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No Getting Backer’s Back
After 65 years, men's clothier quits downtown for suburbs
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Business New Haven
10/19/1998
By: Michael C. Bingham
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Frank Backer figures he's given downtown New Haven a fair enough trial period in deciding whether he wants his retail men's clothing store to be located there.
It's been 65 years, and no, he doesn't.
Backer's eponymous store is one of the last of what was a legion of clothiers and other retail shops which lined Church Street earlier in the century. But now the store, which Backer's father opened the same year Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office, is quitting downtown for greener pastures: the Boston Post Road in Orange, which increasingly has become the retail capital of greater New Haven.
The new Backer's at 236 Post Road will house 5,400 square feet of men's clothing and furnishings, in contrast to the 3,600 feet the store has occupied at 41 Church Street, across from the former Macy's building, since 1960. Backer hopes the new store will be open by November 1.
“With the loss of Macy's downtown, the amount of pedestrian traffic on Church Street has diminished significantly, and we find ourselves only relying on out-of-town customers coming into New Haven,” Backer explains. And those customers “continually tell us they have a hard time finding safe and convenient parking downtown.”
Backer cites the disappearance of a critical mass of retail activity downtown as a key factor in his decision to seek the greener pastures of the Post Road, following the lead of other downtown retailers such as Temple Luggage before him.
Although the move had been rumored for months, Backer said no one from the city, specifically its Office of Business Development, has approached him to suggest alternatives. However, Backer acknowledges that Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce President Matthew Nemerson, who heads the non-profit foundation that owns nearby Chapel Square Mall, approached him about managing the men's department of the flagging Yale Co-Op in the mall. Backer told him he wasn't interested. “That store is a disaster,” Backer says.
Backer's defection comes at a time when the city of New Haven is seeking to spend upwards of $70 million to revitalize downtown, with much of that investment targeted toward mass-transit projects (see related story, page 8).
But according to Backer, only Nemerson asked the question, “Is there anything we can do to help you stay in New Haven?” Responded Backer, “You should have thought of that a long time ago.”
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