Merchants do have a prayer on Church Street

Despite the post-holiday exodus of a few stores, most merchants say they're bullish about Burlington's Church Street Marketplace.

The yearly departure of certain shops should be seen as an organic process, suggested Marketplace Commission chairman Tim Halvorson. The cafe owner offers the comparison of a snake that needs to shed old skin before new growth can occur.

The Marketplace is a four-block stretch of Church Street in Burlington that is three blocks of dedicated pedestrian mall ending at the Unitarian Church. Marketplace owners contribute through a special tax. Other well-known businesses downtown, but not on Church Street, also contribute, such as Nan Patrick's women's apparel and Carbur's Restaurant.

This year's January vacancy rate along the pedestrian mall is no higher than usual, noted Ed Moore, head of the Downtown Burlington Development Association. And Molly Lambert, director of the Marketplace. Commission, said she can guarantee that all of Church Street's empty storefronts will be filled by April.

The particularly desirable locale previously occupied by the Queen City Tavern will be leased even sooner, Lambert predicted. She said "serious negotiations" are under way regarding the former FJ Preston & Son jewelry shop and Kids' Ink bookstore on the top block of Church Street. An upscale gift gallery is about to move into the neighboring spot vacated by Chico's.

In general, said Lambert, the demand for retail space on Church Street far exceeds the available supply.

With the local economy showing signs of joining the national recovery, the mood along the street seems much more upbeat than a year or two ago. The trauma of losing both the Magram's and JC Penney's department stores has receded to the realm of memory -- a passage smoothed by the apparent success of the two stores' replacements: the Howard Opera House and Miller's Landmark.

Porteous, the last of downtown's department stores, isn't about to shuffle off to suburbia, assured Marketplace boosters. Contrary to perennial rumors, Porteous will continue to anchor Burlington Square Mall for the foreseeable future, said Lambert and Moore.

Marketplace merchants are also buoyed by a generally profitable holiday season. Higher sales were registered this past December by 56 percent of the Marketplace proprietors who have so far reopened their figures. Another 14 percent said they did about the same for the 1994 holidays as for 1993, while 29 percent said their sales were down this season.

National chain outlets that have come to Church Street in recent years are satisfied with their performance. Nature Company manager Karen MacGeorge said, for example, that the environmentally oriented outlet had "a fantastic Christmas." Good results are also said to have been posted by the Body Shop and Banana Republic.

That outcome may prompt other retail chains to open franchises on the Marketplace. Moore of the Downtown Burlington Development Association (DBDA) said he expects at least one or two to open in the warm months. But the Marketplace will continue to be primarily a collection of locally owned specialty shops, he said, thus insuring that Church Street will still be able to "offer something for everyone."

But older, more traditional retail operations are not doing as well as "New Age" businesses like the Nature Company, Body Shop and Simply Better, contended Denny Morrisseau, owner of Leunig's cafe. Several smaller merchants have been hurt by steadily rising operating costs, added Dave Walsh at Alfredo's Restaurant. Sales have tended to remain flat along much of the street, Walsh said, partly because of the decline in the Canadian tourist trade occasioned by the comparative strength of the US dollar.

Morrisseau is almost alone in taking a bearish view of the Marketplace's long-term prospects. For now, he conceded, Church Street is at least holding its own. Gradually, however, it will lose ground to University Mall and other suburban shop ping centers, he warned.

Most new housing for affluent buyers is being built outside Burlington because "we've essentially refused to allow those people to live in our city," Morrisseau said. He faults all the city's political leaders, including Republican Mayor Peter Brownell, for lacking a sense of urbanism. Burlington still styles itself a small town, and often impedes city-scale development, Morrisseau complained.

With rich people becoming more concentrated in the suburbs, he said, shopping malls there will get bigger and bigger. Higher-income earners must be attracted to settle in Burlington, perhaps in a genuinely urban neighborhood to be built along the city's waterfront. Morrisseau doubts, however, that such a development will ever take place.

