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Donuts and Pilates: Do they spell a turnaround at Peninsula Shopping Center?

Donuts are returning to Peninsula Shopping Center.

By the end of this month, owners Alberto Pena and Shamika David intend to open their jazzy new Fusion Donut Café in the Judson Street complex. Fusion Donut Café will be just a stone’s throw from where Uddenberg Thriftway, the former anchor tenant, once dispensed its memorably large, glazed pastries.

Alberto Pena and Shamika David of Fusion Donut Cafe inside their Tacoma store. Photo by Ted Kenney

And that’s not the only new venture brewing in this old retail plaza, which occupies 5.6 acres in the heart of downtown Gig Harbor. A short distance to the east, where Peninsula Shopping Center borders Soundview Drive, a husband-wife team of fitness entrepreneurs is working toward opening a new business, Club Pilates Gig Harbor, in a former bank branch.

Sprucing up Peninsula Shopping Center

People with an interest in downtown Gig Harbor — property owners, civic boosters and residents alike — are watching the two new businesses take shape with an interest that goes beyond the mere anticipation of donuts and exercise. They’re excited by what the activity suggests: Could Peninsula Shopping Center finally be on the upswing?

The retail center has seen too many vacancies in recent years, but it’s looking better. The owners of both Fusion Donut Café and Club Pilates Gig Harbor point to improvements the landlord is making, such as painting buildings, tidying the landscaping, repairing or replacing parts of the roof, and a plan to re-surface or re-seal the parking lot.

The shopping center’s new tenants and its overall sprucing up may seem like small potatoes compared to transformative ideas for the facility that have been floated over the years. Those included introducing townhouses, underground parking and even a five-story luxury apartment building.

A construction crew repairs pavement in the parking lot of the Peninsula Shopping Center on Wednesday, May 28. Photo by Vince Dice

But for Pena, the owners’ current efforts boost his own confidence. “They are willing to do whatever they have to do to get tenants in here,” he said.

Peninsula Shopping Center is owned jointly by a limited liability company controlled by developer Rush Companies and another LLC connected to members of the Milgard family, founders and heirs of Tacoma’s Milgard Manufacturing, Inc. Rush handles day-to-day management of the facility.

Zoning changes

Meanwhile, big-picture thinking about the shopping center and its surroundings continues. The city of Gig Harbor’s newly updated comprehensive plan gives a nudge to redevelopment in the area by increasing by 50 percent the number of dwelling units per acre that can be built there.

And the city is hiring planning staff to help with a $100,000 study set to launch later this year, with the goal of creating a new “sub-area plan” that can spur development in the downtown business district. That plan could promote multifamily housing integrated with commercial uses, and drive re-zoning that would allow higher buildings (the current limit is two stories) with reduced setbacks.

Club Pilates

“Fantastic” is how Club Pilates franchisees Holly and David Hoekman describe their new 2,200-square-foot space at Peninsula Shopping Center.

The Hoekmans already have a studio called Club Pilates West Tacoma, in that city’s Westgate South shopping center. They note that although the Gig Harbor location won’t open for at least another month, it has already amassed more social media followers than their up-and-running Tacoma club.

The Club Pilates West Tacoma studio. Photo by Ted Kenney

The Gig Harbor Club Pilates will include 12 stations, each with a Pilates reformer – a bedlike frame that uses resistance created by springs and a sliding carriage to build strength and flexibility – and a springboard that is used in the exercise. They are converting the former bank vault into a private training room and will preserve the old tenant’s break room for use as an office or a place to relax.

The Hoekmans, who live in Swede Hill, both work corporate jobs, and say they will keep them even as they run the two Pilates studios.

Franchises around the world

When Club Pilates Gig Harbor opens at the end of June, it will operate from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and half-days on weekends, the Hoekmans said. The studio will offer seven class types – including Cardio Sculpt, Reformer Flow (the most popular offering), Control (which uses the springboard more), and Center & Balance – at four difficulty levels.

The business operates on a membership model. People choosing an Unlimited membership can take classes at both the West Tacoma and Gig Harbor studios. Signing up at the Passport level allows use of any Club Pilates, Holly Hoekman said. The chain includes some 1,200 studios worldwide, on four continents, the company’s website says.

Construction workers at the soon-to-open Club Pilates in the Peninsula Shopping Center on Wednesday, May 28. Photo by Vince Dice

Members navigate and sign up for classes via the Club Pilates smartphone app. Holly Hoekman said the ease of using the app is a big reason she became a regular at the branch in Newcastle before the couple moved to Gig Harbor in 2022.

