I am a little bit jealous of the Avalon Chrystie Place in Manhattan. They have a Whole Foods. Our Avalon on the Sound proposed to place a Whole Foods supermarket in their building too, but it did not happen.
Could an upscale, wholesome supermarket be drawn to locate in Downtown New Rochelle?
Attracting a Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or any similar supermarket to an urban area is not an easy prospect. These companies consider walking traffic, demographics and a host of other criteria. With the Avalon buildings, the Trump building, and various smaller apartments and condos there is an excellent market for a more urbane gourmet supermarket.
Trader Joe’s is an excellent prospect for downtown New Rochelle. It has plenty of products that fit into the lifestyle of the urban commuter. I especially enjoy the prepared meals for two with a diverse selection of Indian, Thai, Mexican, and Italian foods. You can’t beat pad thai for $1.99!
So I called the corporate office of Trader Joe’s in California. Why not? Let’s find out if they would be remotely interested in putting a store downtown New Rochelle.
Yesterday, I got a call back from David Saunders, Trader Joe’s real estate representative in Westchester County. This nice gentleman explained that each store serves customers within a 15 mile radius and New Rochelle falls under the Larchmont store. And certainly, downtown New Rochelle residents shop there. North end residents tend to go to the Scarsdale store on Post Road.
Saunders made it clear that all supermarkets need a parking lot. The idea of an urban store without parking works only in larger cities.
We are lucky to have C-Town on Main Street as an alternative for now. C-Town may not have pad thai, but it does serve us well. It is open on every holiday. Even on Thanksgiving Day you can walk over and buy stuffing, seasonings and produce you may have forgotten. And is a prime example of an urban supermarket that does not need a parking lot.
Yet, we need a marketplace with a deli, fresh meat, croissants, and asiago cheese. A place where you can sit and have coffee and read a paper on Sunday morning before going to church or taking a jog or bike ride.
Such a marketplace would draw more downtowners from their safe, comfortable boxes (apartments) to fill the streets and walk, talk and create a greater sense of community.
I stongly disagree
I strongly disagree that a Starbucks would be beneficial to the retail mix of downtown New Rochelle, There are several fantastic cafe’s located in the downtown such as Beanberry’s cafe in the Avalon, Patisserie, ect. Foodservice is not lacking in the downtown there are many options,a Trader Joes would ber great and all, BUT what’s really lacking… RETAIL.
The retail component has yet to follow suit of the food service establishments in the downtown. An H&M, Old Navy or Gap would be a fantasic start to the highly imbalanced retail mix we know as downtown New Rochelle and would serve a broad spectrum of people…To support my opinion, here is an example; if you where hungry and wanted to go out to eat, Im SURE you would have no problem finding a place to eat that fulfilled your desire. On the contrary, if you needed a pair of jeans, shoes, a blazer, dress shirt or even a pair of socks it would be quite the challenge to fulfill this need in downtown New Rochelle! To make the downtown a more balanced neighborhood, retail is crucial to keeping our residents shopping in our neighborhood, patronizing our restaurants and even attracting shoppers from outside neighborhoods.
I Agree
We could use Starbucks’ marketing knowledge as to why they are not in downtown New Rochelle. Perhaps if the renovated Palace Shoe store could have housed an Old Navy or Gap that would have driven people to Main Street. Perhaps Ikea will come back to the table and we can revisit their original plans. In 2000, our present mayor wanted to run for state assembly and he needed Rye, Larchmont, Mamaroneck and New Rochelle and that is why he voted down the project. It would be interesting to see if Ikea would like to try again in New Rochelle. We better hurry before Port Chester, Yonkers or Pelham start getting ideas. It seems the citizens of NR have very good suggestions, if we could only get city government to listen.
Ikea
Ikea would have certainly generated considerable sales tax revenue and property tax. I dont know how much of a symbiotic relationship it would have been between downtown businesses and Ikea though. Home depot and Costco are a prime example.As a destination place, tens thousands of bronx and westchester residents conveniently hop off I-95 and Back on to I-95 with out ever even passing through our little city every week! How many of their customers actually patronize downtown businesses as well? Slim to NONE. Poor planning, poor execution. Did you ever wonder why the Milk is always at the back of every supermarket? Well its because say, you are going to “run” in and buy milk..you are forced to walk past EVERYTHING in the store. This increases the probability of you picking up another item impulsively on your way to the milk or on your way back to the register. This retail psychology is applied in many scales small and large, hence the great success strip malls & shopping malls in the past 50 years. Theres a difference between just doing something and actually doing it well.Putting up a couple of buildings on tax abatement or a couple of warehouse stores on the edge of town on abatement is not doing it WELL or creating a healthy retail mix. A little critical thinking & common sense goes a long way. Listening is one thing… ACTION is another.
