Post-pandemic vacancies, optimism abound in downtown Providence

COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES ON WESTMINSTER and Weybosset streets in downtown Providence remained empty during the summer of 2021. Vacancies at several downtown properties have been prolonged and, in at least one case, prompted by the pandemic, as a result of work stoppages and shutdowns, according to several downtown real estate investors. PBN PHOTO/MARC LAROCQUE
COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES ON WESTMINSTER and Weybosset streets in downtown Providence remained empty during the summer of 2021. Vacancies at several downtown properties have been prolonged and, in at least one case, prompted by the pandemic, as a result of work stoppages and shutdowns, according to several downtown real estate investors. / PBN PHOTO/MARC LAROCQUE

PROVIDENCE – Sign, sign, everywhere a sign: “Retail opportunity,” says one. “Prime retail space for lease,” another. “Available now.”

There’s plenty of prime storefront space available for restaurants and retail in downtown Providence. And there’s also plenty of optimism among investors about the potential for downtown development, with the arrival of a couple new promising businesses, as college students return this fall and as major entertainment venues begin to reopen.

But there’s also worries about the impact of the delta variant of COVID-19 and lingering concerns about quality of life issues for downtown dwellers and real estate investors.

“We’re cautious in our optimism,” said Joanna Levitt, director of commercial leasing and marketing for 15 years at the downtown Providence-based property developer Cornish Associates LP. “We’ve just been through a long year. The sales activity and the amount of leasing calls is healthy right now. Maybe when all of these other activities come back on, we’ll see a boom that we haven’t experienced yet.”

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Taking a walk down Westminster, Weybosset and Dorrance streets, visitors will be greeted by a series of storefront vacancies, including former restaurants and stores that mostly closed before the pandemic. The emptiness of some of the properties has been prolonged by the pandemic, which led to work stoppages and shutdowns, and in at least one case it led a store to close altogether, according to several downtown real estate investors. And it doesn’t help that foot traffic has been down this season, compared to those pre-pandemic summers, they said.

“It’s not wrong to say the volume of people on the street is down,” Levitt said. “We’ll see what happens in September. I’d imagine things will continue to get busier if everything is stable with COVID. One impact of COVID was that unfortunately it delayed the conclusion of construction projects by quite a bit. There was some stoppage to work and there were material shortages.”

COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES ON WESTMINSTER and Weybosset streets in downtown Providence remained empty during the summer of 2021. Vacancies at several downtown properties have been prolonged and, in at least one case, prompted by the pandemic, as a result of work stoppages and shutdowns, according to several downtown real estate investors. This photo shows an empty storefront on Matthewson Street. PBN PHOTO/MARC LAROCQUE
An empty storefront on Mathewson Street. PBN PHOTO/MARC LAROCQUE

Downtown storefront properties put on the market this year by Cornish include 1,395 square feet of ground floor commercial space at the Kinsley Building at 326 Westminster St., the former home of Tom’s BaoBao restaurant, a Chinese food business specializing in handmade, meat-stuffed steamed buns, which closed up shop in the summer of 2019 after operating there for less than three years.

Then there’s 276 Westminster St., known as the Wit Building, with a 3,900-square-foot first floor commercial unit that was most recently occupied by a bar, cabaret lounge and performing arts space called Aurora, which closed in late 2017 after first opening in May 2014. Previously, it was the Roots Cafe, which opened in 2011 and closed two years later (the building’s longest tenant was Jean’s Department store, which existed from 1933 to 1979, Levitt said).

Further down the street is the Trayne Building at 270 Westminster Street, a building that’s undergone major renovations and a new four-story addition that includes a 2,353-square-foot first floor commercial unit. The building was constructed as part of an overall $29.5 million project by Cornish that began in 2018 and was completed last year, which involved the Wit Building and the Lapham Building at 290 Westminster St. During recent summers, before construction, the outdoor area next to the Trayne Building (known as Grant’s Block) was used for “Movies on the Block” events. Currently, while property owners seek permanent tenants, the newly built restaurant space on the ground floor is being used for a Long Live Beer beer garden that operates on weekends.

The Lapham Building, originally the home of Mutual Benefit Insurance Co., which has been largely vacant since the late ‘90s, has 3,311 square feet of ground floor space available, which Cornish is advertising as a potential restaurant, retail store or fitness studio.

These commercial spaces have been available for lease since spring 2021, Levitt said.

Nearby at 233 Westminster Street, a vacant storefront was being used this summer as a temporary “pop-up” tourism center, run by the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau. The 1,163-square-foot property is also owned by Cornish and is being advertised for lease. It has long been a vacant storefront, but with temporary tenants in recent years, including the World’s Fair Gallery, artist Shepard Fairey’s “Facing the Giant” show, and the Cove Store. Before that, the building housed a boutique clothing store called Clover.

Across the street from the pop-up tourism spot is Symposium Books, which continues to operate there after 18 years, owned by Scott McCullough. The bookstore owner said he appreciates the active property owners like Cornish, but some others are sitting on properties.

“I think for the most part they understand the urban dynamics of having a healthy city center,” said McCullough, who was able to remain open despite the pandemic. “They’re looking to build that up. And then there are other landlords who I don’t know what they’re doing. They’re the ones that make it so slow. They sit on properties. and then eventually they’ll rent it to a bank or something. It doesn’t help out. We don’t need more banks. We need more lively stuff.”

One store that was blown out of downtown by the pandemic, and subsequent state stay at home order, was the Fully Rooted Juice & Kombucha store at 159 Weybosset St. The Rhode Island-based company has continued its delivery service and presence at local farmers markets. Now, in front of the downtown Providence location is a sign describing the space as “ideal” for a restaurant, office, salon or bank, with 2,000 to 25,000 square feet available for a potential business.

