The New Retail Thread

Nibbles O’Plenty said:
The one on Winter St. closed. The one on Summer Street closed. Went out of business, not moved. There is one at South Station which is not Downtown Crossing and one down by Essex Street is not really DTX either. One left on Washington St. Do you work in the Mayor’s office?
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The one on Washington St. is open (thank you) and is the singular one I was referring to in my original post. If the Summer St. one closed, that is a very recent change; recent enough that google maps hasn't even been updated; I will not contest you on that detail. The Essex st. one is the one that I was saying is 3 blocks away.The Winter St. one you are referring to as "closed" closed a long time ago at this point, and I recall seeing signs on the door at time about it moving. If people don't think the Washington St. CVS, Washington St. Wallgreens, and Boylston/Essex CVS aren't enough drug stores within 3 blocks to indicate a neighborhood is still alive, I can't help them.
 
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617 said:
Dtx suffers from vacancies and retail that isn’t exciting/run down - completely different from back bay and seaport. dtx with thousands of new apts would do wonders for the area…it’s annoying that it’s so slow to happen. As someone mentioned these issues were around before Covid.
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It was me that mentioned that. And while we can quibble about how run down/exciting it is, the fact of the matter is -- relatively speaking -- it has been resilient enough to indicate it can be saved with the sort of injection of new residential that you refer to. People are turning this discussion into a binary alive / dead. That's the part I am taking exception to.
 
I agree it’s very much alive…but when the draw is let me take the T into the city so I can hit up home goods and macys. I just don’t understand. It’s worth saving but the current iteration isn’t “downtown” worthy imo. It could be better.
 
Nibbles O’Plenty said:
And the Marshalls, TJ Max and Home Goods have a large part of ownership of the building.
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I'd promised myself that I was done with this debate, but, this is such an unbelievable claim that here I am perpetuating the argument (my apologies to others who may be annoyed). I've never heard of anything like this, so, I have to express my extreme skepticism.

Here's a story from 2019 describing the most recent sale of the property. Nowhere does it indicate that the big retail tenants have an ownership stake in the property:

https://www.commercialsearch.com/news/nuveen-strengthens-boston-presence/

Furthermore, I went on Suffolk Registry of Deeds and examined every page of the deed from the 2019 sale of 350 Washington. Nowhere does it indicate that the new owner acquired anything less than 100% equity in 350 Washington.

Furthermore, HomeGoods opened there only relatively recently--late 2018, it turns out. As far as I can tell/recollect, it essentially replaced the old H&M's footprint there.

So, based on your assertion, you're saying that when HomeGoods took over the old H&M space and started a lease at 350 Washington, it ALSO did all of the legal wrangling/negotiating with H&M to pick-up its alleged ownership stake in 350 Washington?!?

Please do enlighten us with some evidence to back up your claim.

(I'll grant, you found 3 media stories about incidents at Macy's in the past 5 years, so every other year maybe there's an issue at Macy's. But you also claimed that the Macy's employees "looking unhappy" is a significant factor arguing for why the store might close soon.)
 
DBM said:
I'd promised myself that I was done with this debate, but, this is such an unbelievable claim that here I am perpetuating the argument (my apologies to others who may be annoyed). I've never heard of anything like this, so, I have to express my extreme skepticism.

Here's a story from 2019 describing the most recent sale of the property. Nowhere does it indicate that the big retail tenants have an ownership stake in the property:

https://www.commercialsearch.com/news/nuveen-strengthens-boston-presence/

Furthermore, I went on Suffolk Registry of Deeds and examined every page of the deed from the 2019 sale of 350 Washington. Nowhere does it indicate that the new owner acquired anything less than 100% equity in 350 Washington.

Furthermore, HomeGoods opened there only relatively recently--late 2018, it turns out. As far as I can tell/recollect, it essentially replaced the old H&M's footprint there.

So, based on your assertion, you're saying that when HomeGoods took over the old H&M space and started a lease at 350 Washington, it ALSO did all of the legal wrangling/negotiating with H&M to pick-up its alleged ownership stake in 350 Washington?!?

Please do enlighten us with some evidence to back up your claim.

(I'll grant, you found 3 media stories about incidents at Macy's in the past 5 years, so every other year maybe there's an issue at Macy's. But you also claimed that the Macy's employees "looking unhappy" is a significant factor arguing for why the store might close soon.)
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Well, the building is owned by Nuveen, and they have a billion dollar stock interest in TJX, which also owns Marshall’s and Home Goods. Involvement is indirect. The link I posted about Macy’s was not the last five years, but occurred in less than two years. I also did not say the store would close due to employees not looking happy. It was just an observation.
https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...oQFnoECEMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3lsiWV1z1zh7v5kEpha9vl
 
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atlantaden said:
www.bostonmagazine.com

Yume Ga Arukara Brings Its Supreme Udon to the Seaport

The Cambridge hit expands to Boston with a bigger menu and other perks.
www.bostonmagazine.com www.bostonmagazine.com

According to the article, it’ll be located in the Superette at Echelon! This restaurant should add a lot of needed foot traffic to the Echelon courtyard area.
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It’s already open, it’s FANTASTIC, and there was a line of like 30 people for lunch today. Not a super high bar, but easily the best food in Seaport. Strong recommendation for anyone who’s into Japanese food.
 
