Forty percent of downtown Hartford’s half-million square feet of retail space is vacant, a city tally shows.
In all, 203,000 square feet of the 511,000 square feet of retail space identified in 191 units in the center of the city is vacant, according to the first-ever retail-space survey by Hartford’s Economic Development Division.
As of July, most of the vacant space is concentrated on downtown’s four key retail corridors: Main Street (72,728 square feet); Trumbull Street (47,740 square feet); Asylum Street (39,389 square feet); and Pratt Street (20,082 square feet), the retail-space survey found.
Restaurants and café/bars dominate the 60 percent of occupied retail space in downtown, the survey shows.
“The report confirms what we expected as it relates to vacancies in downtown,” said Mark K. McGovern, deputy director of development services, which includes economic development.
McGovern, who also directs the city’s economic development division, said city staff collected data from city assessment records, property owners, tenants, real estate brokers and used general observations.
He said the city’s goal is to use the survey to devise strategies and to recruit new and existing landlords and retailers to fill the vacancies.
