After another exciting year of reporting on local business activities on Mercer Island, we’re sharing a look back at the biggest openings, quiet closures, movers and shakers, and more of 2017, plus what you can look forward to in 2018.

New Leadership at the Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce

February brought a leadership handoff at the Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce when the Chamber’s Executive Director Terry Moreman announced her plans to retire. Moreman served in the position for 26 years. Mercer Island resident and local native Laurie Pettigrew Givan became the Chamber’s new Executive Director.

In an email, Givan shared that the highlights of her experience so far has been meeting Chamber members, building relationships, planning and executing the 4th Annual Art UnCorked – “our most successful Art Uncorked so far” – and donating money from the Chamber to Mercer Island Youth & Family Services and to the Mercer Island High School DECA program. In 2018, she is looking forward to helping increase Chamber membership, as well as attendance and interaction of Chamber members, and of course, Art UnCorked 2018!

2017 Mercer Island Local Business Year in Review

Here’s our complete report about what opened, what closed, what moved, what to look forward to in 2018, and more:

What opened?

The Hadley Apartments building, which was completed on Mercer Island in 2016, brought new apartments as well as new commercial space to Mercer Island Town Center.  Three exciting businesses opened in the space:

• Mioposto Pizzeria, which serves delicious open-flame cooked pizza, sandwiches, Italian dishes, and much more, opened on January 12, 2017 and has been a hopping spot ever since.
• Freshy’s Local Market, a farm-to-market store focusing on organic seafood, meat, and produce, also opened in the space. The Market was expansion of the original location of Freshy’s Seafood Market, which was established in 2010 in a refurbished gas station at the corner of 76th Ave SE and SE 24th St. The owner Bryce Caldwell also gave the original market a “refresh” this year, and Freshy’s Seafood Shack celebrated a grand re-opening event in May with an expanded menu and more indoor seating.
• Orangetheory Fitness also opened in February in the Hadley Apartments commercial space.  I gave the new fitness studio a try, and I survived the (actually pretty fun!) treadmill-rowing-stregth-training workout to write about it.

Another exciting addition to Mercer Island Town Center was Caruccio’s, opened by Mercer Island resident Lisa Caruccio in partnership with her husband Rino Caruccio. Caruccio’s opened in August 2017 in the Aviara building in retail space next to the Dailey Method and The Islander. The cooking classes, chef demonstrations, and “Wine Wednesday” events have been getting rave reviews, and the space is also a beautiful rental venue for private events and meeting rentals.

All newly opened Mercer Island businesses:

• Caruccio’s
• Freshy’s Local Market
• Ideal Weight Loss and Wellness
• Mathnasium
• Mioposto Pizzeria
• Orangetheory Fitness
• Riviera Maya (opened in former location of El Sombrero in the south end shopping center)
• Subway (south end shopping center)

New ownership

Franky and Dom’s Cafe, located at 7420 SE 24th St, is now Shawn’s Cafe & Bakery and serves up freshly baked pretzel rolls, assorted pastry items, a homemade soup of the day, as well as coffee and espresso beverages.

What closed?

Anthophiles, a sweet European-style flower shop, quietly closed its corner-store location in downtown Mercer Island. Dalhousie Square, formerly Roberto’s Pizza, closed in April, citing high rent and the challenges of running a restaurant business.

What’s ahead in 2018? 

We are looking forward to the projected March 2018 opening of Convivial Cafe, a bakery cafe, to be located in the Islandia Shopping Center (location of Island Books, Homegrown, and Terra Bella). We also just heard about another upcoming cafe called Sano Cafe to open in Mercer Island Town Center that will be specializing in healthy food options, including smoothies, juices, salads, and more (we hope to share more details with you in a future blog post)!

Are you a local business owner? Feel free to share your business reflections for the year 2017.  Any business news we missed? Let us know in the comments.