Smuttynose said:
Wondering if anyone who frequents Downtown Crossing can comment on the general street-level environment for retail, restaurants, etc.? Is it reasonably healthy? How extensive are the vacancies? My cousin works for San Francisco, which is really struggling in this area, and was very curious about how Boston is doing. My general sense is that Newbury Street seems to be doing fine. In some ways it seems a bit insulated because it is a tourist attraction in itself for its architecture/history and the stores are smaller scale/boutique-y. My sense (I don't get Downtown enough) is that DTX has more challenges, but probably not to the extent of Union Square in SF, where the major mall is now like 75% vacant. Is that a fair read? Do things seem to be on the up and up?
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My 2 cents.... downtown crossing had issues even before the pandemic, but now post covid the area is less active. Fortunately, at this point, it appears Boston has avoided major problems that other downtown area have faced such as San Francisco, Portland etc, but my feeling is that area is running at 50% of what it was pre covid. This seems to be corroborated by subway ridership statistics for downtown crossing, south station etc. It's the one area most impacted by the Covid hangover in Boston. I think the city should be much more proactive in trying to jump start activity and development there, for the time being eliminate bureaucratic red tape - temporarily waive affordable housing inclusion mandates, construction/ workforce related mandates, implement property tax incentives (some partial movement in this area has occurred), liberalize liquor licenses for the area. I think the number of liquor licenses was increased for outlying areas such as Hyde Park and Mattapan in recent years. They were geographically restricted licenses, Downtown Crossing could use the same type of incentives. Downtown crossing is not the Seaport or Back Bay, it needs bold and proactive action from the city, which has yet to be forthcoming.
 
Macy's announced yesterday it will close 150 stores over the next three years. Only one location publicly announced, and that is the Macy's at Union Square in San Francisco. Macy's owns the store, and is looking for a buyer for the property. Macy's told the San Francisco mayor's office about the closure. That would suggest that Macy's has already discussed any plans to close prominent, Macy's owned stores in prominent locations with local government. After these closures, Macy's will have 350 stores.

Macy's said it expects to take in $600-$750 million from selling these stores and streamlining warehouse operations. That would also suggest that most of the closures will be stores in leased space.
 
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stellarfun said:
Macy's announced yesterday it will close 150 stores over the next three years. Only one location publicly announced, and that is the Macy's at Union Square in San Francisco. Macy's owns the store, and is looking for a buyer for the property. Macy's told the San Francisco mayor's office about the closure. That would suggest that Macy's has already discussed any plans to close prominent, Macy's owned stores in prominent locations with local government. After these closures, Macy's will have 350 stores.

Macy's said it expects to take in $600-$750 million from selling these stores and streamlining warehouse operations. That would also suggest that most of the closures will be stores in leased space.
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Considering the declining state of the Frowntown Crossing area, wonder how much longer the life span of their store there will be?
 
The presence of the data center/telecom hotel on the upper floors will complicate any redevelopment of the location, should Macy’s choose to vacate.
 
Randy N. Craven-Krawtch said:
Or maybe the space will just remain vacant.
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Or maybe the space will get upgraded to be a flagship Bloomingdales, as Macy's has stated will happen to some of their properties.
Or maybe it will become a rat-infested homeless encampment
Or maybe the data center will expand into the lower floors
Or maybe an asteroid will hit it and it will become a giant pit in the ground (with a homeless encampment within it)
 
bigpicture7 said:
Or maybe the space will get upgraded to be a flagship Bloomingdales, as Macy's has stated will happen to some of their properties.
Or maybe it will become a rat-infested homeless encampment
Or maybe the data center will expand into the lower floors
Or maybe an asteroid will hit it and it will become a giant pit in the ground (with a homeless encampment within it)
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They were scouting a Bloomingdale’s location in the Back Bay a number of years ago, but finally seemed to give up the idea. Don’t think it would work in that area if they didn’t open elsewhere in the city. Other options you mentioned are possible. We will have to see what happens.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Or maybe the space will get upgraded to be a flagship Bloomingdales, as Macy's has stated will happen to some of their properties.
Or maybe it will become a rat-infested homeless encampment
Or maybe the data center will expand into the lower floors
Or maybe an asteroid will hit it and it will become a giant pit in the ground (with a homeless encampment within it)
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If we're extra unlucky, the asteroid crater will be redeveloped as single family housing.
 
I snapped a few photos of the street-level environment of Downtown Crossing and Faneuil Hall over the weekend and have attached photos here along with some general observations. All in all, I think we are holding our own. I was surprised that the vacancies were maybe even more perceptible than DTX. In DTX, all the major retail anchors - Macy's, Primark, Old Navy, HomeGoods, etc. - are all still anchoring (I can't really comment how well they are doing, but the pedestrian traffic on a mild Sunday was very healthy). There are some noticeable vacancies (and some of these challenges I think predate the pandemic). There are a few no brainer things the City could do though. The infrastructure in some sections of DTX just sucks. Particularly on the streets that link the Washington Street to the Common/Tremont. The curbing is falling apart, the lighting is terrible, it gives off the perception that it is unsafe (even if it is not) and certainly does not invite people to hang out.

These photos are from Washington Street (unless otherwise flagged) and show some good and bad, including some of the big weak spots:

ShakeShack.jpg


Pretty.jpg


Cafe Nerro.jpg


FELT.jpg


Macys fisherman.jpg


NxttoGod.jpg


Snipes.jpg


Forever 21.jpg


399 Wash.jpg


BosMemories.jpg


OneGig.jpg


Whale.jpg


Please somebody build something cool here --

Really vacant.jpg


Corner of Summer & Arch has been challenged by loss of CVS which anchored the corner --

Old CVS.jpg


And this building isn't helping

Ugly bldg.jpg
 
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