TOUGH TIMES
Windsor's retail woes
Town Green merchants hurt by sluggish economy, investor pull-out
Clare Seche, the owner of Storybook Station children's bookstore on the Windsor Town Green, packs up all the unsold items before closing the store for good Monday. Seche estimated she put at least $250,000 into the business since July 2005, but never made a profit.
Photos by JOHN BURGESS / The Press DemocratPublished: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 3:50 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, October 29, 2007 at 9:00 p.m.
Several merchants around Windsor's new Town Green are singing the blues.
The sluggish economy, a sharp drop in foot traffic and a pull-out by a major investor are all being blamed for the tough times facing the Town Green Village.
It's a setback for a fast-growing project that has literally transformed the face of downtown Windsor in a few short years. Politicians, planners and business groups have hailed the project as a model of smart, mixed-use urban redevelopment.
But "For Lease" signs now litter the colorful, historically inspired storefronts, and more may be on the way.
"I have been living this nightmare for 17 months," said Kathy Flinn, owner of Creative Wick, a create-your-own candle studio. "I've got $100,000 invested here. I can't afford to walk away."
Debra Fudge, Windsor mayor pro-tem, said the area is still vibrant, but is experiencing growing pains.
"I call it the downtown going through the teenager years," Fudge said.
The town, which has invested millions of in redevelopment funds in the area, encouraged rapid growth in an effort to quickly get new residents living there so the new businesses would thrive, Fudge said.
Small businesses began flocking to the area in 2003, and many were mom-and-pop operations without tried and true business plans, Fudge said.
"There's been some learning curves," Fudge said.
Orrin Thiessen, the developer and general partner of Town Green Village, said he's built about 200 residential and commercial units in buildings along the Town Green since 2002. The first few years were fantastic, but he acknowledged the slow housing market and a recent decision by a key investor have limited his ability to extend much help to ailing retailers.
"We've got a little bit of a double whammy going on right now," Thiessen said.
The slow housing market has hit his project harder than other developments because of the way the retail and the residential components are intermingled, he said.
The buildings are comprised of street-level shops with residential units upstairs. Neither are selling as well as they were two years ago, Thiessen said. People are still enchanted by the area, but they're sitting on the sidelines at the moment, he said.
"I have the buyers," Thiessen said. "I have a big list that have already picked out their condominiums, but they have to sell their homes first."
That has made it tough for him to lower rent or offer other incentives to help troubled merchants, he said.
One of those is Clare Seche, the owner of the Storybook Station bookstore, which closed its doors Monday. Seche said she went to Thiessen over the summer and told him she was in danger of going out of business.
"I said, 'I'm at the end of my financial rope,' " said Seche, who estimates she's invested at least $250,000 in the business since July 2005, never making a profit.
The business specializes in children's books, including some in Spanish and French, she said.
Thiessen offered to lower her $1,800 rent by $100, she said.
"I was, like, '$100, are you kidding me?' It was insulting," Seche said.
Thiessen recalls the exchange differently, estimating that he offered closer to $200.
But he said he's investing his energy in other ways that should give a big boost to all the businesses in the area, not just individual ailing retailers.
He is now "99 percent certain" that a Starbucks coffee shop will soon be the area's newest tenant. Thiessen said he's investing $180,000 to upgrade a space for Starbucks, and all merchants will benefit from the increased foot traffic.
That's a deviation from the Town Green Village's goal of creating a unique mix of locally-based tenants. But that was never written in stone, and adding a few key chain retailers is probably a good idea, Thiessen said.
"If we've learned anything, it's not to be cut and dry about these things," Thiessen said.
While chain stores may not be as creative as some mom-and-pop shops, they tend to have solid business plans and a higher likelihood of profitability, Thiessen said.
Some retailers resent the suggestion that they are failing because they aren't viable.
In 2005, when Flinn was considering opening her business, she scouted out the Town Green Village area and thought it couldn't miss. Other retailers reported doing well, shoppers were everywhere, and the events on the Town Green seemed to be drawing people from far and wide.
"It was hopping," Flinn said. "There was a buzz. The place was exciting."
But Flinn hasn't turned a profit in any of the 17 months she's been in business. She blames a bad location and poor marketing efforts by the developers. She said there is nothing wrong with her core business model, which involves hosting parties where people pay about $12 to make their own candles.
Flinn selected a location several blocks from the Town Green in part because it was close to parking, which she was worried would be cramped in some of the higher-traffic areas.
But Hal Beck, executive director of the Windsor Chamber of Commerce, said he thinks some of the locations far from the Town Green would be better fits for professional office spaces instead of retail.
The town is in the process of taking a hard look at what kinds of businesses would be good fits for the area. A deli, a boutique hotel, a grocery and a bank or ATM machine all would augment the area, he said.
But Town Green merchants won't thrive unless locals step up their support for the businesses, Beck said.
Fudge agrees. She stood up recently at a Town Council meeting and proudly pointed out that everything she was wearing had been purchased locally.
"People in Windsor, they love the downtown the way it looks, but they are not supporting it to the extent I wish they would," she said.
Fred Langley, executive chef at Langley's on the Green restaurant, said he sees lots of local support for his restaurant, but business is off since 2005. A lack of unity among the businesses there and the vacant storefronts aren't helping things, he said.
But Langley is confident things can turn around.
"We've got a little diamond here. We just need to polish it."
You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.
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