nothin 3 Stores Close; 4 Restaurants To Open | New Haven Independent

3 Stores Close; 4 Restaurants To Open

Thomas MacMillan Photo

Tracy Bonosconi shows a customer a necklace at Tracy B’s Wednesday at the final day of a clearance sale.

Three former Chapel Street business owners will soon work side by side — in Branford.

One of them is Tracy Bonosconi. She ran the downtown boutique Tracy B — and closed it for good on Wednesday. She said she looks forward to opening a new shop in Branford soon.

Her new store, Lovet, will be next to two restaurants that opened there after their owners left Chapel Street three years ago. Those two Branford restaurants are run by the former operators of Chapel Street’s Roomba and Bespoke.

Several doors down from the now-closed Tracy B, near the corner of College and Chapel, a going-out-of-business sign is up in the window of Celtica, the Irish-themed gift store. In between, at 1022 Chapel St. (pictured), the windows of the recently-closed Lisa Jones jewelry store are papered over.

Tony Bialecki, the city’s deputy director of economic development, said he doesn’t think the closures are a sign of bigger trend. More businesses have opened than have closed in the last year he said, and New Haven’s restaurant scene is flourishing.

Chris Ortwein, who works on downtown business for the Town Green Special Services District, concurred. She said four new eateries are slated to open downtown in the month of March. One will be the Caseus venture in Richter’s. She declined to name the others.

Bonosconi (pictured) said she operated her Chapel Street boutique since 2008. She said she decided to relocate to Branford due to a confluence of factors: The recession, soaring rents, changes to parking rules downtown, and the rise of online shopping.

The economy really hurt,” Bonosconi said. When she first opened the store, she would stock dresses for $250. In the current economic climate, she’s had to shift her price point to about $100 per dress, she said.

It just got harder and harder and harder,” she said.

Time was, Yale freshmen would come in and shop with unlimited use” of their parents’ credit card, she said. That stopped happening when the economy tanked.

Meanwhile, Bonosconi’s rent has been increasing, she said. The rents never came down from the height of the market in 2008, she said. Her retail space is owned by Yale University. Store manager Becky Harper said she counted seven vacant Yale-owned spaces in two blocks around Tracy B.

Then the city changed the parking rules, charging for parking up until 9 p.m.. That hurt over the Christmas holidays,” Bonosconi said.

I need to run out and feed my meter,” said a customer. Bonosconi smiled ruefully and shook her head. I can’t enjoy my shopping experience while I’m worrying about getting a ticket,” the shopper said.

Bonosconi said a customer recently told her that city parking enforcement officers have been standing and waiting for meters to expire so that they can give out a ticket. That kind of parking enforcement drives away shoppers, Bonosconi said.

I can only tell you that I have not heard these concerns from Tracy or really any of the other businesses,” replied Jim Travers, the city’s traffic czar. Without a doubt, my direction to parking meter attendants and supervisors is they’re to walk their beat and if [the meter light is] red, write a ticket. If it’s green, keep going.”

Travers said he hasn’t seen a drop in shopping as a result of the extended parking meter hours: When I look at parking downtown in the evening … people are still parked. It’s not like the streets are bare.”

Bonosconi said she has also been the victim of a rise in online sales in recent years. She’s jumping on board that ship with her new venture, Lovet. She’ll have a small store of that name in Branford, but she’ll also conduct online sales from her new website.

Bonosconi said she’s sorry to leave town. She grew up in West Haven and spent much of her adult life in New Haven. But she hasn’t taken a paycheck the last couple of years, she said. She can’t afford to stay in town.

Bialecki said he’s sorry to see Tracy B and Celtica closing. Certainly I think it’s unfortunate because those are two great businesses.”

There is a certain reality that we are still in hard economic times,” said Ortwein. You’re dealing with boutique shops that have been through Hurricane Sandy, a flat holiday season, and now a snowstorm.”

It’s been a tough road the last couple of years” for retail businesses, Bialecki said. A lot of stores have felt the pinch from online sales, he said. That might ease with Amazon’s new agreement to charge sales tax in Connecticut, Bialecki said.

But restaurants are doing well downtown, Bialecki said. Ortwein said four new eateries will open in March.

Bonosconi said that while new businesses are opening in town, they tend to be owned by big corporations. Chipotle and Shake Shack, two chains, have recently opened downtown. A Panera restaurant is on its way.

If that trend continues, Bonosconi warned, then every town ends up looking like every other town.”

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