  |
|
October 16, 2008
|
Core strengths As Neil Young so aptly sang, “Downtown, let’s go downtown.” Businesses and downtown organizations in Concord, Nashua and Manchester hope patrons heed Young’s advice and make their way along Elm Street or Main Street with purchasing in mind. Retailers, downtown or not, face an uphill battle considering the current financial debacle. Downtown advocates and business owners say local shops and restaurants can offer patrons an experience they’ll never get at big box retailers or large chain restaurants. And the difference to them is simple — the human element. Strong at customer service Mahfuz, whose business was opened by his father in 1953, waited another few minutes before another employee approached him but could only point out where the iPods were on the shelf. That was it, Mahfuz said. So Mahfuz went next door and bought an iPod there, where the salesman was helpful and provided him with the information he needed to make the purchase. “It’s the little touch of magic that makes us different from the big guys who don’t give anything but price,” Mahfuz said. Mahfuz says on his Web site that customers often spend eight to 10 hours in his store before purchasing a rug, though not all at once. As Mahfuz sees it, he is offering the type of product that demands that level of detail and attention. “If we make it memorable, they’ll come back,” said Mahfuz, who also works as a business consultant. He uses the slogan, “You paid for me, the rug is free,” to get his message across to fellow business owners. Downtown owners realized they had to fight to keep customers when malls began to pop up. “With any downtown, you want to give people a reason not to go to the mall,” said Kristin Ryall, manager at Butter’s Fine Food and Wine in Concord. Like Persian Rug Galleries, Butter’s tries to offer customers a more personal touch. The gourmet food store provides free weekly wine tastings that Ryall said are a big pull for customers. With more than 8,000 wines in the state, Ryall said, the state liquor stores can’t carry all of them. “If you’re looking for something a little special, a little more boutique-ish, a little more hand-crafted, we can help out,” Ryall said. But just carrying something special or unique isn’t enough. Ryall, a wine specialist, is more than happy to share her opinion with customers. She’s traveled to many of the world’s wine regions and she’s spent years as a wine sales representative. “I’m a general wine geek,” Ryall said. “I usually have at least an opinion.” On top of wines, the store boasts 62 different kinds of hand-cut cheeses that Ryall is happy to let customers try out first. All downtowns are not created equal Shopping hot spot or not, Minkarah said, Manchester’s downtown is healthy and happening, especially for the workday business crowd. “Its core strength is its role as the business and financial center,” he said. “That’s what defines the character of the downtown.” Conversely, Nashua has plenty of businesses and office space but the highest concentration is not downtown. “It creates a very, very different character,” Minkarah said. With Alec’s Shoes, Scontsas Fine Jewelry and Home, Jordan’s Luggage Shop or the fine furniture store Pompanoosuc Mills, downtown Nashua provides customers with more chances for retail shopping than Manchester. (Pompanoosuc Mills has a store in Concord as well.) “We actually have a very, very strong restaurant and retail scene,” said Sue Butler, Nashua’s Great American Downtown executive director. Before coming to Nashua, she worked for Intown Manchester. “There’s very much a Main Street feel to it.” Nan Hagen, executive director of Main Street Concord, said her downtown has more of a “quality, eclectic shopping” feel. Along with Butter’s, Concord’s Main Street offers art galleries, Concord Cooperative Market, Real Green Goods and Red River Theatres, which specializes in independent films. Hagen and Minkarah both mentioned how well Red River Theatres fits in Concord. The theater opened one year ago and looks to air independent films and promote community events. In that, Executive Director Connie Rosemont said the company tries to provide events related to the films that draw in the community or families. It might be a film discussion with one of the writers or simply a reception following a film, Rosemont said. “The films are a way to totally come out and be entertained and enjoy yourself,” Rosemont said, adding that the theater will celebrate its first birthday Oct. 19. Developing the residential core Minkarah said the need for residential units downtown is stronger than ever. If the city were to continue to build that base, Manchester could become more of a shopper’s destination. Likewise, Greg Barrett, of Kas-Bar Realty and who also owns a new consignment shop on Manchester Street, agreed that downtown is ripe for residential units. In fact, he said residential units downtown have actually appreciated in the past two years, and in some cases up to 23 percent. But timing could be an issue. Nashua, which does have a fairly substantial downtown residential population, has had difficulty leasing high-end units in some of its newer downtown complexes, Mahfuz said. Intown Manchester, which is a nonprofit organization, works to improve Manchester both aesthetically and economically. Samantha Appleton, the group’s director of public relations, said the downtown could use a bakery, a deli and a grocery store along the lines of Trader Joe’s. Minkarah said with a stronger residential component, those types of businesses would see more of a draw