Bellingham transportation ‘icon’ may replace the COVID-closed Railway Museum
A long-time bike shop appears ready to return to downtown Bellingham, occupying the site of a museum that closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Hub Community Bike Shop can lease space in a first-floor storefront of the Commercial Street parking garage at a reduced rate because it is a nonprofit organization, Bellingham City Council members unanimously decided Monday, March 8.
“Having The Hub in this part of town would be amazing,” said Councilwoman Hollie Huthman. “It would be another invigorating part of that block, bring some life to it.”
According to its website, The Hub takes donated bikes and bicycle parts, rebuilds them and sells them.
Before the pandemic, it offered do-it-yourself workspace and advice for those who wanted to work on their bikes.
“We support our community, empowering them in anything to do with their bicycles,” said Kyle Morris, director of The Hub. “We’re essentially a waste stream diversion resource and also an educational resource. We collect the waste stream — bicycle parts, frames, components, whole bikes — and we refurbish them or process them to recycle them or put them back in the community at a reasonable cost and, more often than not, at a sliding scale for folks.”
Council members voted to allow negotiations for a below-market lease for the vacant storefront at 1320 Commercial St.
That site was home to the Bellingham Railway Museum, but it closed permanently in June 2020 after being shuttered with other museums during the pandemic.
Councilman Dan Hammill called The Hub an iconic business, one that benefits the community in several ways.
“The work that Mr. Morris has done over the decades now I think has been outstanding,” Hammill said.
The Hub is a “good fit” for the central downtown area, said Eric Johnston, public works director.
“We think it makes the most sense to use that parking structure, which is paid for by parking fees, to help support an alternate mode of transportation, which is bicycling,” he said.
Morris told the council that The Hub had a visible location off the South Bay Trail near Laurel Street until it was displaced recently by an apartment project.
Now, The Hub is hidden behind businesses near Ohio Street and Cornwall Avenue.
“We historically have had a very direct impact on the low-income and homeless community here in Bellingham,” Morris said. “We’re now a destination and not an open conversation piece.”
