04/21/08 - Greenwich Bussiness Roundup - The Chain Stores Are Drving Up Rents And Pushing Out The Independent Stores In Greenwich

Downtown business update: New Balance staying; others on the move
New Canaan Advertiser, CT

By Colleen Flaherty

New Balance owner Ron Rosenfeld wants New Canaan to know his store is not closing.

“It’s absolutely not true,” he said of a rumor that his sneaker store was meeting the same fate as its Main Street neighbors, The Wire Whisk and, more recently and right next door, Knoyzz.

“I’d like to know who started that,” he said. “They just assume this whole group over here is going out.”

Mr. Rosenfeld said that New Balance had readjusted its expectations after its first year, but that things were getting better after a slow holiday and early winter season.

“We’re up 25 percent over last year,” he said, attributing increased sales to a now-established regular customer base, a good product and outreach through podiatrists.

But, said Mr. Rosenfeld, “The rents here are outrageous. It’s way too much.”

Mr. Rosenfeld would not disclose what he was paying in rent, but said that New Canaan landlords were going to have to readjust their prices, which did not “coincide” with the poor “retail environment.”

“Anywhere the customer is spending money right now,” he said, is hurting.

Indeed, pain — that in the wallet — caused the small women’s apparel chain Knoyzz to close its 126 Main Street location last month, after a year and a half. Owner Richard Moskowitz attributed the closure of his store, which has other “successful” locations in Westport and Mt. Kisco, N.Y., to New Canaan’s low customer volume in relation to its high rents....

... Mr. Moskowitz would not disclose what he paid in rent, but said that it would have been 40 percent higher on Elm Street, and pointed out the increasing number of national chains setting up shop there, possibly more for marketing than for revenue.

“Only the big boxes are going to be able to afford it,” he said. “Independents are a dying breed. What New Canaan didn’t want to be, which is another mall, it’s going to become.” That, he said, is already happening in Greenwich.

Pam Ogilvie, executive director of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, found fault with Mr. Moskowitz’s assessment the Town’s retail future.....