Customers with dogs dine outside April 14, 2023, at Public House 124 on Main Street, Walla Walla.

WALLA WALLA — Streateries in downtown Walla Walla continue to do well economically, and it seems early concerns about the impact of fewer available parking stalls for nearby businesses did not materialize.

An analysis from economists at Eastern Washington University shows that nearby businesses have not been harmed by the outdoor eateries formed during the pandemic to help support industries hit hard by indoor dining restrictions.

The program includes 16 streateries occupying about 40 parking stalls outside restaurants, tasting rooms and other businesses downtown.

While restaurants with streateries are doing better than other restaurants downtown and throughout the city, downtown businesses have recovered even better still.

The analysis presented at the Monday, April 10, City Council work session was the second analysis of the program, which runs through 2023. A final report will be presented in late 2023 or early 2024 as the council evaluates the future of the program.

D. Patrick Jones, executive director of the university’s Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis, said the streatery program was a good move, economically.

“It seems to us, especially if there was little cost to any of the parties involved and certainly if there was little cost to the city involved, then on-net it was probably a wise thing to do,” Jones said. “It was, to put it in the vernacular, a bit of a win-win for both the streateries and the adjacent businesses.”

Analysis

A descriptive analysis of the average quarterly sales of the streateries in 2022 showed year-over-year increases, though not as big as those seen in 2021, Jones said. The analysis uses data from the state Department of Revenue.

“What we’re seeing right now through the end of 2022 is a sort of a reversion to the normal, not reversion to the mean, but reversion back to what it would have probably been,” he said. “A pretty robust result for the streateries, in our opinion.”

Other restaurants and wineries downtown didn’t have the same initial comeback that the streateries did in 2021, but they did see strong growth in 2022, Jones said.

Restaurants citywide took a more modest hit from the pandemic compared to downtown restaurants but had a weaker recovery — and a much less successful recovery than the average streatery.

The groups followed the same general pattern of sales, but streateries outperformed the other categories each quarter.

Of the three groups, the streateries had the best average gain year-over-year from 2020 to 2022, with 40%. Other downtown restaurants saw 22% average yearly gain, and other Walla Walla restaurants had a 10% average yearly gain, according to the analysis.

A look at the average sales of adjacent businesses showed that they performed much better than restaurants in all categories, including the streateries. From 2020-2022, adjacent businesses had an average year-over-year gain of 45%, compared to the streateries’ 38%.

“The question about being unduly harmed relative to their counterparts throughout the city, seems pretty moot on the basis of these numbers,” Jones said.

Analyst Kelley Cullen looked at the difference in revenue for each of these groups after the streatery program was implemented.

Her analysis showed that restaurants or tasting rooms with streateries had a significant increase in revenues — about $7,300 — by quarter from 2020 to 2022.

Other downtown restaurants saw relatively flat revenue streams in the same time period, according to the analysis.

The impact of the streateries on revenue lost some strength as the economy stabilized but was still positive.

Adjacent businesses saw similar growth rates as their counterparts throughout the city, she said, and were not negatively impacted by the streateries.

Other downtown restaurants performed better than restaurants throughout the city, but that couldn’t be attributed to the streateries, Cullen said.