TEDAC: Reduce, beautify empty storefronts
Dangling torn brown paper in windows and trash-ridden interiors seen from store fronts vexes members of TEDAC.
The Tourism and Economic Development Advisory Committee plans to improve the appearance of many of the 16 vacant streetlevel businesses in New Canaan village, while prevent such scenes from reappearing.
“We are not alone,” TEDAC Chairman Tucker Murphy said. “I was in Westport the other day. Westport is decimated. It is frightening when you drive around Westport right now. We look a lot better.”
“When I came back to New Canaan we are holding our own much better,” Murphy, who is also the town’s administrative officer, said during the virtual meeting Thursday, Dec. 3.
“I think we are going to need to look at our empty storefronts,” committee member BJ Flagg said. New Canaan is not accustomed to having this problem, she added.
“Just so it doesn’t look so depressing,” committee member Heather Satin said.
Satin, owner of Wave, envisioned “a mural of people shopping with shopping bags,” in the windows. “It doesn’t have to cover the whole window, so someone interested can peek.”
“I agree with you about the appearance of the empty storefronts,” Murphy said. “We can do better than that.”
“It is really hard,” she said. A Realtor showing an empty space, may have a “possible tenant looking out across the street” see “empty Coke bottles on the ground” and “last month’s pizza box sitting there.”
“We can definitely work on that. I don’t know if it is something we can mandate,” Murphy said. She wondered, “if there are rolls of murals that we could make available to people when a store becomes vacant.”
“I don’t know how we would institute it,” Murphy, the former executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said.
Committee member Jack Trifero said he too was “concerned about the appearance of those stores,” but “I also think we have to have some discussions of why these stores are empty.”
Encourage business
TEDAC members discussed ways to help businesses survive, while also attracting new stores and businesses to town.
“I would like to see the group concentrate on the very downtown problems that are there,” Trifero said.
“What I see is every business closes for different reasons,” committee member Laura Budd said. “Some of them are bad business plans, some are very personal and some of them are changing industries.”
“I can’t pinpoint one thing. Obviously COVID is thrown into the mix,” Budd, new executive director of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, said.
“There are always reasons people leave, but how much more we can make our town attractive, so when a store goes empty there is a whetted appetite to come to New Canaan?” Trifero asked.
“There is a lot of data mapping that is available that most businesses are using to figure out if whether they should go to a community,” committee member Bob Doran said.
The entrepreneur wants to know: “What else is there? What is going to be there?” Doran said. “It is not just that we have these great assets here — it’s can they succeed in business here.”
“I feel it is also important to re-imagine the town. I don’t think the retail that is going to come in is going to be the same as the past,” Trifero said.
“One trend that I have seen is people looking for space is galleries,” Trifero, who is also a Realtor, said.
“Somebody needs to do it. Somebody needs to be in charge of picking up the phone and doing the planning and saying that I am going to go out and attract these businesses to this community because the data says they fit,” Doran said.
There are “enterprises in the city (New York) that have struggled so immensely because there is no foot traffic. We could target those companies with the idea of the Glass House and Grace Farm. What are these companies that would want their identity to be somehow connected with New Canaan?” committee member Amanda Martocchio asked.
“We could use a bakery that makes bread. We could use a cheese shop. There are some very basic things” that “could benefit everybody,” Trifero added.
“I go back to last year when we talked about trying to attract young companies to start up here,” committee member Jack Loop said.
“With so many people moving from New York to New Canaan it seems like it could be a natural to bring some of those businesses here,” architect Martocchio said.
Budd wondered if taxes could be eased for small businesses.“I think we have to make sure what we are taxing these business own
ers is as fair and competitive as it can be.”
In May, the town organized a group of 25 volunteers with professional backgrounds of “all different skill sets and levels of expertise and we married them up with businesses,” Murphy said. Results were disappointing since business owners who could have benefited did not tap into the opportunity, she added.
Budd estimated only five owners benefited.
Educating landlords
Some TEDAC members saw the need to interface more with landlords.
“For anybody that owns a building in this town, we should be trying to get a Zoom call together with those folks” and “what we should be doing is educate them,” Loop said.
“So let’s help the land
lords fill the empty space. They are going to have to give up rent. They are going to have to lower their rent or cut deals. We know that. It is happening all over the country. All over the world. It’s not a bad time to help organize them,” Loop said.
Budd and Murphy said there were attempts made to meet with landlords in the past for little help.
They agreed to work on a spreadsheet so that they had a list of who owns what property available and try again, since out of town landlords would have an easier time attending a virtual meeting.
Nonprofits
Martocchio suggested allowing nonprofits to use some of the retail store fronts.
”It shows New Canaan as the town that we are with all
these great volunteer organizations. Maybe it won’t look like the beautiful retail store front, but it vitalizes the street,” she said.
“The only problem with that is we don’t allow that in the Retail A zone. You can’t have office in the Retail A zone unless it is already grandfathered in,” which explains how real estate offices are seen in retail space, Murphy said.
Also when the town considered putting nonprofits in Irwin House, “we were quickly told landlords were unhappy” because “they were then competing with landlords,” Murphy explained.
“Not a bad idea and we were able to change some zoning regs before. I like the way that you are thinking,” Murphy said. “These nonprofits that we are so proud of.”