GREENFIELD — With the Franklin County Courthouse set to reopen Monday after a three-year renovation, downtown restaurants and retailers are hoping the additional foot traffic from employees and litigants will boost business.
“We’re glad to have them back. It’s been a long three years,” said Dan Devine, who co-owns Brad’s Place on Main Street with his wife, Kim. “We definitely took a hit. Not real bad, but a noticeable loss of customers.”
The courthouse closed in February 2014 for a $60 million renovation of the 1935 building, with a 104,000-square-foot, three-story addition over what had been its “el” wing and parking lot. Its reopening is expected to bring 150 to 200 additional people downtown per weekday, according to Register of Probate John Merrigan.
Local businesses, as well as the Greenfield Business Association — which is giving “welcome back” gift bags to courthouse employees with discounts to downtown businesses — are hoping the inflow of people will increase sales.
“We are very hopeful that it’s going to be beneficial to us that they’re back,” Devine said. “It’s pretty obvious that there’s going to be a bigger influx of people, and we just hope it goes smoothly for them, too.”
Before the courthouse moved to its temporary location on Munson Street, Devine said employees came in regularly for breakfast and lunch. Business has slowed down since the move, but he’s hoping that will change come Monday.
Jessica Mullins, owner of World Eye Bookshop and the Magical Child toy store, which recently consolidated into one location at 134 Main Street, said after the courthouse moved, she noticed a huge decline in downtown foot traffic during lunch hours.
“We hope that it means that people will be coming out on their lunch breaks or their jury breaks or in between cases,” she said.
Across the street from the courthouse at Hope and Olive restaurant, co-owner Jim Zaccara said his business didn’t see a lull in sales after the courthouse moved, but the lunchtime crowd changed from many attorneys to mostly business people, bankers and retirees.
“I think that the return of the courthouse will just add more volume to that,” he said. “We’re very optimistic. We’re really looking forward to having the construction over, which was chaotic and dirty and frustrating for our lunch customers.”
Zaccara said he expects to see an uptick in takeout sales and plans to make staffing changes if business increases significantly. He and his sister, Maggie, also own Magpie Woodfired Pizzeria on Bank Row, and expect to be doing more late afternoon takeout there, as well.
“Magpie has the closest bar to the courthouse that’s open at 4 in the afternoon where you can have cocktails, so that has it going for it,” he added.
The Greenfield Business Association is also doing its part to promote downtown restaurants and retailers. On Friday, four volunteers from the association put together 120 “welcome back” gift bags for courthouse employees in a conference room at Greenfield Savings Bank. The bags include coupons, special offers and other goodies from about 25 local businesses.
Business association board member Elizabeth Fisk came up with the idea of welcoming employees back with the gift bags, saying it was also a great opportunity to promote downtown businesses.
“It’s just such an exciting thing to have those people back, and I want them to know that downtown appreciates them and is super excited to have them back,” she said.
Fisk said downtown business owners were nervous when the courthouse moved out of downtown, but are feeling very hopeful about its return.
“I think pretty much everybody survived (when the courthouse moved), but I think that just that potential of having all these people back downtown is really promising for a lot of small businesses,” she said.