Latest retail update includes new fitness centers, new travel center near Ferndale
Here’s a roundup of recent retail activity in Whatcom County:
▪ Bellingham’s Kulshan Brewing is rolling out cans of a new beer that it hopes will appeal to seltzer fans.
In a news release it announced its series of Apero beer. On Monday, Feb. 10, it released its peach Apero and will begin rolling out new flavors every few months. Customers can look forward to the release of pineapple, mango and grapefruit later this year.
Fermented with an enzyme that helps the yeast eat up residual sugars, each can has 100 calories, according to the news release.
“It’s like a spiked seltzer, but better,” said Wesley Finger, head brewer for Kulshan Brewing in the news release. “It’s clean, crisp and refreshing with more pronounced fresh fruit characteristics.”
Updates on new releases can be found on Kulshan’s social media pages, including Facebook.
▪ A new fitness studio is coming to the Sehome Village Shopping Center, near REI. The studio is called Orangetheory Fitness and, according to its website, it offers a science-backed, coach-inspired workout.
The company, which is based in Boca Raton, Florida, has more than 1,200 studios including 13 in the lower British Columbia area.
▪ A new travel truck stop project has received a conditional use permit, according to an article on the website My Ferndale News. The proposal calls for a store, fuel pumps, a fast-food restaurant and a tire shop at the corner of Grandview Road and Portal Way, near Interstate 5.
According to application documents submitted to the city of Ferndale, the convenience store will be 12,000-square feet of space. The facility will have seven diesel fuel pumps and eight passenger-vehicle fuel pumps. It will have 82 truck parking stalls and 78 car spaces.
The proposal was submitted by Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores, which has more than 500 locations in 41 states. The nearest Love’s travel stop is in Tacoma.
▪ A building permit was submitted to put in a barre fitness studio at 21 Bellwether Way, near the Lombardi’s Italian restaurant.
▪ The Fairhaven pet store UKUSACA Doggie is hosting an event with the Alternative Humane Society from 4-6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21. Along with the informational discussion about pet adoption, the store will be donating 20% of all purchases to the organization.
The store is in the Sycamore Square Building at 1200 Harris Ave., Suite 111.
▪ Whatcom County’s overall retail sales posted a new record in the third quarter of 2019, according to data from the Washington State Department of Revenue.
This area tallied $1.3 billion in sales in July, August and September, the most ever in one quarter and 6% higher than the third quarter of 2018.
With back-to-school shopping, the third quarter tends to have the highest retail sales of the year, topping even the holiday shopping season. Clothing, furniture, building material posted year-over-year increases locally while car sales were down slightly.
The 6% year-over-year increase was slightly below the state average of 7%.
