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Saco’s Changing Main Street

August 01, 2011 - Saco – Saco’s Main Street, once the economic hub of the city, has lost a number of retail businesses during the last six to eight months, and many established business owners say they haven’t seen things this bad in a long time, if ever.

The most recent departures include the high-end men’s store Alphie’s, The Candy Garden and Simply You Too, which were all located at 199 Main St. In fact, there are now at least nine empty retail spaces, out of about 25 storefronts on both sides of Main Street between City Hall and the Saco River.

“This is the worst I’ve seen it in my 25 years of living here,” said Lori Irving, owner of the Simply You clothing store on the corner of Main and Pleasant streets.

And, while there is some good retail news – businesses are locating in Saco, such as a dollar store and a challenge ropes course on Cascade Road – Main Street is still suffering.

This is worrisome not only to business owners there, but also to Peter Morelli, Saco’s development director, who said it’s “absolutely vital” to have a healthy downtown.

“A healthy downtown is directly tied to the identity of the community,” he said. “It also creates jobs, brings in activity and generates interest.”

Because of the importance of downtown, Morelli said, city leaders give a lot more attention to Main Street than to any other business zone in Saco.

“The city really works hard to make downtown attractive, from streetlights and sidewalks to banners and signs and aggressive snow and trash removal,” Morelli said.

Although, he’s seen other times when shops on Main Street have been empty for a period of time, specifically in the late 1990s, Morelli said downtown retailers are facing new challenges with the struggling economy.

Irving is certain the high vacancy rate on Main Street is due to the still- tough economic times. Her satellite store, Simply You Too, recently closed due to a loss of customers and the high cost of overhead, including rent.

Even so, she believes downtown Saco is still an attractive place to set up a business and is pleased with the ongoing efforts to make Main Street into a destination location. This is one reason Irving is re-opening Simply You Too in the former Saco Bay Classics space, which is next door to her current store.

While no municipal or private organization keeps track of vacancy rates or of retail openings and closings year to year, Bernie Gaines, who owns the last building on the west side of Main Street before the river, said his vacancy rate of about 40 percent is the worst it’s been since he bought the building 17 years ago.

“It’s absolutely due to the economy,” Gaines said. “I’m at the point where I would entertain any reasonable offer.”

He has more than 6,000 square feet of space available, both on the ground level and on upper floors. Gaines said he’d be willing to rent space out to anyone interested in either office or retail use.

One of his tenants, Sooper Dog, which is owned by Amy Lambert, recently moved to a larger location on Elm Street in Biddeford.

Lambert said she “loved being in downtown Saco,” and said it was a great place to start her business. However, Lambert moved to the Biddeford location in order to expand her operation and to offer her customers better accessibility, including more parking.

“I think being successful in downtown really depends on your business, what you are looking to do and who you can attract,” she said.

Johanna Hoffman, who runs the Saco Frame Center in Pepperell Square and who is president of Saco Spirit, the downtown merchant’s organization, believes the economy has played “a big part” in the closing of so many Main Street stores.

Like Morelli, Hoffman said there have been empty storefronts on Main Street before, and added Saco is not alone this time around. Even retail hubs that attract lots of tourists, like downtown Kennebunk, are seeing vacancies, she said.

Hoffman said success on Main Street is “highly dependent” on the rent a business is charged, and said building owners need to offer “reasonably priced” square footage if they want to fill their empty storefronts.

She said Saco Spirit is doing all it can to promote downtown and bring people to Main Street, including last month’s sidewalk art show and this Saturday’s car show, but said the buying public is fickle. To that end, Hoffman hopes people who live in Saco and are now seeing the empty storefronts will rethink their shopping habits.

Hoffman said supporting a local business means customers are supporting an individual instead of a corporation. “This is why buying local is so important,” she added.

She also said that buying locally means great customer service and an interpersonal experience you don’t get at the big-box stores.

“We need to ride out this difficult time,” Hoffman said. “Hopefully there will still be people here to put a store next to when we come out of this slump.”

