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Poland Commerce Fades
Photo
SIGNS OF THE TIMES: The economic downturn has made it more difficult to find tenants for retail property, such as this building at McKinley Way and Main Street in Poland.
By Rick Rouan
Economy, geography hurt retail in village, but optimism lingers
By RICK ROUAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
111But after the shop where Stout had worked more than five years closed earlier this year, she opened her own bridal shop in Poland in an area that is a gateway to one of the Valley’s most affluent suburbs.
But for every jewelry store and bank in the heart of Poland, a storefront sits empty.
The reasons some buildings sit empty are twofold: the economy has forced businesses to close, and the plazas are simply too far from the Boardman traffic along U.S. Route 224.
“You’re looking at where the true regional retail is: Southern Park Mall, Shops at Boardman Park. That’s where most retailers want to be,” said Steve Platz, a Realtor. “The farther you get away from the Shops at Boardman Park, there’s a little less demand for retail or restaurants.”
Poland has what Platz called “neighborhood retail,” small businesses that feed on the residential township, and features more service industry businesses such as doctor’s offices.
“Elderly patients don’t want to be on that 224 corridor,” Platz said.
The area is better suited for convenience businesses, such as banks, dry cleaners and drug stores, said John Scotford Jr., leasing manager for McBarScot Company.
McBarScot owns the Town One Square plaza, which now has a handful of empty storefronts. Nationwide, plazas are facing a 10 percent vacancy rate, and rents have declined 1.7 percent from this time last year, according to a quarterly report from Reis, a company that tracks national commercial real estate trends.
Scotford blames the recession for most of his vacant buildings, but he acknowledges that Poland is not a metropolitan shopping area and that it lacks the traffic Boardman offers.
“Poland is still different than Boardman in the sense that I still consider Poland as a bedroom community,” he said. “The shopping is always driven to Boardman.”
But Scotford said he still believes that Poland has a historical niche to fill in the Valley’s retail market.
“We don’t really have the big-box mentality for Poland, even though Poland has some demographics that retailers would be interested in,” Scotford said. “Not all businesses fit what Poland has been historically.”
That historical sense of what Poland has been helped lure Stout to Poland, she said.
The building Stout now leases on North Main Street better suited her renovation plans. Stout said she wanted an unconventional bridal shop and that her Poland location would be easier to renovate than one she considered in Boardman.
Plus, the price was right.
“That’s a factor with everyone,” she said. “At this point, I think people are trying very hard to work with people who are starting businesses.”
Renting space to open a shop nearer to the Shops at Boardman Park can cost about 20 percent to 30 percent more than in Poland, Platz said.
“People want to get out of the strips because they’re so costly,” said Gary Susko, a property owner who runs several properties in Poland’s North Main Street-U.S. Route 224 corridor.
Big strip malls will tack on “care and maintenance” fees on top of rent to help pay for maintenance and improvements to the properties, said Susko, who has owned property in the area since 1976.
Susko said he’s renovating one of his recently acquired vacant properties and using the other to store renovation and maintenance supplies.
Mayor Tim Sicafuse said that the village does not have plans right now to help attract small businesses to the corridor.
The village cannot give tax breaks because it does not charge an income tax and it cannot enforce lower rents, Sicafuse said.
“There are some things to look at. I’m aware of it, but I don’t know what we could really do,” he said, adding that the problems the plazas have are not unique to Poland in this recession.
But while the economy is still spurring double-digit unemployment and the country sits in a recession, Scotford said he anticipates a rebound in the near future.
“I still feel there’s an ebb and flow at the moment. And though I still think it’s going to be tough as nails out there, I still have received inquiries,” he said.
“I don’t think Poland has fallen out of favor.”
rrouan@vindy.com