Optimism, uncertainty at Seattle-area companies as reopening plans take form

Across Washington State’s business community, Governor Jay Inslee’s plan to fully reopen the state economy next month has been greeted with a mixture of optimism and uncertainty.

Industry and business groups were largely delighted with Inslee’s announcement Thursday that the state’s sweeping COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted by June 30 or earlier if vaccination rates rise.

“This news is a glimmer of hope,” said Mark Canlis, co-owner of Canlis restaurant in Seattle. “All we’ve been doing for 14 months has been to survive.”

“Today’s announcement suggests we are on the verge of ending this pandemic for good,” added Tammie Hetrick, president and CEO of the Washington Food Industry Association, the industry group that represents grocers, in a statement Thursday.

However, business and union leaders also warned that a full reopening, if not done carefully, could trigger further spikes in some cases.

“As Washington reopens and expands personal work, the state must make the health and safety of workers its top priority or take the risk of another wave of infection even as more people are vaccinated,” said Rachel Lauter, executive director of Working Washington, one Working group.

Even direct proponents of Inslee’s plan warned that the state’s economy still had months, if not years, to recover. “We still have a long way to go, but we want to celebrate today,” said Bill Weise, president of the Seattle Hotel Association, whose members have been particularly hard hit by pandemic restrictions on tourism and business travel.

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Some company leaders said the June 30th date gives companies ample time to plan to reopen, as well as employee confidence to make other reopening investments.

Inslee’s announcement “is extremely important to the overall planning and security of our businesses and residents,” said Patrick Bannon, president of the Bellevue Downtown Association.

“Uncertainty has been a major barrier to reopening businesses,” reiterated Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, which has been tracking the final closure of nearly 300 street-level Seattle locations since early 2020.

Still, many companies had questions about the timing and specific details of the reopening plan, which depends in part on vaccination rates.

For example, some restaurant owners feared that due to ongoing labor shortages, they would not be able to hire enough staff to reach full capacity by June 30.

“Will you be able to get enough workers by then? There’s no going, ”said Ethan Stowell, who owns more than a dozen restaurants in the Seattle area. And while customer demand might be high enough in some residential neighborhoods for restaurants and other businesses to reopen fully, it might not be in city centers, which still have no shortage of office workers, Stowell said. Many downtown employers won’t fully return to the office until the fall.

Other companies had questions about how they deal with customers’ vaccination status.

Hetrick said the WFIA was unsure of what requirements, if any, were needed to obtain evidence of vaccination from customers and was awaiting more information from the state health department on the matter.

“My members either have to make a decision to require masks or give people the benefit of the doubt until we know better,” Hetrick said. But she added that Members “will not ask any evidence from customers until we are told we have to”.

Hetrick also said that some grocery stores would likely require their fully vaccinated employees to wear masks while others may not. “Our members are across the board in this regard,” she added. “Some have told me that they will continue to ask their staff to wear masks to reassure customers that it is a safe environment.”

For example, although QFC and Fred Meyer stores now need masks for everyone in the stores, that could change, a spokesman for parent company Kroger said.

Depending on the industry, other companies may also disagree about checking the vaccination status.

Eric Rivera, owner of Addo in Ballard, said he will require customers to provide proof of vaccination. “I’m not going to fight them,” said Rivera. “They have [vaccination] Cards and they’re real, or they’re not allowed to come and eat and that’s their problem, ”he said.

Others were concerned about the impact of the vaccination status issue, especially in sensitive cases like health care or funeral directors.

Cameron Smock, president and CEO of Bonney Watson, a funeral home with offices in SeaTac and Federal Way, said he was concerned about asking for a vaccination certificate from funeral homes. “We are dealing with people in different grief and emotional states,” he said.

Smock said he would tend to use an honor system similar to asking whether people have had symptoms recently, but added that the company’s leadership has yet to decide on formal guidelines.

“We try to be as empathetic and empathetic as possible without, of course, harming the health of our employees or visitors,” said Smock.

Some business owners also worry about whether their employees will be satisfied with full indoor capacity or with the return to close contact with customers.

“The only thing I worry about is the staff and the team,” said Melissa Miranda of Musang, a restaurant on Beacon Hill in south Seattle. “I don’t think I’ll be 100% open.”

Some companies said they would maintain at least some security measures, including masks and social distancing, even after the state reopened.

For example, Addos Rivera said he had already planned to reopen well below his restaurant’s capacity for the remainder of the year. The restaurant offers space for a maximum of eight people in a room with approx. 50 seats.

The eight person limit will keep it feeling intimate, and staff and guests will know that others in the room have been vaccinated, Rivera said.

It will also enable Rivera to avoid a major blow to its operations if rising case numbers cause the state to reinstate restrictions. “Even if things go up or down or go anywhere and have to roll them back, we’ll be fine,” he said.

Despite the questions and uncertainty, many companies see the reopening as a welcome step towards a return to normalcy – for companies, but also for society.

“This is really going to be a game changer,” Bonney Watsons told Smock.

“Rituals and traditions surrounding death, mourning and mourning are so deeply rooted and passed on from generation to generation that it was very difficult for families to say no or to be very limited in their options.”

Seattle Times staff reporters Evan Bush, Joseph O’Sullivan, and Bethany Jean Clement contributed to this report.