downtown. In Concord, the city recently removed an overnight parking ban downtown, which many believe was a bit of a stumbling block to potential developers in years past. Now, developers could begin to renovate buildings’ upper levels and offer potential residents a spot to park, Hagen said. Hagen said much of the housing already downtown, and there isn’t much, is lower-income. The city would like to see more market-rate dwellings offered downtown, especially considering the substantial amount of vacancies in buildings’ upper stories, she said. Appleton said affordability is an issue as well. While she’d like to see more downtown residences in Manchester, she’d like them to be accessible to today’s young professionals. “We want people to live downtown, to work downtown and to entertain themselves downtown,” Appleton said. Appleton wasn’t alone with housing affordability concerns. “I think the influence of the Verizon Wireless Arena has been great,” said Tom Puskarich, owner of the restaurant Z. “I do believe the landlords have overvalued the property based on that influence. Manchester is unique. We’re trying to overlap an entertainment district on top of a business district.” Flexing the dining muscle Noticing the lack of an intimate, bistro-style restaurant downtown, Chef Michael Buckley opened Michael Timothy’s on Main Street in 1995. Many other restaurants followed. At that time, Buckley’s restaurant was the only place catering to that market, as his restaurant has a Western European cooking focus, with a certain degree of intimacy. Buckley doesn’t consider it fine dining, though the public perception seems to go that way, he said. Now, he said, there are about four other restaurants downtown with similar concepts to his. “When we first came in, the downtown was stagnant — there hadn’t been anything new in a while,” Buckley said. “No new ideas. The dining scene was a lot smaller. It was dominated by chain restaurants. There were independents, but honestly, there wasn’t a lot.” The charming setting with beautiful brick sidewalks caught Buckley’s attention. “We thought, this is really a nice setting,” Buckley said. “If we can get something going, it would pop.” It looks like it did pop and so has Buckley’s second venture in downtown Nashua, Surf Restaurant, which features a somewhat more laid-back atmosphere than Michael Timothy’s with a seafood focus. (Buckley also owns and runs Buckley’s Great Steaks in Merrimack.) The restaurant scene is doing very well in Nashua with restaurants like the Saffron Bistro, the Black Orchid Grille, Foti’s and Villa Blanca, Buckley said. At Z in Manchester, which opened about 18 months ago, Puskarich strives to offer his patrons big-time food with a more casual atmosphere. He and his staff call it “seriously fun food.” And the whole package seems to be working. “I’m very pleased with where we are,” Puskarich said, adding that his restaurant seems to be becoming a major lunch meeting destination. “We’re finding people are coming back.” At dinnertime, Puskarich is complementing Manchester’s eateries. “I think I just add to some very good restaurants that are already here,” he said. “Downtown has definitely become a dining destination.” In addition to longtime fine dining restaurants like Piccola Italia, The Korean Place and Richard’s Bistro, downtown Manchester’s fine dining scene has seen changes over the years — the closing of Baldwin’s on Elm, for example, but the opening of Gauchos, Z and bars like the Shashkeen, Murphy’s Taproom, WB’s and J.W. Hill’s. Places like pubs The Barley House and The Draft and new additions such as Bistro Rustica and Nonni’s (at the Holiday Inn) highlight Concord’s downtown for food. Fine dining restaurant 55 Degrees, however, recently closed its doors (after opening for about nine months after an extended closure late last fall). Concord’s strength with foodies, however, lies in its markets and shops — Butter’s, the Concord Coop, the kitchen goods store Things Are Cooking, the bakeries Bread & Chocolate and Madeleine’s and, in the summer and early fall, the farmers’ market next to the Statehouse. Downtown’s cheerleaders For the downtown organizations, part of their job is targeting areas that need work or have substantial potential. Appleton is starting to see that potential on Hanover Street in Manchester. “Hanover Street is really turning into something that people are really paying attention to when they’re looking to buy something special,” Appleton said. Likewise, Butler is working to not only market Nashua’s downtown, but also improve on what already works. While the restaurant scene is successful and a significant draw for people well outside Nashua’s borders, Butler said she’d like to see even more restaurants. Butler said variety isn’t an issue, but she’d like to see more sheer volume of restaurants. But downtown’s best advocate may be itself. Barbara Potvin, owner of The New England Sampler at 42 Hanover ST., has helped form the organization the Shoppes of Historic Downtown Manchester, which is open to any businesses looking to promote the downtown. “They just need to get downtown and see what it’s all about,” Potvin said. “It’s beautiful and it’s changed so much. In order to really promote it, we need to do a better job of educating people. A lot of people just don’t realize the jewels that are down here.” Potvin started the group in September with relatively informal weekly meetings. Each week, more businesses came. Now, there’s more than 15 businesses involved, and Potvin said she expects it to continue to grow. A big part of it is getting business