Pioneer Square is losing another major retailer because of limited parking and other customer inconveniences.

After almost eight decades in the neighborhood, Masins Fine Furnishings & Interior Design has put its building up for lease and hopes to find another Seattle location where customers won't get so many parking tickets.

"We love the area, but it's not convenient for our customer base," said Bob Masin, the third of four generations to own and run the business since it started as a dry-goods store in the Central District in 1927. It moved next door to its current location in the 1930s.

He said the neighborhood's vagrant and homeless population is "probably a business problem" as well.

Pioneer Square is known for panhandlers, homeless shelters and soup kitchens serving the city's downtrodden population.

Masin thinks its fortunes will improve when the Alaskan Way Viaduct comes down and a long-planned mixed-use development is finally built on the north parking lot of CenturyLink Field, formerly Qwest Field.

The north-lot project will bring more shoppers to live in Pioneer Square, and the destruction of the viaduct "will open the whole area up, and you'll get more development," Masin said.

Steve Johnson, director of the city's Office of Economic Development, agrees.

The area is bursting with office workers, but retailers are suffering, he said.

"We basically have a sports and entertainment district," Johnson said. "We'll never change the retail situation if we can't get the north lot developed."

A more immediate problem is Pioneer Square's parking situation, Masin said.

Customers have had even more trouble finding spaces because of the increased popularity of the Sounders FC soccer team, and Masin anticipates the problem worsening when the Washington Huskies start playing football there next fall during the renovation of Husky Stadium.

The city recently raised parking rates in Pioneer Square by $1 an hour, although city officials say that was part of a strategy to make parking more readily available. They also postponed until next year a plan to collect fees for parking in Pioneer Square between 6-8 p.m.

Masin said his customers are getting more tickets.

"They want me to pay them; they think I own the meters," he said.

The parking issues create more stress for Masins customers than they experience at its smaller Bellevue store, where parking is plentiful.

"Here you might have to circle the block to get a space, then you're worried about a ticket versus being able to shop," he said.

Elliott Bay Book Co. owner Peter Aaron gave similar reasons for relocating last year from Pioneer Square to Capitol Hill.

The bookstore was considered a neighborhood anchor that drew customers from all over the region who also spent money at nearby restaurants and boutiques.

The Elliott Bay space still sits empty. A group called Hub Seattle is considering it for a possible shared work space for socially minded entrepreneurs. Brian Howe, a Seattle lawyer, said it could include anyone from microfinancers to clean-technology companies to slow-food advocates, and will have a retail shop.

Although Masins has been in Pioneer Square for decades longer than Elliott Bay was, its influence is not as wide.

"Maybe someone better will come in here who will draw more," Masin said. "I don't know that we're so good for the neighborhood."

Masins specializes in high-end furniture. Its couches start at $1,899, and its services include designers who visit customers' homes at no extra cost.

Still, it's not something a lot of people feel they can afford in a recession, and sales have dwindled industrywide.

"There's a resistance to real high-end furniture, and we understand that," Masin said. "Over the last few years, we've lowered our price points a little bit."

Leasing agent Kidder Mathews is looking for someone to pay $20 a square foot for the 28,000 square feet of retail space at 220 Second Ave. S. There is also storage below ground available for lower rent, according to Officespace.com, a commercial real-estate database on which the building was listed in April.

For now, Pioneer Square is losing assets while Seattle's downtown core looks forward to the arrival of retail chains JC Penney and Target.

On Thursday night, the popular artists' lofts at 619 Western Ave. held their last art walk. The building is being vacated because of a sudden concern by the city that it became structurally unsound during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake.

Early next year, the women's fashion boutique Totokaelo will relocate from Pioneer Square to the Capitol Hill space currently occupied by Everyday Music next door to Elliott Bay Book Co.

Lisa Dixon, program director for the Alliance for Pioneer Square, a group that works to improve the neighborhood, said it's been challenging to fill retail space.

Masins moved next door from its old space in 2006, and after renovations the former location still sits empty, she said. It is owned by ConoverBond.

"Masins has been a great business and property owner in the square for such a long time. It's a loss," Dixon said.

The alliance is grateful that "he doesn't want to abandon ship and have an empty building," she said.

Masin said he prefers to find a single tenant for the space, and is open to dot-com and other office tenants. He thinks they might bring more people to the neighborhood than Masins, which has 22 employees in Pioneer Square.

Potential renters have checked out the space already, and he's hopeful that someone will sign a lease in the next six months.

"We've been here since the 1930s, so I'm not in a total rush," he said.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com