SRC Main Street: Still Here and Ready for Business

Last month Jay Hannah’s Café became the latest business to close at the South River Colony Main Street shopping center. Built in 2004, the center is located just behind South River Colony Marketplace, which includes Kmart and Food Lion retailers.

The center can't be seen from either Solomon’s Island Road or Route 214, and retailers say that is one of the reasons why it has been difficult to drive foot traffic to the center. In recent years several businesses closed including Blockbuster Video, Pomodoro Italian Grill and Jack in The Box Toys. In a recent , the center was described as the place "where businesses go to die."

Despite the negative attention these closings have generated, there are several original tenants thriving at the center, like , , and Salon and Spa.

This year the center will add two new restaurants as well—Bill Bateman’s Bistro and Stan and Joe’s.

Business owners were unhappy to hear their shopping center was viewed as a retailer’s graveyard—and several spoke about why they think the center is actually great for business.

Tenants Comment

Several stores have been doing business since the shopping center was built in 2004. Dawn Linderman, owner of Body Wellness has renewed her lease twice and is very happy with the location. She said the center is hard to find but it helps to have a destination business.

“Once people find the shopping center, they love it, as long as you are a destination you will do fine here,” she said. “It’s a small town atmosphere with big city services and that’s really what this whole shopping center is about.”

Another original tenant, Ty Christian owns Parkemoor Home. He has expanded his store twice and now occupies a large section of the center. He said Main Street has been a great place for his business. He said the location has worked for him because he has a well-established client base. This has come through years of getting to know people in the community and really listening to what his customers want.

“As a small business owner, locally, I can listen to what my customers are saying and what they’re looking for and actively search for that,” he said. “That’s how you adapt. You listen to what your market is telling you they want,” and the benefit of a small business is that we can respond to those requests.”

Mary Weiss owns and said she thinks the economy has made it tough for any retailer no matter where they’re located.  “Everybody’s having a hard time all over the world,” she said.

Weiss said she has seen several businesses close since the center was opened but said the economy likely had more impact than the centers' location.

“It’s not to say the shopping center has not done well. It could do better,” she said “But that’s because of the economy and because there’s luxury retail businesses here.”

Weiss was optimistic that as the economy slowly recovers, so will business at the center.

“There’s been a lot of negative comments spoken about the shopping center,” she said. "But I’m positive and when the economy turns around business will turn around too.”

Mike Sanford owns and has just renewed his lease on Main Street. He said he is pleased with the location. “I think I have a great location for my kind of business,” he said.  “If you give people a reason to come to the center I think those kind of businesses are going to do a lot better.”

He also commented on the negative attention all the store closings bring to the center but said he thinks people don’t often realize there are places that have done really well for years in this location. “There have been so many businesses that have come and gone I think they take precedence over people who are doing well in the center.”

Sanford said he thinks the lasting businesses work well with each other often help to generate business for one another. He said new businesses will do well in the center if they can do the same. “I think right now we’ve got a great mix of businesses here,” he said. “They [new businesses] should be a place that works well with the other businesses that are already in the center.”

opened this year and owner Tommy Lee said he has lots of ideas to help generate business for the center. He said so far his business has been doing well and he recognizes the need for all the tenants to work together. Lee will soon begin offering a ‘Parents Night Out’ where parents can drop off their kids at the Edgewater location for fun activities while their parents meander down Main Street and hopefully visit some of the other vendors.

“The center is a great place but we're hidden and people don’t know we’re here,” he said. “Businesses that fail to market die, the problem people have with this shopping center is that customers don’t know we're here, we’re hidden—but that’s it.”

Lee said it’s a challenge to generate foot traffic to the center but several business owners are working together on new marketing strategies. The Parents Night Out events along with other activities planned for the summer are all part of a strategy to drive more customers to the center.

Looking Forward

John Bruno was one of the  developers who built the center and said the negative remarks about the center are unfair to his tenants and he wants to make clear that the shopping center is doing well. He said recent store closing are an unfortunate symptom of tough economic times.

“We went through the same thing that every other commercial and residential community has gone through in the last four years,” he said. “But we have a number of tenants who have been here from the beginning and percentage-wise we’re no different than anyone else.”

Bruno explained that he is excited to see the new businesses come to the center and there are more businesses expected to open later in the year including an upscale consignment shop.

“Times change,” said Bruno and offered the example of Annapolis’s Main Street shopping district. “Take a look at all the vacancies they have down there and you’ll see we’re not much different.”

Scott Shineman is the leasing agent for the property and agreed that the closings and current vacancies are typical of the tough economic times. Shineman also mentioned that despite the construction of other shopping centers in the area the real estate value of this location has not been affected. He added that the center’s best days are likely ahead of it and he looks forward to all the new businesses opening this year.

The South River Colony Conservancy manages the common areas and landscaping needs for the center. Michelle Collett is the assistant manager for the Conservancy and has been working with several business owners on ways to generate more foot traffic to the center. She said there are plans to hold First Friday events from May through October featuring live music and other incentives for people to visit the center. There are even talks of a Farmers Market and other family friendly events to attract more traffic.

“Main street is kind of hidden off the beaten path and its hard for people to see it and know its there,” she said. “The whole point is to basically create more awareness over at Main Street and some additional exposure and traffic.”

Collett was not happy to hear the center characterized as some kind of retailer’s graveyard and points to the new additions to the center are proof business is growing.

“There are so many new openings coming up with Stan and Joe’s, Bill Bateman’s and now East Coast [Martial Arts]. This isn’t the place where businesses go to die it’s where they come to live."

Editor's Note: the writer spoke with the owner of Jay Hannah's, who refused to talk on the record about the reasons why his business closed.