In downtown Pawtucket, a bookstore reinvented itself by beefing up its online presence and ramping up services for fledgling authors looking to self-publish their books.
Along Main Street in East Greenwich, a fancy Italian restaurant that had been above offering takeout started packing up pasta and chicken parmigiana in to-go boxes for drive-up customers.
And in Warren, a theater and performance venue in the heart of the town’s commercial district shifted to serving late-night ice cream, including “boozy milkshakes,” then kept the sugary alcoholic drinks as part of its business model when things started returning to normal.
In the 19 months since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck, a lot of attention has been focused on the economic damage the crisis has
brought downtown Providence, where countless office buildings were left largely empty, hotels and college campuses unoccupied, and the R.I. Convention Center converted to a makeshift field hospital.
But from Woonsocket to Westerly, many cities and towns have their own commercial centers – some are cozy Main Streets that harken back to a simpler time of soda fountains and five-and-dimes, and others were once-bustling hubs that have struggled for decades to bring back the glory days.
The pandemic delivered economic blows to these areas, too.
“Downtowns everywhere were no doubt hit hard by the pandemic,” said Cathy Lin, director of research for the Washington, D.C.-based International Downtown Association. “They went basically overnight from an area of a lot of activity to almost none the next day.”
With varying degrees of success, Providence and the small commercial centers across the state are looking beyond the pandemic. While some downtown businesses have closed, most survived – and some new ones have opened.
Downtown Providence, in particular, still faces an uncertain future regarding the return of office workers, but many of the immediate challenges facing businesses there predate the pandemic, including empty storefronts. The pandemic has made filling some of those spaces harder, but it didn’t create the problem.
Pawtucket too is still dealing with fallout from pre-pandemic challenges.
‘WE MAY GET THERE’
Steve Porter thought downtown Pawtucket could soon be on the upswing when he opened Stillwater Books three years ago despite rough conditions that for decades have plagued the former mill city, where Main Street remains a desolate canyon dotted by empty storefronts, its littered sidewalks only carrying the occasional walker.
As Porter set up shop, the city and state hatched plans for a new minor league baseball stadium that would have opened about a short distance from the bookstore, which is also located across the street from Pawtucket’s main tourist attraction, the historic Slater Mill.
But the stadium plan soon unraveled. When the Pawtucket Red Sox announced the team would move to Worcester, Mass., the decision cast a pall over the downtown that only got darker just over a year later when COVID-19 touched off an economic shutdown that forced Porter to shutter his store for three months. And even after Stillwater reopened, what had already been a small amount of foot traffic slowed to a trickle.
“Initially, it was terrifying,” Porter said.
Porter scrambled to expand the store’s online sales capabilities, and then expanded into neighboring property that had been vacated by the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, allowing him to store more than 25,000 books for web orders.
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FOCUSED LEADERS: Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt and Garrett Mancieri, director of the Downtown Woonsocket Collaborative, tour some of their favorite downtown spots, including the Stadium Theatre Performing Arts Center in Monument Square. The pair agree there should be a focus on getting more people to live in the downtown. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
At the same time, he put more focus on the self-publishing side of the business, Stillwater River Publications LLC, which saw a spike in demand as throngs of unemployed people used the time to finally write that long-planned novel.
“The bottom line isn’t quite as good as it was before, but total sales are looking good,” Porter said.
Stillwater is recovering, and downtown Pawtucket is trying to do the same.
Business owners and economic development officials see promise on the horizon in two projects that will bookend the downtown, the $284 million Tidewater Landing soccer stadium complex that developers hope to complete by spring 2023, and a $47 million commuter rail station that’s on track to be finished in 2022.
“People are going to be walking and biking between the riverfront and the station,” said Jan Brodie, executive director of the nonprofit Pawtucket Foundation. “Downtown has a lot of potential and beautiful buildings and good access.”
Another encouraging sign: The recent opening of The Atrium on Main, a restaurant that has moved into the former China Inn, a downtown landmark that closed in 2020. And a short distance away, on the edge of downtown, there’s the successful beer hall Isle Brewers Guild LLC.
But Brodie acknowledged that it’s an uphill climb to reverse the fortunes of the business district. At least 60% of the downtown’s commercial space is vacant. “The existing conditions include a lot of inactive properties,” she said.
