WOODSTOCK — As anyone can tell glancing outside the car window, retail businesses are struggling everywhere. Whether it is along Route 12A in West Lebanon or down the Main Streets of towns like Newport, N.H., Randolph and even Hanover, stores remain vacant as shopping has shifted online.
Now the town of Woodstock, whose apparel stores, gift shops, restaurants and art galleries are a critical component of the picturesque tourist destination’s economy, wants to apply a remedy to the creeping visibility of empty storefronts in the village: Rent money.
Woodstock’s Economic Development Commission is offering a rental subsidy to startup businesses, such as retail shops and restaurants, that will cover a portion of two months rent. The subsidy will come from funds generated by the local 1 percent options tax, which taxes rooms, meals and alcohol sales.
“We were considering different ways to the fill the vacant storefronts, whether to take a carrot or stick approach,” said EDC co-chairman Charlie Kimbell on Monday. “We decided the carrot was a lot more appealing.”
Given its draw as a tourist mecca and perennial image as one of the most “beautiful towns in America,” Woodstock traditionally has experienced attrition with storefronts coming and going.
But Kimbell, who also is a Democratic state representative, said there are currently three vacant storefronts in the “metered district” — principally Central Street/Route 4 and Elm Street — and a temporary “pop-up” store from South Woodstock’s equestrian supplier Vermont Horse Country Store in the space formerly occupied by Vermont Flannel Co., which moved around the corner to Elm Street.
“We know there are some vulnerable store owners,” said Kimbell, co-owner of the outdoor apparel store Elevation Clothing on Central Street. “We just want to fill the pipeline with people who are interested in opening a retail business or restaurant in Woodstock.”
Under the incentive plan, the EDC Fund would provide a tenant with a grant of $2.50 per square foot toward the first month’s rent and a second $2.50 per square foot grant after the business has operated in the space for six months providing certain criteria are met.
The criteria includes the rental space must be vacant for at least six months; the tenant is not already operating a business within the metered district; the tenant has a signed lease for a period of one year; and the lease has to have been signed within the past 30 days.
Commercial space rental rates in historic Woodstock range from $25 to $40 per square foot and most retail spaces are between 900 square feet and 2,000 square feet.
For a 1,000-square-foot space at $25 per square foot, rent would come to $25,000 annually, so a subsidy of $2.50 per square foot would shave $5,000 off the first year’s rent.
Kimbell said the town weighed a “stick” approach that would have penalized landlords for commercial space that is vacant for longer than a year “but we didn’t want to pursue that.”
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.