Ikea
Ikea would have certainly generated considerable sales tax revenue and property tax. I dont know how much of a symbiotic relationship it would have been between downtown businesses and Ikea though. Home depot and Costco are a prime example.As a destination place, tens thousands of bronx and westchester residents conveniently hop off I-95 and Back on to I-95 with out ever even passing through our little city every week! How many of their customers actually patronize downtown businesses as well? Slim to NONE. Poor planning, poor execution. Did you ever wonder why the Milk is always at the back of every supermarket? Well its because say, you are going to “run” in and buy milk..you are forced to walk past EVERYTHING in the store. This increases the probability of you picking up another item impulsively on your way to the milk or on your way back to the register. This retail psychology is applied in many scales small and large, hence the great success strip malls & shopping malls in the past 50 years. Theres a difference between just doing something and actually doing it well.Putting up a couple of buildings on tax abatement or a couple of warehouse stores on the edge of town on abatement is not doing it WELL or creating a healthy retail mix. A little critical thinking & common sense goes a long way. Listening is one thing… ACTION is another.
Ikea this!
The original Ikea, slated for the ass-end of New Rochelle and smack up against the back door of Larchmont (that was never happening!) was scaled to be as big as their blue and yellow monstrosity off the turnpike in Elizabeth N.J.
Next time your driving south past that ugly box, imagine it up against I-95 and stretching to City Park off 5th Avenue.
Nothing made me prouder than the way we helped to run Idoni’s careless idea back to the Stockholm drawing boards.
And to think they were trying to designate the neighborhood a “blighted area.” Tell that to the just expanded granite fabricators at “Marble America” and the churches, homes, landscape designers and small business owners dwelling in the “Blight” today.
You want an Ikea in New Rochelle? Slap it in on the dumpy sections on North Avenue (take your pick) that remind me these days of Fordham Road in the Bronx.
Want development in New Rochelle? How many cities had a jewel on their books that even came close to Davids Island?
And none of those genius officials of the Queen City, since Ft .Slocum up and left, could ever figure out how to use that island to the benefit of this town. What a wasted opportunity, and yet so very typical of the creativity that yearns for elective office.
What did you want from a guy who’s goal in life was to be a County Clerk?
Robert Moses he ain’t.
Bramson never voted against Ikea!
Bramson never voted against Ikea that I know for sure. He never actually said anything, but it was clear he supported Idoni on the issue.
Ikea was bad for a number of reasons & we all dodged a bullet when Ikea pulled out. The property actually would’ve been abated for 20, 30 or 40 years so we wouldn’t have ever realized any property tax revenue. Ikea tried to sell it based on the sales tax income projections, somewhere in the $2 million range per year.
It was during the Ikea debate that I realized how poorly New Rochelle was run. Rather than contain any kind of expense, Idoni burned off the reserve fund that was flush w/the revenue from new sales tax he put in a few years earlier.
As part of the sale tax agreement, New Rochelle had its own tax cap which Idoni stayed under but only because he depleted the reserve fund down to nothing. Without the Ikea sale tax income and unable to balance the budget within the tax cap, Idoni then spun off the library expense by creating the library tax. That saved the city around $3 million but instead of reducing the city budget by that same $3 million he used it to stay under the tax cap, again a major sell out to the citizens.
The library tax wasn’t very popular and was voted down 2 or 3 times and since this was the 1st budget being voted on, there was no contingence budget because there was never a previous budget.
In fact I think it was Bramson that didn’t want Walmart in the Trump building because it would’ve hurt the mom & pop stores downtown. What a bad decision that turned out to be. New Rochelle needs to contain expenses rather than constantly looking for more revenue and much could be saved if we go rid of the corruption and cronyism in city hall.
But what the bottom line?
Bottom line is, downtown needs retail. Shops that familys can patronize rather that leaving town and spending all their discressionary income in Cross County or white plains for the most basic items and nessecities on the weekends.We need retail where residents from outside communities can shop, not a $10 jean store or a MadRag or a Walmart trash. The restauarants are here already! H&M, Gap, Old Navy, Urban Outfitters these are stores that make sense right now! The question is how can they be enticed?? Tax Abatements? Energy Discounts? Too bad New Rochelle never got empire zoned like Yonkers downtown.
