SALEM — The Route 28 Mall used to be a one-stop shop for home improvement. There was a flooring store, a furniture store and a tile store, but those are all gone.
Today, White Street Paint and Wallpaper is the sole occupant of the plaza. Every other storefront is dark.
"People go by and they don't think we're open anymore," said Linda Beaumier, a decorating consultant at the store.
The problem is not unique to the Route 28 Mall plaza. Up and down Salem's main shopping strip, stores large and small have shuttered their doors over the last two years. Many remain empty.
"I drive up and down the strip and, obviously, there's a lot more (vacancies) than there have been in previous years," town planner Ross Moldoff said.
Several of the large vacancies resulted when national or regional chains closed down all their locations. CompUSA, Circuit City and Tweeter have left behind large, empty buildings.
Natalie Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Mall at Rockingham Park, said the mall could not disclose how many stores were vacant because of corporate policy.
But a large property Macy's vacated at the mall in 2006 is still noticeably empty. Macy's spokeswoman Elina Kazan said the store moved across the mall in 2006, after Macy's purchased May Company. That company owned the Filene's department store, which closed in Salem that year. Macy's moved into the Filene's location, leaving its original spot vacant, Kazan said. Because Macy's owns that property, the Mall at Rockingham Park cannot lease it.
Moldoff said the town wants to see empty stores bustling.
"We'd like to see the buildings with tenants in them," he said. "It's not good to see vacant buildings — for the economy, for the employees, for all sorts of different reasons."
Chris Goodnow, a commercial real estate consultant, said the vacancy rate in Salem is rising and could get worse after the new year.
"Retailers will hang in through the holiday season," he said. "I would anticipate additional vacancies coming up the first quarter of 2010."
He said much of the vacancy rate in Salem is tied to nationwide woes.
"Salem's retail economy is directly tied to the national retail economy," he said. "Frankly, things are not strong."
Large retail properties are taking longer to lease throughout the region, Goodnow said. When they finally are leased, it is often by a company that could not have afforded the space years before.
"They've been selling for tremendously less than what it would have sold for four or five years ago," he said.
Other big-box retailers are hesitant to scoop up space left behind by chains that have folded, said Harry Shea of Shea Commercial Properties in Salem.
"The big-box guys, unfortunately, they're pulling their reins in. They're not looking for spaces," Shea said. "So if some of them go out, it's very, very difficult to fill."
As some large properties that served as anchor stores sit empty, other stores located in the same plaza suffer.
"I think the anchors are clearly critical in drawing people to smaller plazas," Goodnow said.
Beaumier, at White Street Paint, said the emptiness of the plaza has been especially difficult at night, when the lot is dark. Across the street, a darkened and empty old Circuit City building does not make the area look any livelier.
"It's definitely affected the business," Beaumier said.
Sean O'Donnell, a salesman at the store, said he was surprised there were so many vacancies near the state border.
"You would think places far north would be this dead," he said. "Not a place so close to taxed Massachusetts."
But compared to other areas, Goodnow said, Salem does have some advantages. It provides sales tax-free shopping right over the border from Massachusetts, where the sales tax recently increased to 6.25 percent.
"It's a matter of context," Goodnow said. "Salem, New Hampshire's retail strip, on a relative basis, will do better than every other strip around."
No area has been immune to the retail slump and the empty stores that result from it, he said.
"Go up Newbury Street (in Boston)," Goodnow said. "There is just a plethora of vacancies."
ÔÇæÔÇæÔÇæ
Join the discussion. To comment on stories and see what others are saying, log on to eagletribune.com.