Others with an investment in Church Street's future acknowledge the importance of promoting growth on the waterfront. The Main Street Landing retail and residential project, currently under construction, is often cited as a harbinger of additional lakeside development.

To maximize the benefits of greater activity along the shore, many Marketplace business people say it will be essential to improve public transportation links between Church Street and the waterfront. Such efforts are already under way, with the College Street shuttle now operating, free of charge, on a year-round basis. It is also hoped that Burlington's receipt of a $3 million federal enterprise zone grant will spur development of a planned inter-modal transportation center in Union Station.

Completion of the long-stalled Southern Connector is mentioned as another transportation factor crucial to the competitiveness of the Marketplace.

"We've got to provide faster ways for people to enter and egress the city," said Moore of DBDA. Completion of the Connector, also known as the Champlain Parkway, could be the linchpin that secures the downtown debut of a major retail outlet like Wal-Mart, added Lambert. The Marketplace Commission director said opening of the roadway could well spark large-scale construction on the parcel of vacant land just west of the Burlington Square Mall.

A new marina is also high on the wish-list of many DBDA members. Noting that a significant number of boating vacationers might be enticed to spend money on the Marketplace, Moore views a marina on the downtown lakefront as a potentially lucrative amenity for Burlington.

The DBDA director lists parking and "what's referred to as 'the element'" as among perceived problems that need to be addressed by Marketplace merchants and promoters.

Parking is actually plentiful in the vicinity of Church Street, according to boosters of the pedestrian mall. Garages are safe and inexpensive, Moore said, arguing that downtown Burlington has been given a bum rap as a difficult place to park.

This misperception may begin to be corrected when the City takes over the garage next to the Radisson Hotel later this year. Maintenance and signage are slated for improvement in the facility previously run by Donahoe Associates, the Philadelphia-based firm that also owns Burlington Square Mall.

Some merchants suggest that visitors' worries about parking could be further alleviated by suspending curbside meter fees, as was done during a part of this year's holiday shopping season. The City would be wise to eliminate parking meters altogether on a couple of streets intersecting the Marketplace, proposed Alfredo's owner Dave Walsh.

As for "the element," Moore maintained that the people who hang out along Church Street, especially near the entrance to Burlington Square, pose no threat to shoppers. "Burlington is a happening," he said. "That's one of its strengths.

"I'm from New Jersey," Moore noted, "and, believe me, Burlington doesn't have a problem with either parking or street security."

Some residents of other Vermont communities who refuse to venture downtown "will always find a reason for not coming," Moore said. Lambert added that most merchants and residents seem pleased with the recent compromise on the issue of loitering along the Marketplace. She said it protects individual rights while insuring that no shop entrances will be obstructed.

Burlington's diversity and liveliness are also used as selling points in its competition with suburban shopping centers. "We have things here that malls don't," said John Adams, proprietor of the Church Street shoe store that bears his name. "I'm not afraid of competition from Costco or Wal-Mart."

Burlington Square Mall's marketing manager cites downtown's vitality as an advantage that South Burlington's University Mall, for example, cannot claim. The Marketplace shopping center seeks to attract younger and "a bit more upscale" customers than does U-Mall, said Liz Doda, marketing chief for Burlington Square. Downtown's large pool of office workers is another key target group.

Donahoe Associates recently handed over management of Burlington Square to a firm in Santa Monica, CA, that performs the same service at some 50 malls across the country. MaceRich Management plans to make some cosmetic changes in the Burlington facility, said Doda. Vacant stores will, for example, be outfitted with attractive window displays.

Empty shops are not a big problem for Burlington Square Mall, however. It has four large vacancies at present out of some 50 shops, Doda reported, noting that only one store closed in the holiday aftermath this year. Tenants at Burlington Square generally enjoyed brisker sales this season than during the previous year, Doda said.

