Each month we recognize a Roosevelt business for their great service and community involvement. The Business of the Month for October is the Eye Clinics of Seattle. They are located at 6618 Roosevelt Way NE in the Cedar Crossing building.
Dr. Eric Bergstrom purchased the Queen Anne Eye Clinic in 2001. In a short time, his business was thriving, but when his first child was born, he knew he wanted to spend more time at home. Since he was in a solo practice, he needed a partner to make that work. Enter Dr. Phil Lo, who Eric met when they were both at the Illinois College of Optometry. When he approached him about a partnership, Phil jumped at the chance. Soon the clinic was booming and, when Eric wanted to come back full-time, there was more than enough work for both of them. When a practice in the Ballard neighborhood came up for sale in 2020, they decided to open another branch of the Eye Clinics to serve that area.
In 2022 Eric and Phil faced a bit of a dilemma. They had been considering a major remodel of their Queen Anne location and knew that the Ballard store couldn’t absorb all of those patients. They had also been considering building a new location from scratch, as opposed to buying an existing practice. They wanted the new place to be close to transit and I-5, and not so far from either Ballard or Queen Anne that their current clients would balk at going that distance. They were also looking for a thriving, growing neighborhood with plenty of people who would need eye care services, and where the market was not already saturated. Fortunately (for them and us), Roosevelt fit the bill on all counts.
Once the Roosevelt store was up and running in 2023, they were kept busy mostly with their Queen Anne clients, as that store closed entirely for the renovation. But when the Queen Anne location reopened, the number of patients at Roosevelt steadily increased. They have found local residents to be respectful and happy to be part of this dynamic neighborhood. Phil and Eric and all their staff take pride in providing vision services to us and those in surrounding areas. They value above all the trust they are building with their clients and have found that word of mouth referrals have grown their business exponentially.
Phil and Eric have also been very supportive of the Roosevelt Business Roundtable, which has been meeting monthly in the lobby of the Eye Clinics.
While they have faced all the challenges that any small business does, Phil and Eric say that they are very pleased with the choice they made to locate their third location in Roosevelt. We are very glad they are here, and that they are our October Business of the Month!