University Village is a shopping mall in Seattle, Washington, United States, located in the south corner of the Ravenna neighborhood to the north of the Downtown area. It is an open-air shopping center which offers restaurants, locally owned boutiques, and national retailers, and is a popular retail destination in the region for home furnishings, popular fashions, gift items and restaurants.
Until the early 1990s, the character of University Village was decidedly different. Most of its businesses were small, and the chain stores were all local: Ernst Hardware and Malmo Nursery, Lamontsdepartment store, Pay 'n Save Drugs, and QFC supermarket. There was even a bowling alley, Village Lanes. Many of the businesses began to falter toward the end of the 1980s, however, and in 1993 the owners of the mall decided to sell. For much of this period, University Village was owned by the Tektronix Retirement Investment Fund.
Modern
The chairman of QFC and a partner bought it, and tenants such as those mentioned above began to move out. U-Village no longer has a hardware store, but features upscale national stores such as Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Banana Republic, and Crate & Barrel instead. Despite this, 61% of U-Village merchants are still local.
Shops
s today are local and family-owned Bartell Drugs, Apple Store, Crate & Barrel, The Gap, and Pottery Barn. Significant adjacent anchors are the Seattle QFC flagship store, a large Safeway, and an Office Depot. In 1991, neighborhood activists initiated a campaign with the City to "daylight" Ravenna Creek through Ravenna Park to Lake Washington, but the segment from the park to the University of Washington and the Union Bay Natural Area was successfully blocked by the owners of University Village. It has been recently updated to include more shops below the brand new medical center. Amazon.com, an online retailer founded and based in the region, opened its first physical storefront at University Village on November 3, 2015.
Boundaries
The campus of the UW is to the west and south, the neighborhood of Bryant farther to the east, and the neighborhood of Ravenna to the north, but portions of the surrounding neighborhoods are often referred to as being in "University Village" themselves, approximately west to 22nd Avenue NE, north to NE 55th Street, and east to Union Bay Place NE and 30th Avenue NE. The area's principal arterials are 25th Avenue NE and NE 45th Street; 35th Avenue is a minor arterial. Collector arterials are NE Blakeley-Union Bay Place NE and NE 55th streets.