In addition to the rail station and the soccer stadium, Brodie said, officials need to make the area “active and attractive,” building on momentum from the Pawtucket Arts Festival that took place in September and the recent Windows on Pawtucket public art project.
Brodie would like the city to form a downtown improvement district like one in Providence in which “ambassadors” pick up litter daily and plant and water flowers in street planters.
“We may get there, but we don’t have that network of prosperous businesses to form it yet,” Brodie said.
STAYING ALIVE
Lin, of the International Downtown Association, said the severity of the economic damage on particular downtowns at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic varied depending on the area’s mix of offices and residences.
“What became clear is that the downtowns that have already invested in more residential properties, with a mix of greater uses, that were not just central office districts but gathering places, those districts were better able to weather the impacts of the pandemic,” she said.
Also, many suburban Main Streets saw an uptick in activity as office workers, suddenly working from home instead of driving into cities, visited their local commercial districts during lunch breaks and after clocking out for the day, Lin said.
The town of Warren was a beneficiary of that effect.
More than 1,200 people live in Warren’s downtown district that features a row of small storefronts and the narrow riverfront thoroughfare of Water Street, lined with Colonial-era homes, sidewalk cafes and restaurants.
The initial downturn from the pandemic in 2020 was reversed within a matter of months as diners and shoppers ventured outside their homes, looking for something to do close to home – to the point that Warren experienced an outsized bump in meals tax revenue last year.
“I think we did better than a lot of communities,” said Robert Rulli, the town planning director, noting the opening of Hunky Dory, a restaurant on Market Street, and a beer hall along the waterfront called The Guild Warren LLC, launched by the owners of Isle Brewers Guild.
Town officials also point out that the municipality embraced outdoor dining, providing 90% of the downtown restaurants with permitting, and using state funds to purchase outdoor heating equipment.
Warren Town Manager Kate Michaud said the performance venue and lounge Galactic Theatre on Main Street was able to switch to a new type of business selling alcohol-infused ice cream and milk shakes, then kept the frozen dairy delicacies available for visitors even after live music returned.
“They kind of made a niche for themselves as a late-night spot,” Michaud said. “I’m impressed with how these business owners adapted to stay alive.”
FEELING THE LOVE
In Newport, the pandemic hasn’t been the disaster for the boutiques and restaurants along cobblestoned Thames Street that some had feared.
Evan Smith, CEO and president of Discover Newport, said pent-up demand kept cash-laden day-trippers and weekend visitors flowing into the commercial district during the summer just after the height of the COVID-19 crisis. “It was entirely surprising and most welcome,” he said. “Newport offers a plethora of outdoor experiences. It was a logical choice for a lot of people.”
Still, 2021 hasn’t exactly been a day at the beach for many businesses in the downtown and waterfront area.
A labor shortage is limiting restaurants to partial hours, according to local business officials. It was a problem made worse during the high season when Newport’s economy relies heavily on summer help from foreign students, most of whom could not travel to the U.S. because of the pandemic. Some hotels were forced to operate at two-thirds capacity because of a lack of staff.
And the labor crunch continues into the shoulder season.
“If you were to go down and try to get a seat [at a restaurant on the watefront], you’ll have a hard time,” said Erin Donovan-Boyle, executive director of the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce.
Like many municipalities, the town of East Greenwich has pulled out the stops to help retailers and restaurateurs along its quaint Main Street, where there is also a cobbler, a tailor and a historic theater.
Town officials lowered the barriers to outdoor dining, then took it a step further by closing off the thoroughfare to motor traffic for al fresco “Main Street Sundays.” There have been other events such as the town’s restaurant week and the “Main Street Stroll.”
Manny Tampella, who has managed La Masseria restaurant for two years, said that despite the pandemic, the Main Street eatery is experiencing its “best year ever.”
“The first week was very bad, but since the second week of the shutdown, everything was an escalation of success,” Tampella said.
The decision to start offering takeout meals at the traditional dine-in restaurant helped, as did the town’s affluent demographics, he said.
“Every day, we felt the love. The people in East Greenwich – I can’t thank them enough for what they did for us and all the other businesses in town,” Tampella said. “I have to be honest. The taxes aren’t cheap. But they are worth it.”
