Kitsap Sun’s Terri Gleich in an interview earlier this year.

The experiment didn’t work out in the end.

Foster-Shaner closed Genuine Burgers on Sunday citing a multitude of factors:

You can read our February profile of Genuine Burgers here.

Whiskey Creek Steak House closes; pizzeria coming

Tad Sooter

whiskey.creek whiskey.creek.sign Whiskey Creek Steak House, a Keyport restaurant that experienced a brief and ill-fated brush with reality TV fame in 2012, has shut down for good.

A sign on the front door says the steakhouse closed Aug. 5, “to give the new owners time to make changes on the building to start their new adventure.”

That adventure, according the sign, will be a restaurant called Trendy’s Pizzeria, described as “an authentic East Coast eatery.”

Whiskey Creek had been in business since the 1990s and gained national exposure in 2012 when it received a makeover from Food Network program “Restaurant: Impossible:”

The TV show crew stripped Whiskey Creek of its kitschy Old West interior and nixed popular menu items.

The owners came to regret changes made by “Restaurant: Impossible.” They moved the restaurant to a larger space across the highway in 2013 and later turned the business over to employees.

Whiskey Creek closed without fanfare last week. It’s website and social media pages are already offline.

I’m hoping to get in touch with owners of Trendy’s to learn more about their plans.

Newlife sharing plans for Silverdale center

Tad Sooter

The curtains closed for good Jan. 15 at Silverdale’s Regal Cinemas, but the building won’t be left idle for long.

Newlife church will start work in late April on a project to transform the 14,000-square-foot Poplars Avenue building into a gathering space and training center.

Newlife bought the Regal property late last year with plans to create a centralized community hub. The church hired Rice Fergus Miller to draw up plans for the center, and chose Fairbank Construction as its builder.

Newlife’s plans promise to enliven a drab, boxy building.

Inside, the ground floor of the former cinema will be roughly divided in half, with one side will be dedicated to a 4,800-square-foot auditorium. The other side will be converted to classroom and office space.

Upstairs will be an area for kids, and a community conference room with large windows to allow views in and out.

A main entrance will face south, toward the YMCA.

Newlife will hold three open houses at the building in April to give visitors a feel for the existing building and what the church has planned.

“We want people to get a sense of what it could become, and share our vision for that space,” Mark Middleton with Newlife said.

The open houses are scheduled from 7-9 p.m. April 15, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 16, and 2-5 p.m. April 17. Tours will be given.

The property is located at 9923 Poplars Ave. in Silverdale.

Silverdale printer files for bankruptcy

Tad Sooter

West Sound Printing, Inc. of Silverdale filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last week.

The Clear Creek Road company listed $51,000 in assets and $381,000 in liabilities in a petition filed Jan. 29 with U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western Washington.

West Sound Printing provided a wide variety of printed products, along with binding and design services, according to its website.

State records indicate the business has been inactive since early January.

Kingston’s Axe Handle Café closing in February

Tad Sooter

Kingston’s popular Axe Handle Café will close Feb. 6, according to a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page:

Dear Greater Kingston Community,It is with much sadness and relief that we are announcing the closing of Axe Handle Caf…

Posted by Axe Handle on Monday, January 25, 2016

Amy and Mark Anderson, owners of Cup and Muffin, launched the sit-down café three years ago and it quickly became a staple in downtown.

“There’s no better way of building community than just stopping in and sitting down together,” Amy Anderson told Kitsap Sun contributor Terri Gleich, who profiled the business last year.

Also closed in Kingston is the Main Street Ale House, which is apparently in the midst of an ownership change. A reopening date has not been announced.

Hello everyone! Another chapter for the Main Street Ale House is about to begin as we are transferring ownership in the…

Posted by Main Street Ale House on Friday, November 27, 2015

Green light for KPS Health Plans merger

Tad Sooter

kps_mug_28042940_ver1.0_640_480 Regulators have approved KPS Health Plans’ merger into Group Health Options.

The state Office of the Insurance Commissioner signed off on the move last fall.

The Federal Office of Personnel Management gave its blessing in December, according to a Group Health spokeswoman.

KPS Health Plans, which is based in Bremerton and owned by Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative, will fade out of existence in the coming year.

