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They Ain’t What They Used To Be
Second-generation outlet complex opens in Westbrook Nov. 2
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Business New Haven
10/23/1995
By: Mitchell Young
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What can denizens of an “under-outletted” state expect when the Westbrook Factory Stores open November 2 in Westbrook?
Based on the history of the developer, Charter Oak Partners, in the 13 centers it has developed around the U.S., in Phase I 45 merchants will occupy 265,000 square feet of retail space, selling middle-market brand names such as Reebok and J. Crew, at 20-70 percent off manufacturers' suggested retail prices. In Phase II, a year from now, space is expected to expand to 400,000 square feet housing 55 to 60 merchants, including more upscale merchandise.
“I'll be very busy at the National Retail Merchants convention in April,” says Shelly Gravino, vice president of marketing for Charter Oaks Partners, “inviting folks from the Ralph Laurens and Calvin Kleins of the fashion world to join us in Westbrook at the largest outlet complex in the state.”
The design of the Westbrook Stores echoes a New England train station. Shoppers will enter stores from covered walkways open to the outdoors, reminiscent of 19th-century New England towns.
According to Charter Oak officials, Westbrook is based on the “village concept,” intended to offer customers smaller, more manageable areas than traditional malls. Stores are constructed around a series of five courtyards open to the sky.
Each courtyard will feature something of local note. A car from the Essex Steam Train will be the anchor for one, while a 1902-vintage wooden sailboat will set the theme in another. Food carts will be located in each court, and there will be an indoor area for food, as well.
The complex will employ about 400. Nina Dolishny-Regan, marketing manager of the Westbrook Factory Stores, says that at its September job fair, of 500 applications received, 70 percent were from Westbrook residents. Of the 400 hired, 150 are full-time and 250 are part-time employees in the various stores.
Of the $15 million privately funded project, $11 million will go toward Connecticut-based contractors and companies working ten hours a day, seven days a week to meet the opening date. There is no state funding for the project, which began on March 8.
All 14 of Charter Oak's facilities, including Westbrook, are located in tourist centers. Vacationers come to eastern Connecticut for the Connecticut/Rhode Island shoreline and the Foxwoods casino. They may also go to Fort Myers, Fla. for winter warmth, to Park City, Utah, for skiing, to Foley, Ala., to enjoy the Gulf of Mexico, to Williamsburg, Va. for the history, and to Lincoln City, Ore., to play in the Pacific Ocean- which is why Charter Oak built stores there during the 1980s. Newly opened are stores in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the company recently expanded the Ocean Outlets in Rehoboth, Del. Others are sited in Illinois, Texas, New Hampshire and Georgia, with another planned in Gainesville, Va.
“We offer vacationers something to do when it rains or when they just want a break from the sun,” Gravino says. “And, of course, the insider joke is we're always praying for rain.”
A privately held company founded by president and CEO C. Cammach Morton of New Canaan, Charter Oak Partners announced last month that it would merge with Factory Stores of America, which owns 35 outlet malls. The merger will be completed by year's end, at which time the yet-unnamed new firm will go public.
Factory outlet store malls have evolved from factory and storerooms with merchandise hung on bare racks and where last season's unsold items were peddled at near cost, usually for cash. Whole towns became centers for separate factory stores, usually attracted by a popular retailer such as L. L. Bean in Freeport, Me. Outlet stores carry seconds, irregulars as well as last season's unsold styles and factory overruns which never made it to the retail merchants.
Now, buyers should know that some manufacturers “cut for the outlet stores,” meaning that the Mark Cross bag you see in an outlet store is not of the same quality one would find in its Fifth Avenue store or on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. You also won't pay the same high prices. As in all shopping, “let the buyer beware.” The buyer who shops retail first and knows current quality and prices can shop outlet stores to best advantage.
- Terry Pitt
A Bush in
the Hand
Presidential sibling says goodbye Gotham, hello City of Elms
So, what in the world was Jonathan J. Bush thinking about when he decided to relocate his investment-management firm from Manhattan to New Haven?
J. Bush & Co. Inc., which manages investment portfolios totaling approximately $200 million, was founded in 1970 by the younger brother of the 45th President. Earlier this month Bush, who has homes in Manhattan and Killingworth, was in town to announce that he would relocate his firm to the Elm City by year's end. The Yale graduate (Class of '53) expects to have seven portfolio managers here, leaving a couple behind in what will become the “branch” office in Gotham.
“What it really boiled down to was the timing,” says Bush. “Sometimes these things take a while to crystallize. I'd be prepared to move, and then I'd think, 'I can't leave New York because of our client base.' When you're in a service business like we are, you have to spend a lot of time on the phone with people, visiting with people. A move like this, when 90 percent of your clients are New York-based, is a scary move. But the timing seemed right, and none of our clients have been opposed to the move.”
How does New Haven's status as an economically distresses city potentially affect his firm's business? “We're locating in New Haven, and looking for business in New Haven,” says Bush. “But New Haven is also a hub. If you take New London, Hartford, Watertown, Middlebury - these have people with substantial portfolios. And there are lots of businesses in Branford, Madison, Clinton, all around, that are doing very nicely. So New Haven's specific condition was not a deterrent to us. The region is under-investment-managed, if you will.”
