The New Retail Thread

Two rumors heard this morning worth sharing - Ralph Lauren is looking to move to the former Louie's building(after conducting a comprehensive renovation of course) and Lord & Taylor is slated to add a third floor as a result of space lost with the planned Exeter Street residential building.
 
Newbury Street:

1) A two or three story Forever 21 store is in the final stages of build-out in half of the former Danker and Donahue garage - that rehab has been going on for several months and it looks like the store is set to open soon. It will be one of the larger stores on Newbury, as far as I can tell. This is on the first block close to Mass Ave.

2) Notices have gone up on the Converse ADA ramp (across the steet from #1, actually) that the wooden behemoth is a temporary abomination, and that a permanent structure is pending review by accessibility committees, assorted Back Bay architectural committees and whatnot.
 
^I've been curious to find out what is going into the former Donahue garage space. Needless to say I was hoping for an anchor tenant and not a Forever 21.
 
Closings you may have heard about.

Restaurants in the South End:

Rudi's Cafe on Melnea Cass Blvd
Rocca on Harrison Ave
Ginger Park on Washington St

Meanwhile Gallows on Washington St is requesting approval to expand

Best Cellars on Boylston St is closing (is the one in Coolidge Corner remaining open?)
Max Brenner's Fine Chocolates is opening on Boylston St (look for the inflatable rat)

Gibson Sotheby's International Realty moved its apartment rentals office two blocks on Tremont St

New York Pizza at Mass Ave and Tremont St reopened today
http://southend.patch.com/articles/new-york-pizza-reopens-with-updated-look
 
Shepard said:
1) A two or three story Forever 21 store is in the final stages of build-out in half of the former Danker and Donahue garage - that rehab has been going on for several months and it looks like the store is set to open soon. It will be one of the larger stores on Newbury, as far as I can tell. This is on the first block close to Mass Ave.
Click to expand...
It's actually 4 stories - LL, 1*, 2, 3, with their exclusive/rare men's section on 3. I don't particularly like them, but Boston desperately needed a F21.
bdurden said:
^I've been curious to find out what is going into the former Donahue garage space. Needless to say I was hoping for an anchor tenant and not a Forever 21.
Click to expand...
Forever 21 actually is an anchor in this case. This is a large store that is in high demand.
 
JohnAKeith said:
Max Brenner's Fine Chocolates is opening on Boylston St (look for the inflatable rat)
Click to expand...

MAX BRENNER'S IS A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Where on Boylston is this opening?! I make it to a point to stop at Max Brenner's every time I go to New York City. This will be a very BIG hit with tourists and college students when it opens. Mark my words.
 
dshoost88 said:
MAX BRENNER'S IS A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Where on Boylston is this opening?! I make it to a point to stop at Max Brenner's every time I go to New York City. This will be a very BIG hit with tourists and college students when it opens. Mark my words.
Click to expand...

It's at 745 Boylston, the end of Ring Road (former Verizon location.)

I have less confidence it will do well in its first year. They didnt use union workers so the locals will avoid it while the picketers are there. And I'm sure that rat will be there for at least the first three months. They even decorated it for the holidays with lights!

Also it's a bit off the beaten track for college kids isn't it? What school's near there?
 
Did Stoddard's ever open? I know it was delayed for a while and I never heard about the an opening. I've been too lazy to walk down there to find out.
 
Stoddard's opened, and it is fantastic. Well worth a trip.
 
JohnAKeith said:
Closings you may have heard about.

Restaurants in the South End:

Rudi's Cafe on Melnea Cass Blvd
Rocca on Harrison Ave
Ginger Park on Washington St

Meanwhile Gallows on Washington St is requesting approval to expand

Best Cellars on Boylston St is closing (is the one in Coolidge Corner remaining open?)
Max Brenner's Fine Chocolates is opening on Boylston St (look for the inflatable rat)

Gibson Sotheby's International Realty moved its apartment rentals office two blocks on Tremont St

New York Pizza at Mass Ave and Tremont St reopened today
http://southend.patch.com/articles/new-york-pizza-reopens-with-updated-look
Click to expand...

Best Cellars closed their Coolidge Corner location a while back and another store came in that offered beer and liquor. That store has also sinced closed and moved.
 
Timberland booting up for Newbury Street store opening

By Thomas Grillo
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - Added 17 hours ago

A dozen years after Timberland Co. closed its flagship store in Boston, the boot maker is taking a step back into the city.

The New Hampshire-based company will open a store this year at 201 Newbury St., the former Prince School building that features loft-style condominiums with ground-floor retail, according to a city building permit.

?Newbury Street and the Back Bay is the place to be if you?re a retailer,? said Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association. ?It makes a lot of sense that Timberland would want to be here.?


A Timberland spokeswoman said news of the opening ?might be a little premature.? The company first came to Newbury Street in 1988.

Last fall, sneaker giant Converse opened its first Newbury Street shop, which features special Boston-themed merchandise.

Michael Jammen, principal at the Newbury Line, a Newbury Street landlord, said the retail vacancy rate on the street is in the single digits. He expects the rate to rise slightly in the first quarter as some of the smaller tenants that have been struggling to hang on for the holiday season go out of business.

