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Time of Transformation
A burst of business and community energy has kifted the Silver City out of its doldrums
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Business New Haven
3/5/2001
By: Linda Mele
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From antique car exhibits and Sunday hours at the library to Meriden-Markham airport and rail passenger/freight service via Amtrak and Conrail, the Silver City is at the forefront of Connecticut's economic recovery, say city officials.
Economic Development Director Randy Kamerbeek and Greater Meriden Chamber of Commerce president Sean Moore say they are excited by what Meriden has to offer businesses that want to relocate to or expand within their city.
“We have eleven professionals enrolled in the new 2001 edition of the Meriden Leadership Challenge, a program to promote business and civic leadership in the Meriden community,” Moore explains, adding that “the six full days of leadership development, training and community exposure began on January 30 [and] runs through June.”
Moore says Meriden is “doing very well” and that the city “is at a very interesting time” in its history.
“We expect a few things we're working on to come to fruition soon,” Moore adds.
Merchants and small-business owners concur with Moore and Kamerbeek, although they won't go so far as to say the business climate is ideal.
Stone House Fine Cakes & Pastries co-owner Armand Stone says his four-year-old business located on Hanover Road, is doing “pretty good. I don't see any slowdown.”
Michael D'Angelo, owner of MaryHeart Crusaders, a religious bookstore on Colony Street, says he attributes his business' success to the fact that it's so specialized in sea of general-interest book vendors.
D'Angelo notes that he sells religious books and items so he can't say he'd be doing as well if he sold all kinds of books and had to compete with the big guys like Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks and Internet giant Amazon.com.
“Our biggest problem downtown is parking,” D'Angelo says, “and if the city wants to fill up the empty stores, something has to be done about providing more parking.”
Gallery 53, which is owned by the Arts & Crafts Association of Meriden and directed by Brenda Payne, has been in the downtown area on Colony Street since 1981, explains volunteer Esther Thompkinson.
Thompkinson says the gallery is a place for local artists to show their wares. Its exhibitions change every two weeks.
A recent show, All Creatures Great and Small, featured paintings (oil and watercolor), pastels, sculpture, drawing and prints, photography and crafts. The artworks were raffled off with proceeds benefiting the Meriden Humane Society and the Audubon Society.
According to Thompkinson, “We have a lot to offer” including shows, classes and exhibits. The gallery also features a retail shop where fine artworks and handicrafts by local and regional artists are displayed and sold.
“The city is doing a lot to revitalize downtown,” Thompkinson says, “and as a part of the Meriden business community I'd say we're doing well.”
Thompkinson says some art and cultural projects are also coordinated with and sponsored by other businesses and organizations like the YMCA.
According to state figures, there were 28,817 employed people in Meriden in 2000 out of a workforce of 29,400, which translates to an unemployment rate of two percent - highest in the New Haven Labor Market Area, though low by national standards.
The state's Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD), which also has a regional satellite office in Meriden on Pratt Street, says that Meriden's housing permits for 2000 totaled 68, up from 43 in 1999.
According to DECD's quarterly Economic Digest, Meriden currently has 24,869 housing units, of which 13,046 are single-family dwellings. An additional 3,347 house two-family units, 8,003 are earmarked for three or more family complexes and 473 are mobile homes and other residence facilities.
Meriden has also been designated an Enterprise Zone municipality which makes businesses thinking about locating there eligible for some investment opportunities as well as state tax abatements and credits.
About 18 percent - 72 discrete properties of from 200 square feet to 1,800 acres - of the city's land is designated “parkland,” which means one of every six acres is devoted to parks and undeveloped areas, according to officials.
According to the city's official Web site (www.cityofmeriden.org), other current projects include:
- Renovations at Town Line Center have begun and it's expected that Old Navy and Linens & Things will be added to other existing shops like Marshall's and Pier One Imports.
- Planning for a multi-field softball complex with restrooms and a clubhouse is underway, along with a bicycle trail that would run from South Meriden to the northeast corner of the city.
-The Thomas Edison Middle School, an inter-district magnet school with a science and technology theme, will begin admitting students this autumn.
- A 32,000-square-foot office complex on Broad Street and an 8,500-square foot addition to Hunter's Ambulance Service on West Main Street are planned.
-Pharmacy chains like CVS and Rite-Aid are constructing new retail stores within the city. Graeber's Pharmacy, which is locally owned and operated, is adding 5,000 square feet to its store. Hancock's Pharmacy, also locally owned and operated, has completed an 1,800-square-foot expansion which features a drive-through window.
-Meriden Square Mall has added 150,000 square feet of space, which includes Lord & Taylor, several specialty stores and a parking garage.
-A 75,000-square-foot Super Stop & Shop is complete, a critical component of the revitalized intersection of East Main and Broad streets.
- Other companies or organizations that have chosen Meriden as home include Barakos-Landino, an architectural engineering firm, the Mid-State Medical Center (a private not-for-profit community hospital), the Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory, Cablewave Systems and Walbro.
The city is also home to one of the state's Superior Courts, a DECD Business & Learning Center, the newly renovated and expanded YMCA and the Max E. Muravnick Meriden Senior Center, which has also had a complete facelift.
“It seems like we've been in Meriden forever,” says Kathy Robinson, the newest family member to manage the 80-year-old Greenbacker Agway on Murdock Avenue.
“The store was started by my great grandfather as a store to supply feed to farmers and grew into what it is today,” Robinson says, “because we knew we had to change with the times.
“We've lost some customers to the big chains because people think it's cheaper to go there, but we have a lot of loyal customers who like the personalized service we provide,” Robinson adds.
Edie Marcantonio has owned and operated About Flowers & Gifts on Main Street in South Meriden for 14 years.
“Compared to some others downtown, this is a small shop,” Marcantonio says, “but we're doing well, I think, because we're in South Meriden, which is sort of an entity unto itself.”
Meriden is also home to the “Beat the Street” Community Center on Railroad Avenue, at which nearly 100 children and adults participate in the center's two largest programs: the Silver City Boxing Club and the Goju Karate program, according to Larry Pelletier, the Center's founder and director.
“The YMCA is funding a study regarding the feasibility of making the downtown area an arts and entertainment district,” May says. “It's the first step and doesn't mean it will happen, but without the study the project couldn't happen.”
With all of this good news, it seems Meriden could be called a yet-unpolished gem in the state's crown - and one of the communities that is leading the way into the new millennium.
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