In small steps, a town rebuilds its retail hub
It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly turned Warren’s historic downtown from a few low-key streets with scattered shops and restaurants into the mini-Mecca it is becoming.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
It could be that rent is cheaper than in neighboring Bristol and Barrington. It could be that the area’s real estate boom is driving increased downtown activity. Or it could just be that the opening of new businesses – such as the 2nd Story Theatre – are attracting more visitors and that in turn is encouraging more businesses to move in.
“I can’t point to any one particular initiative,” said Michael Abbruzzi, Warren’s town manager. “It’s been a lot of little things, not one big thing.”
Betty Pleacher, director of the East Bay Chamber of Commerce, does have an idea, however. She said Warren “recognized the fact that for its economy to rise, to attract visitors and business owners, they had to do some cosmetic surgery.” And once the city began to invest in improving sidewalks and light fixtures, the result has been an influx of small businesses.
In any case, people are starting to notice that Warren “is really coming alive,” Pleacher said.
To help individual businesses, Abbruzzi said, the town has made federal Community Development Block Grant funds available for façade improvements. Some of the money helped pay for the sign outside Zingg, a music store that recently moved from Barrington.
Owner Chris Zingg said he went to Warren partly because he could get twice as much space for the same amount of rent. With more space he created six rooms for bass, guitar, piano and drum lessons in the back. But there was more.
“There’s this feeling that it’s a friendly place for artists and retail,” he said.
In fact, Warren is more than friendly – artists downtown enjoy special tax benefits.
Through a state program, the town has created a tax-free arts district that allows artists who live and work in the district to sell their art without collecting a sales tax or paying state taxes on the income, and exempts art galleries from the sales tax.
The presence of the district attracted Elizabeth Kiepert, who opened a jewelry boutique, Muse, two months ago in downtown Warren. Kiepert buys from 20 local jewelry artists, two of whom live in Warren, she said. Her shop is at the corner of Child and Main streets – a busy intersection that gives her plenty of visibility.
Even during the week cars move slowly, but steadily, through the downtown. Some business owners say a little congestion is good for business, because while people sit in their cars, they look at storefronts they might eventually enter.
Jeff Zeller, owner of The Restaurant & Café, on Main Street, said the only problem with more people and more traffic is a lack of parking spaces to support the influx. Because street-side parking expires after two hours, if someone goes shopping for that long, “they don’t have time to eat here,” he said.
But Abbruzzi said the town has no current plans to create more parking spaces.
“There’s ample municipal parking,” he said. “We have four or five municipal parking lots.”
Zeller said new housing developments between Bristol and Warren could be one reason for the increase in visitors. What used to be empty lots are now filled with condos, townhouses and apartments. “It’s good for this type of business,” said Zeller, who’s owned the restaurant for about six years.
Clothing boutique shop owner Sara Valino said she thinks Warren has “more respect” for small businesses because the town has shied away from allowing large chain stores such as Stop & Shop to move in, whereas Barrington has allowed the more generic stores to filter through.
Valino and her daughter Keri Cronin have owned the clothing boutique Dish for about three years. Cronin said she’s seen a notable change in the town in the past two years.
“There’s the population of people who’ve lived here all their lives,” she said. “Then there’s this influx of new people coming in. A number of them are artists finding more reasonable live/work space here.”
About 37 established artists already live in Warren, and now David Wescott, a local entrepreneur, is in the process of turning the 125-year-old Cutler Mills at Cutler and Child streets into art studios, with retail space and a British tea room on the ground floor.
Ed Pearson, owner of the Coffee Depot on Child Street and co-owner of The Market at Cutler Mills, a new organic/gourmet grocery store next to the mill, said he thinks businesses attract businesses, and that’s what’s driving the recent growth in the city.
When he opened Coffee Depot three years ago, he said, there were just a few diners and antique stores on the street. “All of a sudden there was a restaurant next door,” he said. “All of these things started happening.”
Then people started telling him there was no good market in town, he said. So in May, Pearson and his partners opened The Market, adding yet one more business to the district.
The story is typical of how Warren is revitalizing itself, Pearson said – on a smaller scale than other communities. “We’re trying to do something more grassroots.”
