Brian and Jacquie Petersen, owners of the Belfair Chiropractic Clinic in front of their new building

Business is booming in Belfair.
Jimmy D’s Waffle and Steak House, with a location in Gorst, recently opened a restaurant eight miles away in Belfair’s Belltowne Square, just across from McDonald’s.

Owners Jim and Midge Haskins, according to manager Pat Sullivan, are “real family.” A Jimmy D Burger, JD Special and Little Ritchie sandwich (named for their son) are included on the menu. The restaurant and lounge will seat 150, and Midge Haskins did the decorating.

The eatery is one of several businesses in the square, along with a car wash, laundry, exercise center and antique store.

Belfair Maytag Laundry’s manager, Marlene Casmaer, says business is great. It is the only laundromat in Belfair now. She says the town of “snowbirds” has increased immensely with more and more full-timers who commute to work. “It’s a thriving community,” she says.

Curves for Women, with 5,000 fitness centers worldwide, added a new niche to North Mason’s business offerings.

The Belfair Antique Mall, says owner Marcia Erwin, doubled in space when crossing Highway 3 to Belltowne. The 4,500-square-foot building showcases the treasures of over 30 dealers. In three years in business in the North Mason community, she shares she’s had just one bad check, and the woman called her and made it right immediately. Erwin cooperates with the other three antique dealers in town with referrals and advertising.

Safeway made Belfair a two-supermarket town in 1999. The other spaces in the Safeway mall are the state liquor store, espresso stand, health food store, cleaners, cigar store, copy and mail shop, video store and three restaurants (Mexican, sub sandwiches and Chinese food).

Howard Holeman, Safeway manager, says the 45,000-square-foot supermarket and Safeway’s gas station employ 88 people. “I like the small town feeling of Belfair, the clean air and open spaces.”

The newest addition to Belfair is the building next to QFC housing chiropractor Dr. Brian Petersen and Hood Canal Interiors. They moved into the luxurious spaces in April.

“Brian raised the bar on buildings in Belfair!” exclaims Mike Boyle of Petersen’s beautifully-landscaped, eye-catching building. Boyle, owner of North Bay Mortgage, is president of the North Mason Chamber of Commerce, as well as of Belfair’s Boys and Girls Club.

Peterson was lavish in his praise of the contractor on the project, Bremerton’s FPH Construction. “We’re very pleased with the quality of the work as well as the way they handled the entire project overall,” he said. “They’re just excellent to work with.”

FPH is known as one of the best commercial builders in the area, building several “signature” buildings such as the Springhouse Doll and Gift complex in Port Orchard, the Silverdale Fitness and Farmer’s Insurance buildings in Silverdale, the new Les Schwab Tire store in Poulsbo and the recently completed Windermere Real Estate office in downtown Bremerton.

Bill and Kim Olsen own Hood Canal Interiors, which expanded to 5,900-square-feet in their move. The new store causes customers to enter saying, “Wow!”

Having begun with window coverings, the business has evolved into a full interior-design service, with furniture, flooring, accessories, gifts and more, drawing customers from not just North Mason, but several counties. The unique inventory “doesn’t look like what you’d find at the mall,” Bill Olsen says.

A grand opening, set for Sat., June 21, will spill out into a garden area prepared with power and speakers for live music for that and other special events. Illustrating a positive connection between business and the environment, Olsen says members of the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group plan on revitalizing the creek that is part of that garden area and hope to restore salmon to it within three years.

“Things are happening here!” Boyle says, naming the $15 million salmon center being planned for the Theler Wetlands environmental complex, as well as the views of Hood Canal and the Olympic Mountains, recently opened up to drivers on Highway 3 by the development at Belltowne.

Boyle is proud of the chamber’s success in bringing a Work Source office to town, the first in the United States in an unincorporated area, he claims. Work Source is housed in the chamber’s office building on Highway 3, and helps businesses and potential workers get together.

Boyle’s North Bay Mortgage recently moved into an existing building across from Belfair Elementary. Trying to come up to Petersen’s “high bar,” he is having a lighted sign made from a huge stone carved in the outline of the Olympic Mountains.

“The business climate here is phenomenal,” says the chamber president.

Kitsap Bank arrived in Mason County in 1995, first in Belfair, then in Allyn. With the two counties being contiguous, bank president and CEO Jim Carmichael explains, it was a natural. He says of the $500 million in all 26 branches, there are $25 million in deposits in the two Mason branches.

Mark Dutton, owner of Belfair’s Kitsap Physical Therapy, opened his practice in 1999. “Looking at my five- and ten-year business plan, in terms of being successful,” says the physical therapist, “I met my five-year goal after one-and-a-half years.” He loves the friendly, homey, semi-rural feeling of Belfair.

Lamplighter Homes, according to general manager Jeff Clancy, moved from Kitsap after its location was sold. Relocating to Belfair saved several thousand dollars, “and taxes are less here, too,” he says. In 2002, they completed 59 homes, both manufactured and modular, about half in Mason County. He says they had “more units out” than any of the 15 Lamplighter locations in the western United States.

Clancy, who recently moved to Belfair himself, says it is a great place to raise kids. He is continually astonished at the cooperation among people and organizations here.

Realtor Tim Wing, a former president of the local chamber, is part of Belfair’s Subarea Planning Committee. He believes the current growth in business echoes the growth in population, and says some 75 new homes are being built in North Mason this year alone.

Petersen chairs the planning group, working to get sewers in place, and recommending a widening of Highway 3 and an alternative route to get through Belfair, as well as other improvements to downtown Belfair.

Meanwhile, Overton and Associates are seeking advanced authorization for proposed development of single- and multi-family homes, retail, light industry, a school, and more, on several hundred acres on the hill above Highway 3. Wing indicates this request of the county is to set up the opportunity for development that “will likely take 25 to 30 years to play out.”

Wing notes there are commercial spaces available in Belfair now for under a dollar a square foot, up to $1.50 for a building currently under construction.