The Hartford Courant recently published two great articles on the city. One was entitled “Hartford’s Front Street Rises, Empty” and the other “Park Street Life: Hartford’s Hispanic Thoroughfare Has Retail Vibrancy Downtown Longs For.” Front Street is representative of the Hartford many outsiders see. Unfortunately, many see no reason to come to Hartford because there is nothing to do. Park Street on the hand is representative of the Hartford many are unfamiliar with and one in which our city’s revitalization must be modeled from.
Downtown property owners must use the model Park Street property owners are using to help their neighborhood thrive. Park Street is filled with locally owned and operated shops and restaurants. There are small retail spaces with low rents and there is a sense of community. On the other hand downtown’s older retail spaces are small but their rents are high and the newer retail spaces are large and come with hefty rents. Simply put many small businesses owners cannot afford to take a risk and do business downtown. Every new downtown development over the last 10 years that features retail space has at least one vacant storefront (as of this posting).
Downtown property owners are in a pickle. Most are faced with high property taxes and mortgage payments and thus are looking for high rent tenants. However, those high rent tenants have not come through which is why for now downtown property owners must cut their losses and lower rents to renew attraction to the neighborhood. This will not solve everything and there are still other major issues to address downtown (parking and safety) however, I am confident that cutting rents will still make downtown a much bigger draw. Hartford must jump on new business ventures that form as the economy starts to recover before they open up in the suburbs.
This small business approach is already drawing new businesses to Pratt Street while vacant space sits at Front Street. I believe attracting national retailers is nearly impossible at this time. Hartford does not have the proper demographics to attract a big name supermarket, bookstore or clothing store – especially at a time when many retailers have closed stores and cut staff. Why turn our backs on those who want to do business here for those who don’t?