Physical improvements have been proven to be a lure to shoppers on the upper block of the Marketplace. Several merchants there report an increase in sales since the top block was redesigned to conform in appearance with the rest of the pedestrian mall. Adams Shoes, for example, reported a strong holiday season, while the Peace on Earth Store saw its sales jump by 13 percent in comparison with the same period one year ago.

Not everyone is pleased, however, with every aspect of the top block's new look. Criticism centers on the fountain that was installed last year at the northern terminus of Church Street.

Some shoppers are of the opinion that the low-slung concrete construction is just plain ugly, particularly in the several months of the year when its spray nozzles are not in operation. The narrow channel that circulates the water is also condemned in some quarters as a hazard to pedestrians and an obstacle to shoppers crossing from one side of the street to the other. John Adams refers to this conduit as a "ditch" that should not have been included in the fountain's design.

Efforts have been made to respond to these objections. The structure's walls were recently covered with a removable mural that makes the fountain look less gray and forlorn. The long channel has also been temporarily covered, and its form will be reworked in the coming months. And although the temperatures have not cooperated this winter, the pool itself is intended to be used as a small ice skating rink for children.

Still, the top block remains in the most tenuous position. Besides Preston's, Kids Ink and Chicos, the block lost Phillip's & Company, a jeans and Ts clothier, and Nate's men's store shortly after Christmas. Nate's and Preston's were landmarks in Burlington. Preston's was opened for business before the Civil War.

Meanwhile hopes remain high for Miller's Landmark, the new collection of shops and offices that occupies the former JC Penney's department store.

This dramatically redesigned space is owned by Bobby Miller, the local real estate developer who also donated the quarter-million dollars for the top block's renovation. Miller's Landmark serves as the corner anchor for the northernmost part of Church Street, which had previously failed to attract as much foot traffic as the lower blocks of the Marketplace.

Upstairs offices are fully rented -- almost entirely by Frontier Communications (the former Long Distance North). That puts more than 100 additional office workers on Church Street every weekday. Nearby proprietors, such as Tim Halvorson, say they have seen an increase in business thanks to this new pool of shoppers and diners.

The shops in Miller's Landmark appear to be experiencing varying degrees of success. A few are bustling at most hours; others are seldom heavily patronized. Molly Lambert said that this sort of uneven performance is to be expected.

"Any time you get a conglomeration of stores in one building, you find that some do well and some don't. It's a matter of coming up with the best possible mix."

Lambert predicts that one of Miller's tenants, Marketplace Crafts, will soon "take off." It may even become "a destination spot," luring shoppers from other parts of the Marketplace, she said.

The top block's generally successful makeover has renewed talk about a similar redesign for the bottom block of the Marketplace. Like the northern end, the portion of Church Street between College and Main Streets was not fully incorporated into the pedestrian mall when it came into being early in the 1980s.

Closing the bottom block entirely to traffic won't happen anytime soon. One big reason, Lambert said, is the lack, so far, of a philanthropist such as Miller who would pay for a repaving job and other amenities. Drivers' access to the bottom block is also seen as a positive factor by some merchants, who are thus reluctant to have it converted into a pedestrians-only zone. At present, it's possible to park on one side of the block during certain hours, and drop-offs and pick-ups can be made at any time.

Walsh of Alfredo's is among those who want the bottom block unified in design with the rest of the Marketplace. But his vision for the block's future goes much further, encompassing radical changes on the western side of the street which currently consists mainly of non-retail establishments.

Walsh wants Burlington's government to move out of City Hall, perhaps to a new building on the northeast corner of Main Street and South Winooski Avenue. The vacated premises could then be transformed into a multi-use shopping and amusement complex such as Boston's Faneuil Hall, Walsh imagines. He would even like to see casino gambling take place in the former City Hall -- at least during the winter months when another of his fantasies, a riverboat-style casino on Lake Champlain, would have to be dry-docked.

"We've got to draw more people downtown," Walsh said. "This would do it."

Kevin Kelley is a freelance writer from Burlington.

Copyright Lake Iroquois Publishing, Inc. d/b/a Vermont Business Magazine Feb 1995
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