Thomas Breen photo
The Storefront Formerly Known as Starbucks at 195 Church.
Starbucks has jumped ship from its groundfloor commercial space at Church Street and Elm Street, leaving in its wake another empty storefront in a retail landscape transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Seattle-based cafe giant has permanently shuttered its 195 Church St. location at the northeast corner of the Green, according to a paper sign taped to the former cafe’s front door.
“As of Sept. 13 this location has been closed,” the sign reads. “Any Mobile/Uber Orders made have been forwarded to the Starbucks on Chapel and High St. Thank you and we apologize for the inconvenience.”
The closing of the retail storefront, which had been occupied by Starbucks since 2018, comes as the national chain has announced that it will shut roughly 400 stores nationwide in the coming year and a half because of reduced business due to Covid-19. In July, the company announced that its third-quarter net revenues were down 38 percent this year compared to 2019.
“Lost sales of approximately $3.1 billion relative to the company’s expectations before the outbreak included the effects of temporary store closures, modified operations, reduced hours and reduced customer traffic,” that July press release reads. A Starbucks press contact did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.
Thomas Breen file photo
Paul Denz: Coffee chain left abruptly.
Northside Development’s Paul Denz, the local landlord who owns the 18-story office building at 195 Church, said his company was caught a bit off guard by Starbucks’s abrupt departure.
“We were notified a week or 10 days ago that they were closing,” he said. “So it was a little bit of a shock to us.” He said Starbucks did not complete the duration of its lease, though at the time of his interview with the Independent he did not have in front of him the exact terms of the lease.
He recalled hearing this summer about Starbucks’s plans to close hundreds of stores nationwide. “I thought at the time that was a really bad idea for them to do that,” he said. “But I was not really thinking our store was going to be impacted.”
He said that he believes the cafe’s business on the Green was driven in large part by office tenants — both those who work at 195 Church, as well as those who work at other nearby Downtown office building and at City Hall. With so many office tenants working at home since the start of the pandemic this spring, he said, the cafe likely lost many of its Downtown New Haven customers. “I’m sure they’re way off” now in comparison to pre-pandemic levels of business, he said.
He added that representatives from the Starbucks at 195 Church frequently raised “security concerns” to him and Northside management. Those included concerns about people wandering into the store to use the bathroom to use drugs.
“We went over and above, including hiring private-duty New Haven police officers” for the store, Denz said.
As for what’s next at that site, Denz said he would like to see another cafe and dining spot — some business that serves coffee, breakfast, and lunch. He said he has reached out to local cafe owners to see if they’d like to fill the space.
“So far I don’t have any takers,” he said. “If that fails, we’d probably go to the brokerage community that handles this type of retail. I personally would love to see an Au Bon Pain operation, a Pret A Manger operation, that did breakfast, coffee and lunch.”
Denz said that he personally is still working primarily from home, though he swings by his office at 195 Church two or three times a week. He said he has seen some of 195 Church’s office tenants return to the building, and expects more to do so in the coming weeks and months.
“But I don’t think it’s going to be rush back to the office by the end of the year,” he said.
Starbucks isn’t the only Downtown business to close up shop during the ongoing pandemic. Other Covid business casualties include Ann Taylor, The Beer Collective, and Duc’s Place.
Ask the owners of Bread & Chocolate on Whitney Ave in Hamden if they want a 2nd location. Their food is great! Or a second location for Soup Girl, also on Whitney in Hamden.