owners to think beyond just their own shop or restaurant and to see that promoting downtown as a whole, helps out all the merchants along the way, Potvin said. The group is hosting a family Oktoberfest celebration Saturday, Oct. 18, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Hanover Street. There will be all kinds of events and activities taking place, including raffles, sidewalk sales, pumpkin painting, tastings and a chocolate fountain, courtesy of Edible Arrangements. On Friday, Oct. 17, Penuche’s Grill at 96 Hanover St. will be blocking off the street at 5:30 p.m. to hold activities for kids and adults, including a climbing wall and bouncy rooms, Potvin said. “It’s been a concerted effort to kind of work together,” Potvin said. While Intown Manchester takes on the whole of downtown, Potvin’s group encompasses a little smaller area. They target the downtown between Granite and Bridge streets and between Canal and Chestnut streets, she said, with the idea being, if someone were to park near Potvin’s store, they could walk to the majority of the other shops. Moving forward, the Shoppes of Historic Downtown would like to plan monthly events, Potvin said. (Potvin is in the process of setting up a Web site for the group, www.DowntownsGotIt.com. Call Potvin at her store at 626-4477.) With many of the retailers second and third generation owners, Buckley said the retail footprint was solidified years before the restaurant industry took off. “Downtown you get service from somebody who is trained to tell a lot about what they’re selling, versus a box retailer, where there’s younger staff that’s lacking experience,” Buckley said. “You can ask about a product and they don’t know answers. You might pay a little more downtown, but you’ll talk to someone who really knows rugs or shoes or diamonds.” Marketing downtown’s core values is key to keeping downtown vibrant. “I’d like to see every storefront full of bustling shoppers,” Buckley said. “We need to work on doing a good job getting the word out. People need to remember the people that work and run downtown businesses are their neighbors, their friends, and they’re not owned by national conglomerates. We need to think about those things when we’re spending hard-earned money.” Puskarich, who’s worked in all three cities, had similar sentiments regarding Manchester. “I’m a big fan of downtown,” Puskarich said. “I’ve staked my future and my business on it. It has a lot to offer now, and it has a lot more to offer. A lot of good people within the private and public sectors, who are working diligently, are seeing these same visions.” Body blow from the national economy? But they’re not going to stop doing what they do. “I don’t think that the big box retailers have it any better,” Mahfuz said.”I think we may have it better than them because we can manage our help better. We can pare down easier. We have owners who have worked businesses forever. If they have to go back to working, they can. If anything, you are going to see big boxes’ bottom lines dwindle away. I’ve been through five of these in 50 years and we survive because we can make changes quicker and we can react to the changes that are facing us quicker.” With the holiday shopping season around the corner, downtown merchants ask consumers to consider them before the mall. “There’s so much doom and gloom right now,” Mahfuz said. “Stop reading and watching and focus on the positive. You’re in control of your own destiny and your own success. Work from that vantage point.”
|
Defining Downtown Manchester According to Intown Manchester Nashua According to Great American Downtown Concord According to Main Street Concord Commercial real estate They each have different recipes that all work. For 31 years Ben Gamache, owner of the real estate firm Gamache Enterprises, has been working in the real estate market in Concord, Manchester and Nashua. He said each city has some key attributes making it attractive to commercial buyers. Manchester has the most activity downtown, with business, restaurants, sporting events and nightlife, which makes it attractive to prospective buyers, he said. “That all attracts a lot of people,” Gamache said. “Manchester really has a lot to offer.” Gamache said he figured commercial space in Manchester’s downtown would sell for about $13 per square foot. “Nashua has a nice little niche, where they have a lot of people walking up and down, with plenty of stores,” Gamache said. “And they have many different types of restaurants. Not as many bars. It’s more of a dining downtown mixed with a little business.” Commercial space in Nashua would likely sell for about $11 to $12 per square foot, Gamache said. “Concord, I think, has a little more of a small-town feeling,” Gamache said. “A little bit Old World. They don’t have too much of anything, but they have a little bit of everything, and that allows the downtown to prosper.” Gamache said he wasn’t sure about a commercial rate for Concord, but he figured property would be slightly less expensive than Nashua. Regardless, he said there aren’t too many vacancies in downtown Concord anyway. With all three cities offering some nice options, Gamache suggested locating in Manchester. “You’d be right in the middle of Concord and Nashua,” he said. “It’s only a 15-minute drive to either city. It’s the best of all three worlds.” Parking Visit the three downtowns in a week and you’ll run in to two different sets of rules. Here’s how to park in southern New Hampshire’s three biggest cities. Manchester Manchester is looking to establish a free shuttle service to make