Fellow Old Blue and golfing pal Christopher Getman, a Merrill Lynch vice president who helped to persuade Bush to make the move, believes that his friend “will make a real difference in this community.” Bush is the most recent past chairman of the United Negro College Fund, and helped to raise some $280 million for that organization's recent capital campaign.
Still, Bush demurs when asked about community projects he might take on. “You have to find out what the opportunities are first,” he says. In New York, Bush spent six years as Republican state finance chairman, and taught tennis in Harlem every Monday night for a decade.
He does say he hopes to work with Yale officials “to convince alumni to come to New Haven,” a city, he says, “that should be great. It's got a great university at its hub, and should be a magnet to draw people and businesses. Big, big businesses should be coming in there. But people are afraid of New Haven, for some reason. But that can be dispelled. Attitudes change. And I'd like to be a catalyst in that. I'm not exactly sure how, but I'm going to find out when I get there.”
- Michael C. Bingham
Not a LaChance
New Haven to lose its last bike shop, but another may fill breech
New Haven's only bicycle store is about to close its doors, a victim of hard times, urban blues and a proprietor's mid-life career change.
Joel LaChance, owner of Cycles LaChance at 1144 Chapel Street, is trading in his wrench for a ruler. After 16 years in the biking business, LaChance is going back to college to become an elementary school teacher.
He says “It's impossible to know” whether he would have stayed put had his bike shop been doing better financially. But he says he's wanted to leave retailing for some time, and is enthusiastic about entering teaching.
Of bike sales and services, LaChance says, “It's a seasonal business with a low profit margin. People all the time complain about the price of repairs or think you should do it for free, or say 'Can I pay you later?' or ask, 'Can I use your tools?'
“We get no respect,” LaChance says with a laugh. But he means it. “Most of the people who are willing to pay don't live around here.”
His business boomed for several years. At one point LaChance had six employees, but he's seen a “profound decrease” in business in recent years due to the recession and increased suburban competition. Financial problems also mitigated his ability to carry top-of-the-line models with a higher profit margin. In addition, he says, his shop's proximity to two recent homicides and two other attacks on downtown shoppers didn't help business.
So why can't the Elm City, a haven for cyclists, support several bicycle shops, much less one?
While bicycle sales have risen nationally in recent years, the bulk of that increase has been in mountain or hybrid bikes. And relatively few cyclists ride downtown. Most live in the suburbs and take their bikes to shops near their homes.
Yet despite those trends, someone is riding to the rescue of city cyclists. Frank Keys, proprietor for 15 years of Baybrook Cycles in West Haven, says he is “100 percent committed” to opening a shop to fill the gap when Cycles LaChance closes its doors. He's considering four locations, including LaChance's, though the front-runner is on York Street next to Toad's Place in a space that hasn't been used for retail but was recently renovated by Yale University. He hopes to open by January.
“I understand the limitation of downtown,” says Keys, “but I still think we are going to have a strong shop. I expect at first to get mostly walk-ins, because the parking is difficult and because of perceived crime. We'll serve the Yale population and professional people. Last year I sold 15 bikes to [the architectural firm of] Cesar Pelli.
Keys plans to open a full product range, from used bikes to inexpensive two-wheelers to Cannondale's forthcoming $5,000 model. The question is, will Keys provide the kind of service that has endeared LaChance to his now small but loyal following - service that includes on-the-spot flat tire repair and opening his doors to regular customers after hours when they need emergency brake cable repair before riding home?
- Melinda Tuhus
Falling Leaves
Home market slipping
The Greater New Haven Association of Realtors released its most recent sales data for the period through September 1995. The latest data shows the home-buying market has plateaued and is slipping after a solid increase between 1993 and1994. While the results at first appear to maintain the gains (see Databank) , according to area Realtors the market, and home prices, are weak.
Anecdotal evidence is also discouraging. Says Barbara Pearce of H. Pearce in North Haven, “It's spotty: Some [areas] are up, but it's hard to differentiate between your own market share and the how the town is actually doing.” Prices are also weak: the Realtors showed a ten-percent drop in average sale price. Says Pearce, “Prices haven't really gone up much; they're still bumping along the bottom. The shoreline market is stronger than Woodbridge, but prices everywhere are weak” In New Haven, says Pearce, “In more affluent neighborhoods we're short of inventory. We don't have stuff to show people. We could sell it if we had it.”
Of new homes, Cuozzo says, “The new-home market has held its own throughout all this. We've been instrumental in selling new homes from $130,000 to $750,000. New construction is not brisk but they're selling.” Consumer confidence is restraining the market. Says Cuozzo, “The employees that are here are staying put due to their uncertainty, and we don't have a new pool of buyers being hired by Connecticut industry”. Pearce adds, “If you were to pick one factor that drove the housing market, it would be the Consumer Confidence Index”.
The silver lining of the soft market? It's a great time to buy, says Cuozzo. “As long as somebody is willing to buy and not move within a two-year time period, this represents an incredible opportunity to buy at the prices out there, coupled at 7.5-percent financing.”
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