Nobody but nobody likes to pay to park
Free parking would be a good start. Nobody but nobody likes to pay to park. And people dislike parking tickets and the meter maids even more (sorry Community Service Officers, you’re still a meter maid no matter what your employers want to call you). Yonkers- free parking, Mt. Vernon- free parking, Bay Chester- free parking, Eastchester- free parking, Port Chester- free parking, Larchmont- free parking.
New Rochelle does have its share of stores w/free parking like Home Depot, Costco & the Quaker Ridge shopping center & I don’t necessarily think all street parking should be free, but all of these towns/cities have big shopping centers with Free Parking. As it stands now, people rarely drive to shop downtown New Rochelle, the stores only see whatever foot traffic is moving around and that’s not enough to support a Gap, Banana Republic or Trader Joe’s.
And I wouldn’t even try to compare New Rochelle w/White Plains, New Rochelle has nowhere near the retail base that WP does and therefore NR can’t get away charging what White Plains does to park. New Rochelle needs to lure shoppers not drive them away.
Now city hall (& I mean Bramson & the Democratic majority on city council) are going to say, wait a minute we need all that parking meter revenue to balance our budget, well I’d counter that if the stores could actually start generating some good sales numbers perhaps the property values might also start to go up and if we had an assessor who did his job we could start increasing the city’s assessment base. Wouldn’t that be a change for the better? In the short term, layoff whoever needs to be laid-off to balance the budget without parking meter revenue.
Old Navy
BTW, Old Navy recently closed it store in Eastchester across from the Lord & Taylor store. Maybe New Rochelle would be a good place to relocate.
Thats Funny!
Kevin, that’s funny you brought this up! I got information from the landlord of that space back in June of 2010 that Old Navy would not be getting a renewal on its lease, and supposedly a high end food market was assigned the lease… I actually shared that information with members of the BID over a year ago! I wonder if any action was ever taken in regards to that. I felt that Old Navy was a good prospect being its next closest location would be Co-Op City in the Bronx & Cross County in Yonkers, also Old Navy’s product line being so diverse (Mens, Womens, Kids, Baby) and low price point would be something that could serve a broad spectrum of people in the socioeconomic mix of New Rochelle.
Thats Funny!
Kevin, that’s funny you brought this up! I got information from the landlord of that space back in June of 2010 that Old Navy would not be getting a renewal on its lease, and supposedly a high end food market was assigned the lease… I actually shared that information with members of the BID over a year ago! I wonder if any action was ever taken in regards to that. I felt that Old Navy was a good prospect being its next closest location would be Co-Op City in the Bronx & Cross County in Yonkers, also Old Navy’s product line being so diverse (Mens, Womens, Kids, Baby) and low price point would be something that could serve a broad spectrum of people in the socioeconomic mix of New Rochelle.
There’s an Old Navy conveniently located in White Plains
FYI. there’s an Old Navy conveniently located in White Plains. Why do you think they’d open a store in New Rochelle? At least the Eastchester location has tons of shopping traffic going through and passing by. Downtown New Rochelle can’t claim that. And remember, since there’s no sales tax incentive that Eastchester did it all without property tax concessions to the developers.
5th Ave You’re right.
Packaged and marketed properly and with the right relationships, I dont think its such a long shot.
How is it relevant how Eastchester did it? I dont think Downtown is comparable to Eastchester in many ways. The streets in Downtown arent crawling with shoppers because the Retail component is completely missing. What’s there to shop for??? I am a food service business owner and I am in the mix 18 hrs a day in the downtown for the past 7 years. I know whats up, my ear is to the ground. My life is invested here.
What’s your solution to attracting a retailer like Old Navy to downtown New Rochelle? There is light at the end of the tunnel, even in this harsh economy, my business is nearly increased 200% and growing in downtown new rochelle.
Glad to hear you’re business
Glad to hear you’re business is doing well!
Parking, or the lack thereof, is probably the #1 problem & city hall does nothing to address it, in fact city hall makes it worse by approving large developements that require only 1 car space per unit. I think since we don’t have large parking fields we should make it all free w/time limits. There’s lots of meters all up and down North Ave., but how much do they generate?
Eastchester is relevant because NR will give away property tax abatements & rely on sales tax income to attract these retailers when it doesn’t need to as is the case in Eastchester. Bramson & Co already passed on Walmart and that says it all.
The store in Eastchester
The store in Eastchester closed months ago.
I know, the point was that
I know, the point was that Eastchester has a lot of development but doesn’t have to give away the store to get it like New Rochelle does.
This is also true.
New Rochelle will need to offer incentives in order to attract national retailers in downtown new rochelle. Because Eastchester and Downtown New Rochelle are so different, demographically, infrastructually and economically speaking, I think this essential.
