GREENFIELD — A new report that will guide Greenfield into the future and inform the city’s Sustainable Master Plan focuses on the city’s downtown, and Mayor Roxann Wedegartner says an anchor store is a priority to help revitalize that area.
The Greenfield Downtown Business District Assessment and Market Analysis, funded by the state Department of Housing and Community Development’s Massachusetts Downtown Initiative, looked at and surveyed businesses, organizations and residents about the downtown.
“It has given us some good data to work with as we move forward,” Community and Economic Development Director MJ Adams said. “Surveys were done in the middle of COVID, and 798 residents and downtown users answered them. The results give the city a road map of information to help it understand what it needs to do, to change, and where to go from here.”
“I’ve read the report and I like it a lot,” Wedegartner said. “It’s pretty accurate. People who responded (to surveys) made some interesting observations. There’s not a lot of deviation from what I’ve heard anecdotally.”
Wedegartner emphasized the downtown area needs an anchor store, with the focus being on revitalizing the former Wilson’s Department Store on Main Street. Franklin Community Co-op, which runs Green Fields Market in Greenfield and McCusker’s Market in Shelburne Falls, had expressed interest in expanding there, but allowed its letter of intent to move in to expire after the start of the pandemic.
“Maybe the co-op will decide to move in there and give shoppers more options, maybe the building will be put on the market, maybe the owner will work with a developer, or maybe something else will happen,” Wedegartner said.
Greenfield’s downtown is full of arts and culture venues, coffee shops, retail stores, social services and more, and the pandemic has had an effect on all of them, but the city would like to return to some sort of normalcy. While the mayor said it’s nice to have offices and services downtown, they shouldn’t be, for the most part, on the street level; instead, she believes retail shops should be in storefronts.
Adams said one piece of data that is of interest is that there is a strong “vintage, reuse” cluster throughout Greenfield — consignment shops, comics, records, antiques, collectors — and that makes the city unique.
“Greenfield is also very focused on wellness, fitness and recreation, as well as the environment,” Adams said. The next step is to take the information from the report, formulate a plan, update the downtown revitalization plan that was done in 2003 and start implementing it.
“In these uncertain times, we’re looking at how to reopen safely and move forward, so we don’t want to rush anything,” Adams said.
The report includes an assessment of real estate and business conditions that includes input from business owners. A market analysis, including consumer patterns and preferences, was also done.
“The report is a great tool to help us attract retail businesses and others,” Wedegartner said. “We want our downtown to be attractive, to draw people who want to work there, shop there and live there. We want to continue things we’ve been doing during the pandemic, like outdoor dining, public art installations. We’re also looking at redesigning Court Square, putting some tables on the common so that people can get takeout and eat lunch there.”
Wedegartner said her only disappointment was that the report didn’t spend enough time looking at demographics. For instance, she said, she would love to know role private schools play in business downtown.
“Those people — students, visiting parents, etc. — come to the area on a regular basis,” she said. “They look for unique stores and favorite chain stores and restaurants. We could use that type of information for developing our marketing plan.”
The mayor said the good news is Greenfield just got word from the state that there will be downtown revitalization grants available to cities and towns in the near future.
“We’ve got a current report to show them, so that’s going to help us a lot,” she said. “We certainly hope to secure some of those grants.”
Among the data collected in the report is that the downtown contains 286 commercial units (at the time of inventory in September 2020). At that time, there were 35 vacancies with Wilson’s Department Store leaving a “major” vacancy.
Downtown is home to about 251 establishments, including retail, restaurants, recreation, services and other entities, and about 75 percent are independently owned, single-location businesses. Ten percent are chains and franchises and 15 percent are nonprofits or public entities.
More than half of those establishments (58 percent) are services, 17 percent are retailers and 14 percent are restaurants, leaving 11 percent to fall into the “other” category. The 42 retailers include several food and beverage stores, large chain drugstores, an optical shop, a few clothing and jewelry shops, gift stores, sporting goods, toy and book stores, and several vintage and used goods shops.
There are 27 eating and drinking places in the downtown, all with different price ranges. Nineteen of those serve alcohol, and six restaurants typically offer outdoor seating. A few others did so in warmer temperatures during the pandemic.
One of the unique features, the report states, is the downtown’s arts and entertainment options, which include an independent movie theater, a performing arts center and a couple of small performance spaces for live entertainment.
The courthouse, legal offices and many social services agencies also occupy downtown buildings. There is also the John W. Olver Transit Center with bus and train service, a new parking garage on Olive Street, greenspaces/parks, a library (a new one being built), City Hall, banks, a post office and a YMCA.
“Downtown is a major employment center,” the report states. While there is a precise number, it continues, it is estimated that downtown has more than 2,200 employees, including full time and part time, based on the results of the business survey.
“The good news,” Adams said, “is that businesses reported increases in their revenues the three years prior to the pandemic.”
Some of survey takers’ complaints included issues related to parking, like aggressive ticketing; loitering and drugs, including intoxicated individuals hanging around the downtown area; and empty, rundown storefronts and buildings. Other complaints included no evening activity, not enough businesses, and no anchor stores or destinations.
“We’re already working on parking issues, like aggressive ticketing,” Wedegartner said.
Survey takers saw some of the advantages and positive aspects of downtown Greenfield to be its proximity to complementary businesses, accessible location, walkability, friendly and supportive residents, available parking, and reasonable rents and costs. Wedegartner said she was pleased to see so many positive comments about downtown Greenfield.
For more information or to see the full report, visit bit.ly/3oEtu5Y.
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.