BIZNOTE: Another Junction storefront won’t be empty much longer – The Works Seattle is moving in

The vacancies in The Junction continue to vanish, one by one. We’ve already reported on Anchorhead Coffee taking the ex-Starbucks spot, the Dave’s Hot Chicken and Gong Cha plan for the former Haymaker space, Viva Arts going into the ex-Three Little Birds, the official opening of Oona in the ex-Willow storefront … and now The Works Seattle, a Fremont business run by West Seattle resident Kellie Phelan, has uncloaked for the ex-Click!/Seattle E-Bike storefront at 4540 California SW. Phelan just signed the lease for the new home of The Works Seattle this week. We had been talking with her via email since just before the signing finalized her plan. Here’s how she explains The Works Seattle:

I spent the first decade of my career in environmental consulting, drawn by a desire to make a positive impact. Over time, I found myself wanting to focus that impact closer to home: building community, connecting people, and creating space for adults to learn from one another. In 2018, I founded The Works Seattle as the kind of place I felt was missing: somewhere adults could come together to make things with their hands, learn new skills, and connect with others in a genuinely welcoming environment.

We started in my kitchen and grew into a brick-and-mortar studio in Fremont, serving more than 5,000 students a year. Eighteen months in, Covid shut us down. We built DIY Kits to keep our team employed, and they turned out to be something people loved enough to keep ordering long after. We came back from Covid stronger than we went in.

The Works is now eight years old, offering instructor-led workshops, private and corporate events, a drop-in Maker Bar, retail, and DIY kits. The move to West Seattle is the next chapter, and for me, a deeply personal one. It’s my neighborhood. I want to live and work in the same community, and I’ve been waiting a long time to bring The Works home.

Here’s what will happen in the new space, and what she’s adding beyond what The Works Seattle does in Fremont now:

The same things we’re known for: hands-on workshops and classes in printmaking, natural dyeing, embroidery, floral arranging, stained glass, and more. Plus a full Maker Bar. The Maker Bar is a way to make creativity more accessible and flexible, where you drop in, pick a project, and leave with something you’re actually proud of, all for under $50 bucks. We’ll also have expanded retail, a more robust private and corporate events program, and set open hours so people can count on us being there.

The Maker Bar is the biggest addition from what her business currently does: “We’re piloting it right now in Fremont, but the new space gives us the dedicated square footage and infrastructure to run it properly. The expanded retail footprint is also new, as are set open hours.” (Those hours aren’t finalized yet.)

Moving to West Seattle, she says, isn’t just because she lives here:

Bringing The Works home has always been the dream.

Our current Fremont studio is tucked away on a lower level with an alley entrance. You can find it if you know where to look, but you don’t stumble across it. Alaska Junction puts us on the main drag. What if people could just walk by and see us? See their friends and family, their community, all making things, and think: “I want to do that.” That’s exactly what we’re going for.

And this move is personal in another way too. Last year, my daughter went through a bone marrow transplant. Being away from the studio for months gave me a lot of time to think about what matters and what I want to build next. I want to live and work in the same neighborhood. I want my kids, who have grown up in every one of my shops, to be able to walk down the street and see what’s possible when you believe in something and keep showing up for it.

As for the timeline: “We’ve applied for our building permit and will begin construction once that comes through. We’re targeting a fall opening. In the meantime, classes at the Fremont location continue through the end of August.”

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