Starbucks
Starbucks is not the goal. If anything, it is symbolic of actual development. The goal is attracting an anchor. This is one part of the holistic approach to urban development. Anchors draw people who would not have come into town to shop or browse. They allow for people to be introduced to our local cafes and businesses and, most times, enhance the business of local shopkeepers.
Personally, I dislike Starbucks and would prefer spending my morning in Gallery Cafe or R Patisserie. In fact, I already do.
You are right. We need retail. Target, or a Gap, would be a major anchor. I like Target. They even sell fresh produce in their stores.
Renewing downtown is a major policy initiative that will require all stakeholders to have their say. So much emphasis has been placed on residential development. It is time to put more energy into retail development.
Relying on Outsiders to Save Our City
For too long the city planners have been offering anyone, and I mean anyone the key to the city in an attempt to bring life to the city. New Rochelle has become a “cheap date” inasmuch as you can get as much as you want just by waving a pretty development plan in front of them. We’ve added plenty of people only to find there’s not enough of the things needed to keep them engaged in the city, so, off they go to shop, entertain, and park for free to enjoy their lives outside of this fine city.
Do I need to say it? Adding more and more people who don’t spend their money here isn’t going to (or hasn’t) worked, has it? Even in the slow economy, all around the city has been able to forge ahead with what;s right, for them. Change needs to come from within. WE need to determine what’s right for New Rochelle then find out who’s on board with it. A perfect case in point is the Armory. WE OWN it and nobody in the past or current administration possesses the insight or vision to transform an historic icon into an attraction completely unique to the region, one that can’t be duplicated, a scalable venue custom made to provide a destination for thousands of visitors willing to come to town, enjoy all that New Rochelle has to offer(as in spending $$$) then go home. Perfect scenario. We can spark the fire that would lead to businesses of all kinds wanting to come to New Rochelle, not for the tax abatements, but because it’s a vibrant dynamic market of visitors and residents who are spending money.
Yet the majority party refuses to let anyone move towards that goal. We’ve had millions of dollars available to do just that with no load on the taxpayer. The Democratic majority wouldn’t allow talks to go on, instead, choosing to extend a bogus “revised” (as in we don’t have any money of our own)memorandum of understanding to a developer, who some suggest, is the unindicted co-conspirator in the pay to play Sandy Annabe scandal in Yonkers.
Suffering from the results of poor planning choices, the shadow of Tim Idoni’s Avalon and Trump have cast the shadow of an edifice complex onto a mayor who feels it more important to line his pockets with thousands of campaign dollars from the developer chosen to tear down New Rochelle’s history so they can add more people to an already overburdened infrastructure. Now THAT sounds like sound planning, doesn’t it?
We need to work from within to formulate a master plan that guarantees the proper growth and vitality needed to make this city reach it’s potential. Being bigger doesn’t necessarily equal being better.
Development from within…
Quick note. There is a process for a Master Plan or Downtown Development Plan that involves the entire community of New Rochelle. A private consultant organizes a series of what is called charrettes. http://www.charretteinstitute.org/charrette.html These all-inclusive workshops allow for all members of the community to participate in the development plans. I have seen it work. It is truly development from within.
Govenors Island Success is Another Example
The transformation of Govenors Island in NY City is another example of successfully tapping into the local knowledge base to determine what would be best for a city. The outreach to all involved provided the framework needed to move forward with a stellar master plan.
Wasn’t there a Whole Foods that was supposed to come to Avalon 2
Maybe you can ask someone, like the BID, why that supermarket never came.
Whole Food was in the package
I remember reading an archival newspaper article that Whole Food was part of the retail development offered by the Avalon. I have to dig deeper to see if it part of the actual contract with the IDA.
Whole Foods is Waiting for Target and Kohls to come to New Roc
The developers float this nonsense and hope something sticks… Section 8 Housing, Large Populous of Illegal Immigrants, concistent murders, and daily armed robberies along with transient populations in Avalon’s do not make downtown desirable at this point in time. Potentially the downtown could thrive but not under the present City Administrations approach. Gentrification is not achieved by lining large developers pockets when the small investors come in and throw money in and increase the quality of tenants and owners it slowly will turn the wheel. Until then it will continue running on empty.
Whole foods
A whole foods would be champion.
I must agree with you Kevin it would be nice to have a high end something in New Rochelle. I think New Rochelle’s answer to that is by making one of our many dollar stores a two dollar store we can be high end.
I was under the impression that a whole foods was going into the trumph towers when it was first being built, was that rumor or did the deal fall through?
