Nike will close its community store in Northeast Portland permanently, it told the neighborhood business district on Friday.
The Soul District Business Association said in a news release Friday that the “community was dealt a major economic blow” after Nike finalized its plan to close and vacate the store at 2650 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Nike confirmed its plans in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive and said that the company was “reimagining Nike’s retail space ... and considering future locations as part of this community’s long term revitalization plan.”
The footwear and apparel store had been mostly closed to the public for most of the year, and it had been unclear whether the closure is temporary or permanent.
John Washington, executive director of the Soul Business District Association, said that he had sent a letter to Nike roughly a month ago asking about the status of the Northeast Portland Nike store, which at that point had been closed for more than six months.
“The store closure was starting to impact the small businesses in the area, who were telling me that they were getting less and less foot traffic and business was not going well,” he said. “That prompted me to ask Nike what their intentions were.”
Washington said he followed up with Nike earlier this week about the store’s status, and the sneaker company responded with news of the closure during a Zoom meeting on Friday morning. He said the sneaker giant blamed safety and security issues.
“Word about the store closing landed like a lead balloon,” he said. “Why close down a flagship store that has supported Black Portland for over 40 years? It was an economic driver in this area, and we should be looking at the long-term impact of that closure.”
In February, Nike made a request to Mayor Ted Wheeler and city officials to detail off-duty police officers to provide security atthe community store. Wheeler’s office, however, nixed the request for police attendants.
Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a statement Friday that he was “very disappointed” with the news of the Nike Community Store’s closure and that his team and city staff “have worked tirelessly and in good faith with Nike for almost a year to offer creative solutions to their safety challenges.”
“Ultimately, the city cannot offer Nike, or any other private business, with dedicated off-duty (Portland Police Bureau) officers due to PPB’s staffing shortage,” Wheeler added.
The Nike Community Store had been a staple in its Portland neighborhood, once the core of the city’s Black population, since it opened in June 1984.
Portland civil rights and education activist Ron Herndon and the Black United Front worked with Nike in the 1980s to bring the brand’s first ever factory store on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, then called Union Avenue.
Herndon said all the store not only hired workers from the neighborhood, but also invested all the profits from sales at the store into Portland’s Black community.
“Obviously, I was disappointed to hear that they wasn’t going to be able to reopen the store,” Herndon said. “I think this is a failure of leadership at City Hall ... I just believe folks at City Hall don’t have the skill or creativity to address major issues that impact not only the Black community but all of Portland.”
Herndon said that the store “has been a great economic multiplier since it opened” and that its closure would hurt businesses in the area.
“You would’ve thought that city leaders would’ve tried harder to keep the store to stay open because of its impact on other small businesses in the community, but I didn’t see that at all,” he said.
Nike nonspecific about plans to open a new store in North or Northeast Portland. The company said it would “seek the input of local community organizations and leaders to determine the best new location.”
The sneaker giant added that it was providing employees at the Northeast Portland store with “options to continue to be part of the Nike family.”
--Kristine de Leon; kdeleon@oregonian.com
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Nike to permanently close NE Portland factory store, business district says - OregonLive
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