?At its lowest point, the occupancy rate was in the low 80 percent range at the beginning of 2009 during the peak of the recession,? Jammen said. ?We expect it will reach 98 or 99 percent this year as tenants fill the vacant spaces.?

http://news.bostonherald.com/busine..._street_store_opening/srvc=home&position=also
 
mass88 said:
Best Cellars closed their Coolidge Corner location a while back and another store came in that offered beer and liquor. That store has also sinced closed and moved.
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Best Cellars was apparently backed by a supermarket chain (Aldi perhaps) and the money's gone so stores are closing up. Boylston Street had 40% off everything last week if you could figure out their shortened hours.
 
I hate empty storefronts. I think I'll open a "foreclosures 'r' us" shop on Boylston Street.
 
Exciting news fellas! A new Irish Pub in Boston! Now if we can only squeeze in a sports bar somewhere....

Boston.com - Jan. 19, 2011
Traditional Irish pub (with thatched cottage) for downtown office tower
By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

Soon, downtown office workers with the urge to drink a pint of Guinness in a comfortable room paneled in dark wood will have a new option that may surprise them ? a first-floor space in the steel-and-glass tower at the corner of Washington and Court streets.

On Feb. 10, Four Green Fields will celebrate its official grand opening just outside the lobby of the BNY Mellon Center at One Boston Place, though it may be able to open its doors as early as next week. Named for a song by Irish singer Tommy Makem that refers to the four provinces of Ireland, the pub will feature beer on tap, traditional and contemporary pub food and a big helping of authentic atmosphere.

Owner Colin Breen, the son of Irish immigrants, established his first Four Green Fields pub in Tampa 19 years ago and has long sought Boston location. Though this glass-walled spot at the foot of a 41-story office tower may seem an unlikely space to create a cozy Irish pub, Breen said it?s the best possible place.

?We can?t go to a neighborhood because we?re not from the neighborhood, so that wouldn?t make any sense,? Breen said. ?And most spaces that you end up finding are the smaller, long-narrow kind of thing.? But this spacious location allows for the creation of three different indoor environments, he said, plus room for around 100 seats in the outdoor patio area when the weather warms up.

Most importantly, it allowed Breen to include a small cottage with an authentic thatched roof done by a professional thatcher from Scotland ? a design on which Breen has obtained a US trademark. The cottage will be used as a gallery for Breen?s collection of Irish, American, French and Eastern European paintings and as a function room, said Maria J. Rojas, director of marketing for the pub.

?Hopefully we?ll get to do some wine tastings there, and food pairings with wine, and do something a little bit fun every once in a while, besides just the art,? Rojas said.

The goal is to bring not just visual art but also music and literature into the space. Opposite the cottage, a stage will feature live performance by Irish bands ?almost every night,? according to Rojas. And the upstairs John L. Sullivan Lounge ? named for the 19th- and early-20th-century Irish-American boxer known as ?The Boston Strongboy? ? will feature weekly literary meetings with book signings by authors such as Dennis Lehane and Michael Patrick MacDonald.

?We like to think of it as sort of a literary pub where we?re going to feature a lot of the wonderful talents that came in from Ireland and were cultivated here in the United States,? Rojas said. ?I?m obviously not Irish, but I?ve traveled to Ireland, and you can?t deny the culture that it?s brought to the United States. I think that?s another wonderful thing about it ? you don?t have to be Irish to come here, but you can enjoy some of the literary treasures.?

Breen said he expects to get a lot of business from the approximately 4,000 people working in One Boston Place and from nearby City Hall and the State House. He anticipates a mostly professional, upscale crowd but said it would be a relaxed space where college students, such as those from nearby Suffolk University and Emerson College could also be comfortable, though Breen said, ?It?s not going to be a shot-and-a-beer joint. ? No pitchers [of beer].?

To make things easier on nearby office workers, Four Green Fields will offer delivery of lunches and snack trays ? only within the building to start ? and online ordering will make it possible to get table service as soon as you walk in the door.

?They could literally have a party of 10 come in ? and the minute they sit down, if they?re in a rush, we could have everything already started,? Rojas said.

And for that morning coffee, customers who work in One Boston Place can purchase a Four Green Fields coffee mug, keep their cream-and-sugar preferences on file, pick up their made-to-order coffee in the morning and drop off the empty mug when they head home at night.

Rojas said it?s all about building relationships with customers that make them want to come back, making the pub a social center the way pubs in Ireland are. ?There are a lot of pubs, but we are going to try to make it special, and every time you come in, we?re going to be happy to see you and hopefully know your name by the second time you come back around,? she said. ?And when you come and drop off your mug, you might stay and have a pint.?

Email Jeremy C. Fox at jeremycfox@gmail.com.
Click to expand...
 
Been to the Tampa one about 10 times. It's fairly authentic, very laid back and comfortable: absolutely sticks out in Tampa and in a weird location. It was a place where a lot of my college professors hung out. Even weirder location at One Boston Place, could work though.
 
That's going to be quite the kitsch with a direct view to the Old Statehouse. I wonder how the pretentious Ames Hotel feels about having such a wonky establishment opening directly outside their front door?
 
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