Editorial

Let?s Halt the Decline of Route 132

There once was a thriving crossroad of commerce at the Gateway to Hyannis

But that was yesterday, and these stores and more have left town.

A few ideas about how to turn it around

In Monday’s edition of Extra we learned that TGI Friday’s had joined the exodus of businesses from the Route 132 area of Hyannis.  With Borders poised to close, Old Country Buffet eaten away, and the former Filene’s Basement growing dank and cold – Route 132 is starting to look like a ghost town. 

Vacant storefronts abound at the Festival mall – Old Country Buffet, Blockbuster and Coldstone Creamery plus several other spaces are available.  At Southwind Plaza (site of Stop & Shop, Home Depot and Old Navy) the 25,000 square foot Borders will soon go dark – leaving the gateway to that plaza abandoned.  Over at the Airport Shopping Plaza the 40,000 square foot Filene’s Basement remains vacant and the storefronts where the Airport Cinema’s once thrived stand dark. 

Before that Chili's left, and the town in its wisdom turned that property into an anti-pedestrian park - just try to get there alive.

Then we come to the 23,000 square foot store that Berkshire Development constructed for Circuit City just in time for them to back out as the company struggled for survival. 

The long term vacancies of Filene’s Basement and the Circuit City building attest to the difficulties of filling spaces of that particular size and configuration.  Fortunately, both Wal-Mart and Target recently unveiled future expansion plans that include stores in the 20,000 to 30,000 square foot range.

And the retreat goes on

Barnstable once again demonstrates its hostility towards business development in the blighted Main Street area.
   A developer is going to bring 300 jobs and $500,000 in tax revenue to Barnstable, but they want to charge for "mitigation"?
   Talk about quid pro quo - you can build this but you have to agree to buy things for the town in order to get permission to build.
   Meanwhile downtown Hyannis looks more and more like another slum. Mr. Doe mentioned that he drove through Hyannis the other day and found 36 realtor or "for lease" signs.
   So much for the downtown redevelopment.
   Read the Barnstable Patriot story here.

In October Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced plans for 30 to 40 of its planned 185 to 205 new U.S. stores to be of a smaller format.  Some of these new Wal-Mart’s will be of less than 30,000 square feet and focused on smaller, more densely-populated communities.

When Wal-Mart occupied the former Bradlee’s in Falmouth a decade ago the chain may have mis-gauged the geography of Cape Cod.  Any Cape Codder knows that few people from the Lower Cape will go to Falmouth for anything including a Wal-Mart.  It’s often difficult to get them past Hyannis. Indeed, folks from Falmouth aren’t likely to sojourn to Orleans to shop at TJ Maxx, either.  While the Wal-Mart in Falmouth is a success, the chain would find fertile ground on Route 132 in Hyannis.

Similarly, the traditional Target store runs between 125,000 and 200,000 square feet.  In September Target announced its City Target concept for small-format stores in urban and densely populated areas. 

Another big consumer draw right now would be an Apple retail store.  With the nearest Apple store in Hingham, perhaps the Cape is ready to buy their iPhone, iPods and iPad’s right from the source at long last.  According to ifo.applestore.com the typical Apple retail store is in the 3,000 to 6,000 square foot range, with some growing as large as 20,000 square feet. 

While the national chains enjoy infamous difficulty in attempting to build new stores on Cape Cod, it would be quite difficult to prevent them from occupying a pre-existing retail space, especially in the case of the brand new, regulator-vetted Circuit City building.

Perhaps the future of Route 132 lies in these national brands.  A Wal-Mart “Neighborhood Market” would fit very well in the Circuit City building.  Target could do a lot worse than the spaces at the Airport Shopping Plaza or the Festival.  Half of the Borders store would make a very attractive Apple store, perhaps with the half where the café was located serving as a “Royal Discount” type of bargain bookstore, selling remainders and other discounted books – anything, please God, but another art/craft supply store. 

VOTE in our POLL:

What is stopping the economic growth on Cape Cod?

O The Cape Cod Commission.
O The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.
O Wasteful spending by our Pols.
O The current recession.
O The first three above.
Vote here.

Lest we forget, downtown Hyannis still boasts the vacant Puritan Pontiac building that was originally constructed for the Mars Bargainland discount chain and boasts some 50,000 square feet of space.  At one time that part of downtown featured Mars Bargainland, First National, Stop & Shop, W.T. Grant and the very first Zayre store.

Regardless of what some at the Cape Cod Commission, Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and other scallywags may believe Cape Cod needs national retailers.  Since the demise of Bradlees’ what is more inconvenient than trying to buy a toaster on the Lower Cape on a Sunday in March?  One can pay full retail at a hardware store, see if the Christmas Tree Shop happens to have toasters that week or trek off to Hyannis.  You can’t even buy a $12 toaster for double that at Snows because they’re closed on Sunday in winter.

Hyannis must maintain a solid base of national retailers that Cape Codders want to patronize, lest more drive right past Hyannis and on to Wareham or Plymouth.  Without continued cultivation, Route 132 will become just as hopeless as downtown Hyannis.

Hyannis already has two strikes against it with a surge in violent crime and degradation of its retail base on Route 132.  Soon the Cape will likely face competition from a destination resort casino somewhere in southeastern Massachusetts. 

If Route 132 does not soon restore itself as an attractive retail center, Cape tourism will continue to suffer from the decline and fall of Hyannis.