Hoekman said she likes being a franchisee because that arrangement eliminates the need to invent every aspect of the business. It takes care of a lot of the details and gives her a plan to implement. “I can execute all day long,” she said.

Fusion Donut Café

Like the new Gig Harbor Pilates studio, Fusion Donut Café already has an outpost in Tacoma. Located downtown near the University of Washington Tacoma campus, the shop has a colorful, modern vibe. It sells – and its Gig Harbor sister branch will offer – standards like maple bars, fruit fritters and bear claws alongside fusion creations such as Guava-Filled, Strawberry Dream Cake, Pistachio and Crunchy Cake Crumble donuts.

“I know Gig Harbor has been wanting a donut shop for a while,” said Pena, who grew up in Bremerton. Pena said he and his business partner Shamika David have spent years in the food business, both rising to general manager positions at Olive Garden restaurants.

One differentiator of Fusion Donut Café is that it makes its own glazes and frostings – the bits of real fruit are visible in the toppings of pastries such as the Strawberry Dream Cake and Lemon Citrus donuts, Pena said. Both stores will sell specialty coffees from Dancing Goats Coffee of Olympia, he said.

A sign marks the future location of Fusion Donut Café in the Peninsula Shopping Center. The café will be between Lucky Dog Outfitters and Tokyo Teriyaki. Photo by Vince Dice

Pena said before getting his current 1,500-square-foot Gig Harbor space, he tried to obtain the storefront on Pioneer Way formerly occupied by KettleFish restaurant. That didn’t work out (Iscreamery is there now).

But Peninsula Shopping Center offers advantages including abundant parking, he said. He signed a five-year lease with an optional five-year extension.

The Hoekmans also secured a five-year lease with a five-year extension for Club Pilates. But Peninsula Shopping Center can ask them to leave during the five-year extension period, provided they give 18 months notice.

Anchor tenant remains a priority

Rush, the landlord, hopes that other potential lessees will recognize such benefits in the shopping center’s 1950s-reminiscent asphalt sprawl.

“We’re continuing to see strong leasing momentum and interest from a variety of businesses,” said Emily Frankland, leasing broker for Rush Properties, Rush Companies’ property management arm.

“We’re focused on bringing in a mix of uses,” she said. “Securing a grocery store anchor remains a key objective and we are continuing to pursue that, in addition to other opportunities for the anchor space.”

As recently as 2022, it appeared the shopping center had landed a new anchor tenant, Poulsbo-based Town & Country Markets. But the grocery chain ultimately backed away from the deal.

Frankland said that Rush Companies is aware of the city’s upcoming effort to develop a new plan, potentially with re-vamped zoning, for the portion of downtown Gig Harbor that includes Peninsula Shopping Center. “We see ongoing planning discussions as an important part of the long-term evolution of the Waterfront District,” she said.

Space for lease in Peninsula Shopping Center on Wednesday, May 28. Photo by Vince Dice

Downtown Business District

While the name for the $100,000 project in the city’s budget  – the “Judson” Comprehensive Plan Subarea Element – suggests a focus on the Judson Street area immediately around the shopping center, Community Development Director Eric Baker predicted that the study area, when finalized, would include the entire Downtown Business District (DB) zone in Gig Harbor.

This focus would include Peninsula Shopping Center but encompass other key downtown blocks, ranging as far north as Rosedale Street. The city council could also expand the area to be covered by the study east of Soundview Drive, which is not in the DB zone, he said.

The geographic focus of the city’s forthcoming Judson Comprehensive Plan Subarea Element has not yet been finalized, but Community Development Director Eric Baker predicted it would include all of the downtown business district, shown in pink on this zoning map. Source: Gig Harbor Interactive Zoning Map.

“I expect the topics of structure height, setbacks, frontage improvements, housing incentives (e.g. Multifamily Tax Exemptions) and expected public amenities to be on the table but that has not been directed by Council as of yet,” Baker said in an e-mail.

“I expect more information to be available later this year which may generate a more accurate picture of the process,” including the specific area of downtown that is to be the sub-area plan’s focus, he said.

Commenting on the need for the sub-area plan, Baker said, “[T]he small business community struggles at times during the year due to a lack of people living in the district. The properties around the Peninsula Shopping Center are underutilized with opportunities for greater development that could create a more vital, year-round downtown.”

“These property owners over the years have been interested in greater development opportunities for their properties including multifamily housing integrated with commercial uses. To make such a development viable, they feel additional height, reduced setbacks and a coordinated plan with the city could be beneficial,” Baker said.