It was 10 years ago when Amanda Wilbourne first opened her store, the Nautical Dog, in New Town, and since then she said she has noticed frustrating reactions to the business trends.
“It’s always super negative,” she said. “And I don’t know why. There are these rumors and ideas spread from comments on Facebook and social media that don’t necessarily understand what has happened.”
Wilbourne said when a store closes, she has noticed people tend to latch on to an idea that businesses can’t stay in New Town. But her business, she said, is an example that notion isn’t necessarily true.
She added residents have often indicated to her that New Town seems to lose a lot of shops. In the past year, a number of businesses have closed such as JuiceFix Juicery and Corner Cafe.
Drew Haynie, first vice president of Thalhimer/Cushman and Wakefield which owns shops on the New Town Shops on Main, said the area follows the market in other locations in terms of occupancy rates. On average, the 248,000 leasable square feet of the shops is about 89 percent occupied.
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, the national rate was around 93 percent occupied in 2017.
But even with that track record, owners like Wilbourne hear people comment on how businesses have trouble staying in the area.
“I think the myth conception is that people say the New Town rent is skyrocket high and that’s really just a rumor.” Wilbourne said. “With this day in age, with businesses being so competitive against online, it makes sense that some won’t last.”
The New Town Shops on Main are home to a variety of different experiences, from shopping to restaurants. The area specific to the New Town Shops on Main are the businesses located on Main Street in New Town that are directly adjacent to the New Town Commercial District.
The New Town on Main shops are owned privately but the district is managed by the New Town Commercial Association.
To maintain a balance of variety for the shops on Main Street, Haynie said part of the process is to track those business trends on a national scale and consider what would do well in a regional market.
“Certain categories within the retail landscape are retracting nationally as a result of changing consumer habits,” Haynie said. “Blanket and widespread closures and bankruptcies of dozens of typical mall tenants as well as big box stores has produced high levels of vacancy in the soft goods.”
In 2017, there were about 662 bankruptcy filings in the retail sector, according to Bankrupcity Data, a division of New Generation Research.
Wilbourne said there seems to be a heavy focus on closings at the New Town Shops on Main, though. She said the rumor she hears most often is that the rent is too high.
“That just isn’t true,” she said. “I honestly don’t know where that idea came from because I’ve done the research and it’s comparable to other markets in Williamsburg.”
For each location there are different rates based on supply and demand and also the actual structure, Haynie said. As an example, he said a store with an end-cap space that has a glass wrapped corner might have a higher rate than a location with less front space.
“In a perfect leasing world, the balance of locally owned small businesses and popular, nationally branded business…will occur organically based upon consumer demand and a center’s location combined with a center’s amenities,” Haynie said.
Some of those businesses thrive and some don’t, Wilbourne said.
As a small business, she said it is especially frustrating when people target the New Town area when shops come and go all over Williamsburg.
“People will actually come into a store when it first opens, for example, and say ‘Good luck, you probably won’t last,’ and I just always try to combat these negative comments,” she said.
After 10 years, she said her business, which sells various items for pets, has done so well it recently expanded this past October to double its size.
“People have to know it’s just the nature of retail,” she said. “When you open the store it might not be a success.”