Kevin J. Maloof, director of finance and accounting for Bluedog Capital Partners, said his company recently acquired the four-story building, which was formerly owned by Alex & Ani.

“I think each building has its challenges,” Maloof said. “We’re at the beginning stages for that particular space. There certainly have been some challenges in the office space here as a result of the pandemic.”

Maloof said he is hopeful that downtown business activity gets a boost with ticket sales now underway for events at the Providence Performing Arts Center, the reopening of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for games and conventions, and the return of college students at Johnson & Wales University and other downtown campuses for the University of Rhode Island and Roger Williams University. However, there’s still concern that the delta variant of COVID-19 could throw a monkey wrench into plans to fill out the downtown, he said.

“People want to get out and eat and enjoy things and shop,” Maloof said. “The delta variant has put a little bit of a speed bump on that, I’d say. As we get further away from summer and 2020 covid times, I think you see the city starting to pick up a bit. Once those larger event centers start to open back up, you’re naturally going to see more people walking around.”

One major business to move out of downtown Providence was the former CVS Pharmacy facing Westminster Street at 70 Kennedy Plaza, which closed in late 2019, without any other store taking its place since then. (An effort to reach the company that owns the property for comment was unsuccessful.) A stretch of empty property spanning from the former Kresge department store building at 191 Westminster St. to the neighboring former Providence Journal building at 203 Westminster St. remains empty after a Washington company led by developer Jim Abdo paused plans to develop the properties into a $39 million hotel and apartment project due to the pandemic.

Around the corner, 22 Dorrance Street is shuttered, a large storefront next to Kennedy Plaza that was formerly occupied by Koch Eye Associates. And since the pandemic came, many of the shops and restaurants that once occupied The Arcade Providence at 65 Weybosset St. remain closed, only falafel shop Livi’s Pockets and a couple of others still running.

Other downtown vacancies include the former location of the Fortnight wine bar at the corner of Dorrance and Weybosset streets, of the business moved to Mathewson Street, following a controversy involving one of the business owners getting arrested for allegedly spraypainting an anti-police slogan on City Hall during the George Floyd protests. The storefront property has been available for lease for about a year now, owned by real estate company Paolino Properties, led by former Providence mayor Joseph R. Paolino, Jr., who said he “encouraged” the Fortnight owner to leave due to his support for the police department, before later renting it out to the state temporarily for COVID-19 testing.

“Remember, everyone was set back with the pandemic and may get set back again with the delta,” said Paolino, who gave credit to competitor Cornish for investing millions of dollars to renovate residential and retail properties on Westminster and elsewhere in the downtown during the past few years.

In addition to the threat currently posed by the delta variant, Paolino said a longstanding problem with quality-of-life issues, namely panhandling, graffiti, open drug use and public urination by vagrants, have been making it more difficult for downtown property owners to thrive. Paolino said government leadership, and business leaders, need to do more to address this.

“That’s a serious problem and Providence has to tackle that if they want to become a world-class city,” Paolino said. “I think it does impact the level of vacancies downtown. I was talking to a major accounting firm yesterday that said they are fed up with downtown. They’ve owned a building for over 20 years. He said he wants to move to Cranston or Warren, quite frankly.”

Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza said “we take quality-of-life issues very seriously and regularly engage with residents, business owners and stakeholders” to address their issues and concerns. Elorza also said he’s confident in the future of the downtown business district, especially given some new arrivals, touting the work his administration has done to support existing business during the pandemic through the ThinkPVD campaign that encouraged restaurants to apply for free temporary outdoor dining permits and allowed for creative repurposing of sidewalks, streets and parking spaces, with free two-hour parking in designated commercial districts through the end of the year.

“After the hardships associated with the pandemic, downtown Providence is open for business and dozens of new locations continue to spring up,” Elorza said.

Those new businesses include the Rory’s Market and Kitchen that was announced recently for the bottom floor commercial space of the Nightingale Apartments building at 113 Washington St. Despite the pandemic, downtown added businesses including Res American Bistro at 123 Empire Street, Kin Southern Table + Bar at 71 Washington St., Insomnia Cookies at 259 Weybosset St., The George restaurant at 121 Washington St. (in the former Local 121 bar inside what was the Dreyfus Hotel), and other restaurants that came just prior to the pandemic but were able to stick it out, which Elorza called “a testament to the resiliency of our community and the confidence in our local economy.”

And there’s also a new coffee shop, Little City Coffee & Kitchen, which moved this summer into an area of downtown known for chronic vacancies at 158 Mathewson St., a 922-square-foot ground floor unit in the rear of the Lapham Building that’s gone mostly unused since the 1990s. Given that it’s off the main corridor of foot traffic, the developer, Cornish, and other stakeholders said they look at this as a positive sign for future downtown development.

“The long-term vacancy of that space wasn’t something that concerned us because of the amazing job Cornish Associates did on the renovation of the entire building,” said co-owner Kelsey Garvin. “Mathewson Street has a great amount of foot traffic and everybody in the neighborhood was so incredibly welcoming during our first week of business.”

That positive outlook on downtown storefront real estate is shared by John Philippides, co-owner of a Greek restaurant and marketplace called Yoleni’s, which opened in 2018 following a massive renovation of the historic Tilden-Thurber building at 292 Westminster St.

“I think although it was a difficult period of time during COVID, people are encouraged to support the small businesses in the community,” said Philippides, a member of the Downtown Hospitality Group, an association that formed last year to advocate for downtown business owners. “It was challenging for some businesses to keep up when they lost all the customers they had, either from the universities or from the offices. But I haven’t seen many businesses that have closed. With ongoing construction and new apartments, I think the next few years are only going to be good for downtown Providence.”

Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com

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