The retail space at 21 Governor Street has been available for more than six years. The library was a temporary tenant several years ago — that’s when the word ‘Ridgefield’ on the front of the building was paired with ‘Library.’ — Thomas Nash photo
With huge front windows on the sidewalk and plenty of parking right in front, the retail space in Ridgefield’s picturesque village with its high-income demographics should be sought after, fought over, quickly filled.
That hasn’t been the case at 21 Governor Street.
“Sporting goods, pet foods,” said Brian Dornan, executive managing director of Stamford-based Pyramid Real Estate Group.
“I’m just trying to get something in there, whether it’s furniture, food, sporting good, pets …”
The former grocery store spot in the Donnelly Shopping Center has — except for an 18-month temporary occupancy by the Ridgefield Library — been empty since April 2009.
“It’s 10,000 square feet, with a 10,000-square-foot basement,” Dornan said.
“I actually did the deal there 25 years ago, with Hay Day, so I have familiarity with this spot,” he said.
“When I did the Hay Day deal there, it had been the Gran Central Market for years.”
There were aspects of the Hay Day occupancy that made the site work well for it.
“Hay Day had retail on the ground floor and the basement was a commissary — that’s where they made all their prepared foods for all their stores. It cut the price of upstairs in half, because they didn’t have to rent space for the commissary,” Dornan said.
The Balducci’s chain bought the Hay Day stores, and rebranded the Ridgefield location. Then Balducci’s itself went through ownership changes.
“They were bought and sold a couple of times,” Dornan said. “I think at the end there was just too much building in Ridgefield for these guys.”
Dornan said he’s tried a lot concepts for the spot.
“I”ve looked at the food court concept. They will come up there and they don’t know if there’s enough traffic to cover it,” he said.
“I was looking at Day Spas …
“It’s a great spot with good parking downtown. It had a significantly strong draw for all the years it was Hay Day and Balducci’s.”
Penny Wickey of Saugatuck Commercial Real Estate, who studied the retail district for the Board of Selectmen, told the board that — contrary to some of the concerns town leaders expressed — the village commercial district doesn’t have a great deal of vacant space. But the former supermarket on Governor Street is an exception.
Wickey said she thinks the location has potential.
“I just think it’s an interesting, a very interesting opportunity, and would think there’s a way you could get some traction if you were able to engage beyond, outside the specific broker, real estate concept,” she said.
“If you went to the town and talked to the Chamber of Commerce and engaged beyond the leasing people. It’s a variation on crowdfunding, you’d bring the whole town to the table. …
“Get the town and selectmen and Economic Development Committee to actively support the leasing to an appropriate tenant,” she said, “… involve the town in active support for the site — there may be more power as you present that to different retailers.
“Those are the important things — demand and positive energy/community support,” she said.
“The trick really is to show that there’s energy and demand in that location. Those are the key retail concepts — demand, spending dollars, and energy to activate the site.”
Dornan said he was open to the idea of a group approach, working with both town officials and other Realtors.
“I’m trying to reach out to them myself, the ones that I know, and I’m also trying to reach out to all the brokers so we can get as much market penetration and as much market position as I can get,” he said.
“I’ve got e-blasts out. I do e-blasts to hundreds and hundreds of brokers in the greater New York metro area. So everybody’s aware of the space,” Dornan said.
“More than half the deals I do, I co-broker with other brokers. But you’ve got to get lucky.”
First Selectman Rudy Marconi said he’d be happy to help.
“I offer anything I can do, whatever that is in supporting an occupancy for that space, for years a grocery store,” he said.
“Originally built for First National stores, it went to Gran Central, to Hay Day, to Balducci’s,” Marconi said. “As a food destination, the use brought tremendous foot traffic to downtown Ridgefield.
“And as an end use it would be great if we could see that somewhere in the near future. But I understand it’s a privately owned property and government shouldn’t get involved. But as happens in most communities, the success of your downtown is a critical part of the well-being of a community.”
Dornan said he and Stamford-based Pyramid Real Estate Group had the reach and experience needed to rent the site — it’s just a tough market these days, with “bricks and mortar” retail businesses battling online operations.
“I’ve been in the business 30 years, and been doing retail and investment leases and sales in metropolitan New York and Fairfield County and New Haven County for over 30 years,” he said.
Ridgefield is not alone in having difficulty filling retail storefronts, he said, or in seeing a lot of commercial space becoming occupied by restaurants since the downturn eight years ago.
“Lots of restaurants — that’s every town,” he said. “Retail has slackened off since since ’08. …
“There’s empty space in a lot of markets.”
The asking price for the space is $18 a square foot, triple net — which means additional charges on top of the $18 per foot to cover taxes, insurance, and a common area maintenance fee for things like plowing and landscape care.
Dornan makes it clear that might be flexible, however.
“We’re encouraging offers. I don’t want to put a floor on it,” he said.
“The landlord is decidedly motivated.”
Lots of people have offered ideas for the spot.
“I’ve had calls from probably 30 or 40 people from the town, for all kinds of things,” Dornan said. “The difficult thing is, you’ve still got to pay the rent. …
“This is rental space — with parking, on the ground floor, that really should be retail, and it should help bring some traffic to the town.”
The space on Governor Street has its own challenges.
“One of the tough parts of this is the size of it,” Dornan said.
“The building is 135 feet deep. The perfect world is one tenant, because of the functionality of the space — it’s deeper than it is wide.”
Dornan said he was looking into “the potential for two 5,000-square-foot units” in the space.
“The subdivision has to be practical,” he said.
“What you have there is a deep space, so it’s hard to subdivide it in a practical way — and there’s cost associated with all that; you have to have bathrooms, HVAC and electric separate for each space.”
When she appeared before the selectmen in the fall to discuss the retail study she’d done, Wickey said the space appeared well-suited to “a boutique grocer,” and Dornan agreed.
“It looks like it was built as a grocery store,” he said.
“It is heads up for a grocery — it’s got the infrastructure, all the electricity,” he said. “There are some walks-ins still downstairs.”
He knows the town is eager to see the space filled.
“All I hear from people is they want something back. They want Trader Joe’s,” he said.
“I talked to Trader Joe’s, and they tell me, ‘We opened one in Danbury, and Ridgefield’s not on our radar right now.”
He’s had plenty of suggestions for other grocery chains that might go into the spot — Mrs. Green’s Natural Market, Whole Foods, B Fresh (a Stop & Shop concept) — he just hasn’t found one willing to sign a lease.
“That’s just what I was hoping for,” Dornan said.
“To me, it works.”
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