KPS’ operations are being rolled into Group Health Options, another Group Health subsidiary that offers preferred provider plans.

In an interview last month KPS President Jim Page, now a vice president with Group Health Options, said it hadn’t been determined whether a Bremerton office would be maintained after the merger.

Group Health owns the KPS building at the corner of Fourth Street and Warren Avenue. The building is listed for sale for $5.3 million.

KPS Health Plans served about 20,000 members at the end of 2015. A large majority were federal employees. Page said those members won’t see any changes to their plans in 2016, but they will have the option of using Group Health providers if they want to.

KPS has posted a FAQ and video more details for members.

You can read our December story with more background on the move here.

The Port Orchard Haggen is also closed

Tad Sooter

PO.haggen

Haggen has left the county.

The grocery chain’s store in the Port Orchard Bethel Junction shopping center was closed and cleaned out last week. Haggen shuttered its stores in East Bremerton and Silverdale at the end of November.

PO.haggen.2 I haven’t heard exactly when the Port Orchard location shut down. If you happen to know, please drop a comment below.

Unlike the Bremerton and Silverdale Haggens, the Port Orchard store already has a new owner in place.

Albertsons LLC. bought the location in a bankruptcy auction last month and plans to return it to the Safeway brand. A timeline for the reopening has not been announced.

The three Kitsap County stores were among 146 Haggen acquired from Albertsons and Safeway early this year, as the two mega-grocers completed a merger.

The East Bremerton and Silverdale stores were previously operated by Albertsons. The Port Orchard store was a Safeway.

Haggen’s bold expansion ultimately flopped. The company filed for bankruptcy reorganization in September and held auctions to begin selling off assets.

The Bellingham Herald reports Haggen will try to sell the remainder of its stores, including its original Whatcom County locations, at an auction scheduled for February.

Haggen was in business in Kitsap for less than 9 months:

Port Orchard Godfather’s becoming Westside Pizza

Tad Sooter

Godfather’s Pizza in Port Orchard is closing but its space on Mile Hill Drive won’t empty long.

Port Orchard Godfather’s owner Steve Runge plans to retire. A Westside Pizza franchisee is taking over the location.

The pizzeria will shut down Saturday and remain closed for about a month for renovation, said Westside Pizza franchise owner Teresa Mahoney. She plans to remove carpet, install hardwood floors, repaint and hang new signs before reopening.

“Basically just update it,” she said. “Then it’s all about customer service, and who I can please.”

Mahoney said the new shop will offer discounts for military personnel, first responders and teachers. The Enumclaw resident is moving to Port Orchard to run the business.

Port Orchard will be the 28th location for Westside Pizza, a fast-growing West Coast chain. Westside was founded in Colville and has shops on Bainbridge Island and in Bremerton, Kingston and Poulsbo.

Godfather’s has been a popular Port Orchard gathering place since opening in 1982. Runge took over in 1997. He said he’s excited for retirement but sad to close the restaurant.

“It’s always hard to give something up after 18 years,” Runge said. “And we’ve had great customers.”

Godfather’s Pizza, soon to be Westside Pizza, is located at 1700 SE Mile Hill Drive.

New Silverdale Starbucks opens, old store closes

Tad Sooter

Starbucks giveth and Starbucks taketh away.

A new Starbucks store with drive thru opened early Wednesday morning near the northeast corner of Silverdale Way and Bucklin Hill Road. The previous Bucklin Hill location, next to Haggen, has closed.

“Starbucks is always looking for great locations to better meet the needs of our customers,” a spokeswoman for the coffee giant said in an email.

Construction began this spring on the new 2,400-square-foot shop, which shares the corner with IHOP and Little Caesars Pizza.

The spokeswoman said the store will feature Starbucks Reserve, Starbuck’s line of small-batch roasted coffees. The location is also equipped with a Clover Brewing System. The store has a staff of 28.

With one store closing and another opening, Silverdale’s Starbucks count remains at three. A second store is located farther north on Silverdale Way. The third is inside Safeway.

Silverdale isn’t the only Kitsap town getting a new Starbucks. A store with drive thru is under construction in Kingston, at the corner of Highway 104 and Miller Bay Road, next to Rite Aid.

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