Chris Craig, a broker with The Dunham Group, which is marketing the three empty storefronts at 199 Main, said, “The problem is definitely the economy.”

He said Main Street in Saco is attractive, especially with the train station on Saco Island. But in this economy, Craig said, it’s difficult not only to get a business going, but also make it prosperous.

Craig said the building’s owner, whom he declined to name, has dropped the rent from $16 per square foot to $12 in order to attract tenants. Morelli said rents on Main Street have a wide variance in terms of cost. Some landlords charge “low, low rates” of $4 per square foot while others may go as high as $19. Morelli said other landlords charge a flat rate instead.

The three storefronts at 199 Main have been empty for several months, but Craig said there’s been interest in the space lately and he’s hoping to sign a couple new tenants soon.

Former Mayor Mark Johnston, who’s owned the Vic & Whit’s sandwich and wine shop on Main Street for the past 39 years, said while he’s seen peaks and valleys, “this is the lowest valley I’ve ever been through.”

“There are more vacancies right now than I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Storefronts never used to be vacant for more than 30 days. Main Street in Saco used to be premium retail space.”

Also, for almost the first time since he bought the building, which is located at 206 Main St., it will soon be empty of all other tenants except his own business.

Johnston believes there are two culprits to account for the empty storefronts on Main Street – the still slow economy and the changing demographics in the city.

“The demographics in Saco have changed dramatically,” he said. “New residents don’t even think about shopping on Main Street. The big box stores are now their first stop.”

He also said with so many people working out of town, residents do their shopping and other errands in the communities where they work.

Johnston said one thing downtown businesses could do to counteract that trend is to stay open after 5 p.m. and to be open on both Saturday and Sunday, as well.

“All of us mom-and-pops have to change our ways and be open when customers are around,” he added. “We have to change with the times.”

In addition, Johnston said it’s difficult these days for even established businesses, let alone startups, to get needed lines of credit from the banks.

“I think it would be really nice to have some new blood downtown, but the banks are simply not taking chances on young entrepreneurs,” he said.

Marc Gagnon, the chief credit risk officer at Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution, which is headquartered on Main Street, said whether someone can get a business loan depends primarily on the person’s credit history and business plan.

Tim Brienza, who opened a hair salon on Elm Street, one block over from Main Street, said downtown’s woes could be as simple to fix as providing more parking.

Brienza opened his shop, Hair-n-There, with his daughter Lee-Ann Fournier back in October, and said so far he’s had “an excellent response.”

The salon gets a lot of walk-in customers. Due to its low-cost haircuts, it’s also benefiting from word of mouth, according to Brienza.

“Parking and access is not an issue for this place,” he added. “I think Main Street has definitely been hurt by the economy, but I also think one reason businesses can’t take off there is due to having no parking.”

Brienza looked at moving to Main Street and found a space he liked, but decided against it because of the lack of parking.

“I think it’s time for Saco to seriously think about building a municipal parking garage,” he said. “Otherwise, when the recovery comes, Main Street may be left behind.”

While Brienza sees potential in locating in downtown Saco, he’s not surprised that none of the new businesses that have opened recently are on Main Street.

For instance, Pennell Printing just opened next door to Hair-n-There and Coastal Cakes is getting ready to move into an empty storefront in Pepperell Square, just off Main Street.

Vicki Pettinger, the owner of Coastal Cakes, said she looked at several places on Main Street but the available storefronts were either too small, too big or too expensive.

However, she is excited about being in downtown Saco, which she called “a great community.”

While Main Street may be suffering, for now, there are definitely pockets of economic activity in downtown, including Pepperell Square and upper Route 1, which seem to be doing well. For instance, with the addition of Coastal Cakes all the storefronts in the square are now occupied.

Morelli said although “it’s certainly been slow for a couple years” in terms of economic development, he is encouraged that commercial space on Route 1 and in the Industrial Park is starting to fill up.

“I think that’s a good overall sign,” he said.

Kate Irish Collins, Keep Maine Current, August 2011


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