Retail follows rooftops. That’s the mantra that downtown Hartford developers keep trotting out to explain the lack of stores in the city’s core. It means that shops will appear after all the new housing units fill up. So just be patient.
Hartford’s real estate guys are pretty smart, so when they say this is the situation, it pays to listen. However, they’re also not infallible. And, at the end of the day, they’re still marketers trying to put a good spin on their product.
So, in the interest of debate, let us put our own 2 cents in. The housing projects in the center city are welcome additions, but they are not filling up with any great speed. One can argue that there is always a certain cadre who want urban living, and that cadre has all moved here now. Tempting others is the big marketing challenge.
Perhaps the developers ought to look to their vacant storefronts as loss leaders. Heck, give them away for a couple of years (they’re certainly sitting vacant for at least that long) to boutique retailers. Just make those retailers promise to stay open at night for a while, and to open for at least the afternoon on Saturdays and Sundays.
People looking at spending $1,300 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, and upwards of $2,500 a month for a two-bedroom, want a little upscale urban living for their urban living investment. They don’t want to walk around empty streets, with empty stores, with nothing to do, nothing to buy, nowhere to go, and a big parking bill for anyone who visits them.
We can’t imagine there aren’t some enterprising people who would love to open shop in an area that has thousands of people roaming the street during the day. The demographics don’t yet support a Borders Books or a Gap. But they can make sense for smaller, more intriguing shops from local entrepreneurs.
For a couple of years, at least, instead of vacant street-level shops, developers would have an interesting retail environment. And that would help them fill their residential units. Then those shops might actually be in a position to start paying rent. And everybody wins.
Maybe in the suburbs retail follows rooftops. But in this city, it’s clear that residents follow retail. Or they don’t come at all. n
