It only took Joyce Pan and her family one trip to Redmond Town Center for them to realize it would be an ideal location to open a new restaurant.

They were visiting the Pacific Northwest in June 2010 from St. Petersburg, Fla. and after seeing the area’s diverse population, Pan said she and her husband Perry knew they liked what they saw. If they opened a restaurant in the Puget Sound area, Perry — who is in charge of all things kitchen related — could prepare more traditional Asian cuisine without putting off diners or making them squeamish.

And that is what they have done with Haiku Sushi and Seafood Buffet, located at 7548 164th Ave. N.E. in Redmond Town Center.

“(Perry) always wanted to have a restaurant like this,” said Joyce, who is the restaurant manager and handles the business side of things.

She said her husband’s previous restaurant experiences in the South — where the Asian population is smaller — consisted of more Chinese American dishes, whereas Haiku will focus on more traditional Japanese and Korean dishes.

The 11,380 square-foot restaurant had its grand opening on Tuesday and is one of many businesses that have opened at the town center in the last few months or are set to open in the near future.

Overlake Hospital Medical Center plans to open a new medical clinic in the town center. Other businesses that recently opened include Soma Intimates, iPic Theaters and Boston Private Bank & Trust which opened earlier this spring and summer, as well as Z Gallerie, which opened in February. The Mac Store, Bergman Luggage and Utopia are among existing businesses that are moving locations within the town center.

ATYPICAL TOWN CENTER

Christina Henning, senior marketing manager for the town center, said with all the new businesses coming to Redmond Town Center, they are focusing on meeting the needs of the local demographic.

“We want to provide a gathering place for the community that’s family friendly and meets the varied everyday needs of our community,” she said.

And meeting those needs means finding new uses for spaces such as a new Overlake Medical Clinic (right) — scheduled to open January of next year — not typically found in a town center.

Alan Ertle, chief medical officer and vice president for network development for Overlake Hospital Medical Center, said they looked at a number of sites in downtown Redmond before settling on the location at 16301 N.E. 74th St. in Redmond Town Center.

“It would serve our needs better than any other location we looked at,” he said.

The new 8,167 square-foot clinic will replace Studio 3 Music, the Redmond Police substation and a previously empty space.

Ertle said during the search, they could not find a space with the accessibility and visibility as in the town center, adding that the location is also at the hub of the community. Another benefit of the location is convenient parking throughout the center.

Ertle said the hospital’s expansion to Redmond made sense because about 35 percent of their hospitalized patients are from Redmond and one of their focuses is to provide services for patients where they live and work.

“It was natural for us to go to Redmond,” he said.

The new clinic will focus on primary care for adults and will have 16 exam rooms with room for growth. Initially there will be two primary care providers but Ertle said they want to grow to five providers in the long run. Clinic hours will be open weekdays with tentative hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. — expanding to Saturdays as demand grows.

Ertle said they would also eventually like to have a rotation of specialists, each coming in once a week. The types of specialists in the rotation has not been determined yet.

TWO NEW CLINICS

The new clinic in Redmond Town Center is one of two Overlake locations opening in downtown Redmond this winter. The second one is a new Overlake Urgent Care Clinic, which will be at 17209 Redmond Way and is scheduled to open in December. The 6,304 square-foot clinic will have 10 exam rooms and offer digital X-rays and CT scan and ultrasound services.

Ertle said Overlake decided to open an urgent care clinic instead of an emergency department — like Evergreen Hospital Medical Center and Swedish Medical Center have done in the last few months — because it is more cost effective for patients. Co-pays and deductibles are lower for urgent care patients than for emergency room patients, he explained.

Overlake initially looked for a space to house both the primary care and urgent care clinics but Ertle said they were unsuccessful because they couldn’t find anything big enough. But since each clinic provides different services, opening two locations still worked well and the two locations are within a mile of each other.

He added that Overlake was already looking into expanding to Redmond before the two other hospitals opened.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

While a town center may be an unusual place to have a medical clinic, Overlake jumped at the opportunity because the potential for foot traffic would be advantageous for them.

Ertle said the location will be beneficial for both Overlake and Redmond Town Center because the clinic would gain customers and the town center would have one more service to offer the community.

Henning agreed.

“We’re not just a shopping center,” she said about meeting the community’s different needs.

Joyce, the manager at Haiku, said this was another reason she and her husband were attracted to Redmond Town Center during their first visit. They saw the mix of office and retail space and thought their restaurant would be a great option for the office and retail workers in addition to shoppers.

“I think this location is pretty good,” she said. “I see more opportunities here and variety (for shoppers and businesses).”