North End businesses go fashion forward
By Sean Sposito, Boston Globe Correspondent | June 22, 2009
Boston fashion has an unlikely new address: the North End.
While some retail districts are increasingly dotted with empty storefronts, the North End is seeing a burgeoning number of boutiques that sell everything from designer dresses to high-end handbags. It’s a big change for a neighborhood better known for authentic Italian cafes than high-end dress shops.
The North End is benefiting from a retail sweet spot - a combination of low rent, improved access since completion of the Big Dig, and increased foot traffic from sports fans leaving games at TD Banknorth Garden.
Since August, three new boutiques - Moda, an athletic apparel store on Salem Street; Bobbles & Lace, a Prince Street store selling designer clothing, purses, and jewelry; and Filthy Rich of Boston, a high-end jewelry and accessories store on Hanover Street - have set up shop. They join seven other fashion boutiques that have arrived in the neighborhood since 2004, and cater to young, hip professionals.
“I looked on Newbury Street, I looked in Beacon Hill, I looked in Downtown Crossing, I looked all over,’’ said Amy Montminy, the owner of Filthy Rich of Boston. She said she moved to the North End because she was looking for a small location that had a lot of foot traffic. “I was looking for a tourist-y, neighborhood-y storefront.’’
That the North End is becoming a fashion hub is a shift for Boston’s oldest neighborhood. The historic North End, which covers less than 2 square miles and stretches between Cross Street and the Boston Harbor waterfront, has strong Italian flair and fare that has earned it the nickname Boston’s Little Italy.
“When I moved there, you could forget about finding any new clothes’’ in the North End, said Emily Durrant , who tried on a dress at Twilight, a dress shop on Fleet Street that opened in 2007. The grant administrator at Harvard University’s School of Public Health moved to the North End five years ago. “Now, you can find an outfit for a night out.’’
The North End’s growth is, in part, because the recession is making it hard for some local businesses to afford higher rents in other parts of city, such as the Back Bay and Beacon Hill. Newbury Street, an eight-block stretch that used to be Boston’s hottest address for trendy boutiques with rents running as high as $200 per square foot, has had several retail closings recently. By comparison, rents per square foot in the North End range from $40 to $90, with the highest prices found on the neighborhood’s main artery, Hanover Street.
“Small boutique people that found the rents expensive elsewhere, they found a welcoming community in the North End,’’ said Annette Born, a commercial retail broker.
Indeed, Lindsay Rose Rando, a co-owner of Bobbles & Lace, which opened in February, said she and her business partners were being quoted between $5,000 and $8,000 for an 800-square-foot space on Newbury Street. In the North End, on Prince Street, she said they are paying less than $2,000 for a similarly sized space.
“It kind of found us, and I’m really glad because I hear Newbury Street is not what it used to be, and people are shopping in smaller, less expensive places,’’ she said.
Some local officials say stores are moving to the North End because, along with lower rents, there have been significant increases in foot traffic to the neighborhood. One reason, they say, is that the string of winning seasons by the Celtics and Bruins has drawn more basketball and hockey fans to the neighborhood before and after games at nearby TD Banknorth Garden.
Another big reason for an increase in traffic, they say, is that it’s simply easier to get to now. The North End is more accessible with the removal of the Central Artery, which separated the North End from the rest of the city. Today, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, a one-mile stretch of parkland that officially opened in October and sits atop the Big Dig tunnels, makes the neighborhood easier to navigate.
“The Big Dig - that was our recession,’’ said Frank De Pasquale, head and founder of the four-year-old North End Chamber of Commerce, which has nearly 200 members listed on its website,
www.northendchamberofcommerce.com. Now, “everybody is looking for locations,’’ said De Pasquale, who owns eight North End businesses.
So many retail businesses have moved to the North End, in fact, that a group of owners in the area last September created an offshoot of the neighborhood’s chamber of commerce. The group of about 15 retailers, including Red M studio on Prince Street, High Gear Jewelry on Hanover Street, and Boston Common Coffee Co. on Salem Street, organizes shopping events, such as the “Spring Stroll’’ in May, at which merchants offered discounts to shoppers.
“Because there are so many restaurants down here, we kind of found that there was a need for, specifically, a retail group,’’ said Beth Hoyos, co-owner of the Velvet Fly, a vintage shop that opened on Hanover Street in 2007.
To be sure, despite the openings of trendy boutiques, some North End businesses are suffering from the economic downturn, as consumers cut back on discretionary spending. But North End retailers say they are better positioned to weather the tough times in the historic neighborhood.
Alessandra Miele said business at Moda, the athletic apparel shop she opened in August, was slow in the winter. Still, she said the North End is a good place for retail businesses to set up shop: Moda is Miele’s second business with her partner, Alicia Orr: They opened North End Yoga in October 2007.
The North End is “not only a destination to dine out but also a destination where you can shop,’’ Miele said.
)
All are in good quality and I would love to sell them off, but I'll only be their for a week.