Indeed, East Greenwich Town Manager Andrew Nota said the town soon will be investing in sidewalk improvements to make it more pleasant for people to stroll along Main Street. Nota said that a few businesses closed in the commercial district, but new ones popped up quickly.
“The strength in the district has been evident in this robust real estate market,” Nota said. “In spite of a few businesses closing down at one point or another over the past 18 months, the availability of individuals prepared to invest in East Greenwich has been plentiful.”
HUMAN CAPITAL
Garrett Mancieri admits he expected the worst for downtown Woonsocket when the pandemic first hit in March 2020.
Much like Pawtucket, Woonsocket has struggled for decades to revitalize a downtown that was bustling a century ago, when the city loomed large on the American industrial landscape.
Mancieri, a former city councilman who is now executive director of the Downtown Woonsocket Collaborative, said he thought the COVID-19 restrictions would be the death knell for many of the remaining businesses, but as far as he can tell, the downtown area suffered only one permanent closure, The Sneaker Outlet, which sold new and refurbished collectable sneakers. The shop had opened only two months before the cases of COVID-19 started appearing in the U.S.
To Mancieri’s surprise, several new businesses popped up in the last year, including an antique shop, Passed Down in Time, a Thai restaurant, Spicy Crab Cafe, and a clothing and home decor store specializing in African design, Geri’s Bluffing Boutique.
Mancieri attributes the growth during the pandemic to a growing number of people moving to Woonsocket for a lower cost of living compared with bigger cities.
But there are still 36 commercial units available of 171 total units in downtown Woonsocket, said Mancieri, whose organization has been tracking downtown vacancy rates since 2015, when he said nearly 50% of units were vacant. Now the trick is getting more people to live in the downtown, Mancieri said.
That’s something Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt agrees with, as she pursues the development of the long-vacant six-story Rhode Island Hospital Trust Building at 162 Main St., helping two private investors to buy the building and construct 80 to 100 microloft apartments.
The mayor supports another proposed redevelopment project that would create 60 residential units in the Bernon Mills complex across the Blackstone River from downtown, and city officials are trying to woo a grocery store to the city center, too.
In addition, the R.I. Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner is set to lease and build out a 14,700-square-foot higher education center on Main Street that could provide job training to more than 500 people at a time.
“You’re bringing that human capital into your downtown,” Baldelli-Hunt said. “That’s how we’re growing on our Main Street.”
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KEEPING IT CLEAN: A Downtown Improvement District ambassador walks past empty storefronts on Weybosset Street in Providence recently. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MARC LAROCQUE[/caption]
In the state’s biggest downtown, the impact of the pandemic was most pronounced, as armies of office employees shifted outside of Providence to work remotely from home, depriving many businesses of the foot traffic they relied on.
A few restaurants and stores closed permanently, including Nick’s on Westminster Street, Bravo Bistro on Empire Street, and Fully Rooted Juice & Kombucha on Weybosset Street.
Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza said he collaborated with downtown businesses to “creatively reimagine our environment” by providing COVID-19-related accommodations, including temporary permits for outdoor dining that extends into the middle of sidewalks.
How long these accommodations will stay in place isn’t clear at this point. A spokesperson for Elorza said no decisions have been made about extending the program into 2022, but the mayor’s team plans to revisit the issue in the coming weeks.
There have been some green shoots in the scorched downtown, such as Res American Bistro moving into the Bravo Bistro’s location, and Insomnia Cookies on Weybosset Street. There’s also a Rory’s Market and Kitchen, an organic grocery store, that recently announced it’s moving into the ground floor of the Nightingale Building on Washington Street.
“As our downtown transitions to more residential use, we imagine that this will present new opportunities for businesses to expand and promote commerce,” Elorza said.
Cliff Wood, executive director of the Providence Foundation, said he’s encouraged by the resiliency he’s seen from restaurants and retailers, but he worries about the vacant office space. “It’s still an unknown,” Wood said.
Lin said the delta variant threw a wrench into post-Labor Day plans for many large businesses to reclaim their downtown office spaces. “We still don’t have a good grasp of what the return to downtown offices will look like, and if that will happen,” she said.
Residential development in current office spaces may be the eventual solution, Lin said. Her group is lobbying for a federal tax credit for property owners looking to convert offices into residences.
“Moving forward, how can we best make use of that vacant office space?” Lin said. “With housing shortages taking place throughout the country, incorporating more residents is part of it.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.