parking garages more viable and to make it easier to get around once people are downtown. The hope is that the shuttle would persuade people who park on Elm Street all day every day to move their cars to city garages, said Manchester parking manager Brandy Stanley. The shuttle service could be implemented as early as the coming spring or summer, Stanley said. Two shuttles would run at once from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The buses would circulate Granite, Commercial, Brook and Elm streets in a figure eight pattern, with the middle of the eight being Spring Street, Stanley said. Nashua Concord Spotlight on dining: Michael Timothy’s in Nashua features an intimate, bistro-style restaurant in the heart of the city. Chef and owner Michael Buckley opened the restaurant in 1995. Focusing on Western European-style cooking, Buckley said he doesn’t consider it fine dining, but he and his staff do focus on providing great food with fresh and local products. Living in the area, Buckley was drawn to downtown Nashua’s potential. The charming setting, with beautiful brick sidewalks caught Buckley’s attention. “We thought, this is really a nice setting,” he said. “If we can get something going, it would pop.” In 2002 Buckley decided one wasn’t enough and he opened Surf Restaurant, which is also downtown. Surf features a more laid back atmosphere with a seafood menu. At the time, area restaurants weren’t trying out anything all that creative with seafood. It was basically fish fry joints and restaurants of that nature. So far so good with Surf. [Buckley also owns and runs Buckley’s Great Steaks in Merrimack.] “There just wasn’t anyone doing anything crazy with seafood at the time,” Buckley said. “That’s done incredibly well. It’s a little more casual. There’s a social bar setting. We have a lot of regulars. A little bit more vibrant. It’s a city scene, where as Michael Timothy’s is more intimate.” Buckley said does things completely different at each location. He sees more and more customers at both restaurants. “But they’re there for different reasons,” he said. Buckley recommends reservations at Michael Timothy’s. Call 595-9334. For Surf, call 595-9293. Spotlight on retail: Business partners Chad Tardugno and Tyler Gauthier opened up their custom T-shirt store in Manchester about three years ago. The Nashua store opened in September 2007. Tardugno typically operates the Manchester shop, which he says can cater to a somewhat racier crowd, though the general theme is pretty much the same. Both agree there is more of a family, community feel in Nashua. So much so that the owners host events, such as local musicians and children’s storytelling, at the Nashua shop. The pair didn’t see Manchester as having a strong retail component downtown, but they figured there should be plenty of potential given the sheer number of people living and working downtown. They were right on, as the store has done well, though both locations have seen slightly less foot traffic recently, which they tied to the struggling economy. “We where kind of trying to set a trend,” Tardugno said. Combined, Gauthier and Tardugno, who met while working as screen printers at a printing company in Salem, have nearly 30 years experience in the design and printing industry, they said. “We’re not just a retailer,” Gauthier said, adding that the company also has a growing wholesale component. “We’re offering customers custom T-shirts, which is pretty unique in the area.” Relying on their own ideas and the design suggestions of some close friends, Gauthier and Tardugno offer a substantial selection of shirts right in each store. But what they really seem to be interested in is the custom end. They want customers to bring an idea for a shirt to them, and then they can set out to produce it, they said. To help promote local musicians and artists, the store is looking to hold what Gauthier called a “gallery” every month or two. To do that, they would have a special section dedicated to T-shirts either promoting local musicians or designed by local artists. Long-term plans for that are still in the works, but the Nashua store currently has a section devoted to local musician Christopher James, who played at the shop Sept. 25. Both agree they’re trying to be more than just a business. Gauthier said he wanted to see more downtown events to help get people onto Main Street so they see the quality, not only in his business, but in all of downtown. “We spend more time in our stores than anywhere else,” Gauthier said. “This is our life, not just a business.” They’re still finalizing dates, but the shop is looking to host local musicians one Thursday evening each month. Children and families can check out some Halloween-themed story time at Tee Shirt Bodega Saturday, Oct. 25, in Nashua. The Halloween event costs $15 and includes a T-shirt. Call 880-4688 to register. If people are interested in T-shirts with catch phrases like “Same Shirt Different Day” or “Al Gore Is My Hero,” with New Hampshire themes or anything else, peek inside Tee Shirt Bodega in Manchester at 1053 Elm St. or in Nashua at 83 Main St. For Manchester call 669-2925. For Nashua call, 880-4688. Visit www.teeshirtbodega.com. DINING — A DOWNTOWN COMPARISON Nashua Concord PUBS, SPORTS BARS & NIGHTCLUBS Nashua Concord MARKETS & BAKERIES Nashua Concord CLOTHING, SHOES & ACCESSORIES Nashua Concord SPORTING & SPORTS-THEMED GOODS & APPAREL Nashua Concord OTHER RETAIL SHOPS Nashua Concord HOME GOODS, FURNITURE & GIFT SHOPS Nashua Concord CULTURAL LOCATIONS & ENTERTAINMENT VENUES Nashua Concord .
|
Navigation