Good report Kevin, keep up the good work.
Thank you. It was not
Thank you. It was not attached to Trump. It was definitely Avalon.
downtown
we should start with basics. First step is to make a ID ofice on Main Street. DeBart seems to work off his pocket blackberry. Second step is to provide basic protection for the area; we attracted high end residential but no one has really asked them what they would like to see open here but more important, to provide basic police storefront or precinct protection. while we are at it, why not show the City cares about the area by moving some of its assets out of “fortress 515” into available space downtown. that is what more enlightened communities are currently doing; even Albany has gotten the message. It would also help if the entire new business prospect was opened up for the first time meaning necessary code changes, equivalnt incentives to rtain businesses threatened by %$60 or so square foot rates on renewal,Abatements for new buiness is one thing; similar incentives for inducing landlords to moderate renewal rates is just as important and that could mean re-zoning as well as revisiting the comprehensive businesss plan and strategy.
But all I get are grand statements from the Council about need for new small business and nothing more. It is time for residents to get active on this point; the two major tax reform needs facing the City are the school district and the revitalization of a retail small business enterprsie. As far as New Roc. the Planet Fitness pretty much kills the dream of enticing large retail establishments.
A Starbucks is of limited value. We have Kaffeines and the facility under Avalon I. Again, ask the residents what they want and need. You will notice a deteriorating population meaning a migration away from both locations as well as management changes.
Jim Killoran and I are going to work on the issue of coming up with real alternatives to grow this City and one has to be honesty in terms of the lack of meaningful attention paid to the revenue areas of the school district and small retail business development. It is like anything else. You begin by protecting what you have, you build via asking people what they want or need, and you support. We don’t need a BID with a celphone, or a multiple MOU broken dream in New Roc or, for God sakes, the amount of inattention given by the 4 democrats and 3 republicans supposedly knowledgable enough to know what goes into attracting and retaining residential and commecial development. We don’t need to bring in retail establishments that replicate or frankly, will not succeed in an area where the disposable personal income and lack of protection, parking, etc. will not make it worth any business’s while.
Mr. O’Shaughnessy, you want a positive community. Then work at it. Stop stifling someone who brings a voice for change; one that sometimes troubles me, but I don’t question his right or ability to report. He gets off his butt and pokes around. Others should do the same.
There is not a single issue in New Rochelle that is so complex that people of good will cannot positively impact it and make changes. I am going to Guion Stree Saturday because any change is positive and may lead to other good acts.
I admire the fact that the candidate is bringing up ideas and personally appreciate the growth in problem solving comments I am noticing on TOTS.
warren
Downtown
I mentioned Starbucks because having three large apartment buildings in a small area is a perfect place for their business. Because they are not there means something is wrong. They have a location on the Iona campus and north end New Rochelle. That means disposable income 24/7. Have you forgotten that the city stated moving into the Avalons and the Trump building means a New York city apartment at a lower rent and a quick train ride into Manhattan. That means people are not around to spend money during the day. If the city has such faith in our downtown 515 should move there. It seems the citizens of New Rochelle know where the problems are and willing to solve them. Let’s not forget about the train station. There should be a police kiosk during hours of operation.
what’s that
what’s that under New Roc?
Downtown New Rochelle
Kevin you have some very good ideas. I often wondered why we never had a Starbucks in downtown NR. With three large apartment buildings you would think this would be a prime location. I cannot take advantage of the farmers market because of the 8am to 3pm hours. It would be great to see them on the library green on Saturday. In order to purchase local produce, I have to go to Larchmont, Hartsdale or Rye farmers markets. I feel that whoever is in charge with attracting the kind of businesses you are suggesting has no clue what is needed. They seem to be waiting for business to come to them instead of going after them. We certainly missed out on Fairway, etc. It is time citizens get together and fix our downtown.
.
Starbucks Would be a Great Anchor
Starbucks. That is an idea overdue. But these corporate decision makers look at the demographics, traffic count, etc. to determine store location. Despite the fact that there are nearly 1,500 residents with average yearly income of approximately $140K per year in the Avalons and Trump, even Starbucks is hesitant to make a placement here.
But I will reach out to Starbucks too. It doesn’t hurt to ask. The idea is to attract an anchor. Then other businesses will develop and benefit from the presence of the anchor.
I spoke to a local businessman today who pushed to have the farmers market in the Library Square. Before it was behind Division Street and not well advertised nor attended. Now thousands of cars pass it every Friday morning and the vendors are loving the business.
It would be fantastic to have the market open on Saturday. And it would make perfect sense!