The U-District Partnership estimates of the half a billion dollars spent in the U-District in 2015, 15 percent was spent on food services. While there is no exact number for how many restaurants on the Ave are immigrant owned, “ethnic” food accounts for nearly 70 percent of all food eateries (includes bars and cafes) on the Ave and 85 percent of all restaurants. John Khalil, who now runs Cedars of Lebanon across the street, is experiencing the same thing. Alawar estimates that Samir’s is down by 60 percent. In February, to address the lack of affordable housing that has driven up apartment rates and home prices, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to approve an upzone for the University District - despite concerns of rising rents for businesses.įurther adding to uncertainty, business has been slow, rents aren’t dropping and competition is fierce. Small businesses like Samir’s bear the brunt, and future immigrants would might have been able to support their families with a restaurant or business of their own could be locked out. It’s common for landlords to pass the cost to business owners, who then cover the increases as part of their lease agreements.
The change in zoning also increases property taxes. While the upzone may bring more foot traffic and new clientele to the neighborhood, small businesses vulnerable to rising rents may not survive to see the benefit.
Today there is apprehension for the Ave’s future due to a new upzone, which will permit high rises and an influx of people into the U-District. These changes to the Ave could close a window to immigrant entrepreneurs, like Alawar and his brother who established their own restaurants as a way to provide for their families. But now, rising rent, shifting demographics and a new change to allow high rises in the University District threaten to transform the neighborhood, making it more difficult for small businesses to remain open. The restaurants gave Alawar the opportunity to participate in the American dream. “If my landlord ask me someday to leave and didn’t want to renew my lease, I would go and open another restaurant even if it only had one table - until I die, ‘cause I like it,” he said. In 2005, after his brother’s death, Alawar opened a new place across the street, called Samir’s Mediterranean Grill.Īlawar’s restaurants have been a labor of love. Immigrant-owned eateries - offering everything from pho to to pad thai to shwarma - have been a longtime staple on University Way, including the restaurants of Samir Alawar, who has been serving Mediterranean food on “the Ave” for 40 years.Īlawar, 60, had immigrated as a refugee when he joined his brother in Seattle to run Cedars of Lebanon in 1977. Alawar has been cooking on the Ave for almost 40 years and opened Samir’s in 2005 after his brother died. Samir Alawar stands in front of his restaurant on Saturday, March 4.
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