HUBBUB Rises Again in Centralia

Nearly 10 months after a driver crashed into the front of HUBBUB in downtown Centralia, repairs to the building finally began last week.

“It’s good to see progress,” said owner Rebecca Staebler, who is also a Centralia city councilor. “This part is hard because it’s messy and destructive, but I know that that has to be done first, so it’s good to be moving along.”

Crews began clearing debris last week while Staebler was out of town. Staebler, who also lives in the building, said she is awake by the time their work begins in the morning.

“They are working toward, today and tomorrow, building a temporary wall, so that will seal off the front part of the store where the real work is going to be for the rest of the property,” Staebler told The Chronicle. “So that will be good. I will look forward to that — not having a big gaping hole to look at, and the noise, and the dust and it being kind of open.”

Since May, HUBBUB has been operating as a “popup shop” in the lobby of the historic Wilson Hotel just up the road from her permanent location on Tower Avenue.

“We’ve been here since May and it’s working well,” Staebler said. “It’s an interesting space and I’m happy to get some life into an old building. It’s been fun to learn about the space and share the stories and learn about it from other people. It’s an interesting spot, so it kind of works with our products. It’s not home, but it’s OK.”

Staebler said she and other business owners regularly send customers to each other and that the business community in Centralia has been really supportive of her.

“My business neighbors downtown have also been great,” Staebler said. “It’s a really tight-knit community.”

At roughly 1 a.m. on May 5, a driver crashed into the storefront while Staebler was asleep in her apartment.

“I ran down to open the door to see what had happened, expecting to see that something had fallen over, and didn’t really see anything,” Staebler said. “So I ran up to the front door and could hear a neighbor talking to somebody and tried to open it, but I couldn’t, and the person who was talking to him said don’t open the door. I mean, it was full of glass and debris.”

Staebler said by the time she reached the front of the store, the ambulance and first responders were already talking to the driver.

“I went out and around to the front and could see what had happened,” Staebler said. “I really didn’t know what had happened. Even then, it was dark, so I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t see the car. So when I went around, I got there about the same time the fire department did. Then I could see what happened.”

Police reported the man in the vehicle smelled of alcohol. He didn’t appear to have tried to stop, as there were no skid marks.

Although Staebler doesn’t have an exact timeline for the repairs yet, she estimates she could be able to move her shop back into its original home by this fall.

“It is probably too many days to count,” Staebler said. “I assume it will be four to six months. Once we know more about what will need to be done, then I’ll have a better idea of how long that will take.”