Re-energizing Larchmont's Downtown

By Janet O’Connell

On Tuesday, September 22, the Larchmont-Mamaroneck Local Summit convened at the Nautilus Diner for its first breakfast meeting of the fall. The topic was “Re-Energizing Larchmont’s Downtown.” The four panelists were the Village of Larchmont Mayor Anne McAndrews; Village of Larchmont Administrator Justin Datino; Carolyn Fugere, Manager of the Larchmont office of Julia B Fee, Sotheby’s and Head of the Larchmont Chamber of Commerce; and Tiffany Smith, Co-founder of the group Love Larchmont 10538.

The discussion was wide-ranging, and the participants were earnest and conscientious, and in a true American tradition, the solution may come through a cooperative effort on the part of government, commerce and volunteerism. The room was filled to capacity, and it was clear that this is a topic of great concern to Larchmont and Mamaroneck residents. Several panelists as well as attendees noted that Mamaroneck Avenue is bustling, in such strong contrast to downtown Larchmont.

Carolyn Fugere said that both as a realtor and the head of the Chamber of Commerce, she is anxious to build up the community in which she is selling homes. The Chamber of Commerce has grown substantially since she joined the organization and then became its head, growing from 35 businesses to over 100 in just a year’s time. The Chamber has worked to get people into town and to walk around so that they will want to come back to shop. They have organized the local store owners and restauranteurs to participate in several “Date Nights”, and holiday plans are in the works for December. The Chamber intends to introduce new businesses to the community and then work with the local government to create the optimum environment.

A few months ago, Larchmont resident Tiffany Smith, together with her friend and fellow Chatsworth mom, Amy Sullivan, was dismayed by the number of empty stores in Larchmont and seeing a need they created a Facebook page called “Love Larchmont 10538” with a heart in place of the zero in the zip code and an image of the Manor Park gazebo superimposed in the heart. Tiffany reported that the response to both the Facebook page and a survey they created was overwhelming. The group received over 1300 responses to the survey and there are 2000 members in the Facebook group. Of the respondents to the survey 85% have children and 65% said that they were new arrivals in town. This group of residents is anxious for a lively and robust downtown. The number one request in the survey was for a sports store.

Ms. Smith encourages residents to shop locally. She recommends that instead of driving to a big box store, go to Foley’s or one of the other stores in town. “Everything is right here,” she observed.

Mayor Anne McAndrews explained what the Village has been doing to improve the appearance of the downtown, especially along Palmer Avenue. The Palmer Avenue Streetscape project is scheduled to be completed by the end of October, and she promised that new trees will be planted by then. The Village is subject to many restrictions and different jurisdictions. For instance Boston Post Road is a U.S. route and any changes are subject to regulations and restrictions. She noted that many people have asked why they did not bury the overhead wires along Palmer Avenue, but she said that ConEd would not allow it, and it would have been prohibitively expensive. There is bedrock throughout the area and in some places it is only about eighteen inches below the surface making it impossible to bury the wires.

Justin Patino introduced himself by giving a quick recount of his education and previous work experience. He came to Larchmont three months ago after working as an assistant to the Scarsdale Town Manager. He serves on the Elmsford town board where he lives. His role is to keep open the lines of communication between departments. Personnel is the largest expense of the Village and happily all of our department heads are competent, he reported. Mayor McAndrews, in response to a question about responsibility, said that Justin reports to her and the board of trustees who are the elected officials of the village. His actions are subject to the consent of the board of trustees. He has a great deal of responsibility and authority but ultimately it is the Mayor and the Board who are accountable.

The Village has almost no power to say how an empty store must look other than by appealing to the building owner’s good will. According to the tax rolls, many building owners are listed as LLCs and the address is in care of a managing agent in Manhattan. The Mayor was finally able to track down the owner of the building where Active Sports used to be (next door to Citibank), and she prevailed upon him to do some work on the building. He is spending about $200,000, mostly inside, to reinforce the unstable floor and to satisfy some fire codes. The owner has promised to do something about the façade and the sidewalk. Tiffany Smith’s group also put some pressure on him. She said that the law needs to be rewritten because at present public opinion is the only recourse we have to get a building owner to act.

Mr. Patino pointed out that the Village serves the storeowners in a myriad of ways including the timely removal of snow and managing the parking. He said that the Village Hall receives frequent inquiries from potential businesses, and everyone is instructed to be helpful and responsive to callers. Both Ms. Fugere and Ms. Smith were intrigued to learn about these inquiries and suggested that the Village pass these names along to them so that their organizations could help attract new businesses to town, since, as Mayor McAndrews noted, the Village does not have a P.R. person.

Judy Graham, the owner of Pink on Palmer and Clutch, said that she is routinely approached by neighboring towns inviting her to open a store in their community. She described Tiffany Smith, Amy Sullivan and Carolyn Fugere as veritable tsunamis, but she asked why the Village is not doing more to lure businesses from other towns.

Carolyn Fugere added that there is no local commercial brokerage agency in Larchmont. Each individual landlord seeks a tenant for his or her storefront which may contribute to the odd mix of establishments and leads to too many nail salons, banks and the like. Ms. Fugere reported that Julia B Fee is putting together a package/brochure for commercial realtors demonstrating the attractiveness of our town, its residents and their potential as shoppers. She added that she started working on a video before the streetscape project began but then had to put it on hold until the streetscape is complete.

Ms. Smith noted that surprisingly Larchmont has lower rents than some of our neighboring communities, including Bronxville, Rye and Scarsdale, and confirmed that we have the wrong mix of stores. Having two shopping districts is a problem. The Boston Post Road district benefits from having the Chatsworth parents stopping by after dropping off their children at the school, but the Palmer Avenue area does not have this built-in shopping base. Ms. Smith reported that the survey showed that the Murray and Central parents want a place where they can go, with their strollers, after the morning drop-off. “If there was this morning draw, it would help the stores in that part of town.” She added that the Palmer Avenue area has a good draw in the evenings because of the many restaurants.

The Love Larchmont 10538 group’s survey has now identified which stores the respondents would like to see in our shopping district, and they are now going out and trying to attract them to open up here. “We can now go out and say, “Hey, this is what we need. This is what we want. This is invaluable information.”

One problem they face is that Larchmont Village has a reputation that it is not welcoming to new businesses and that the permit process is onerous. But Tiffany Smith said that her group is working hard to dispel that impression. “We need to roll out the red carpet and welcome them with open arms. We need to make that a priority.” She pointed out that it is important that we improve the Palmer Avenue shopping area. When people come off the train or off of I-95 that area must look inviting.

On a bright note, Gregg O’Brien, the owner of Winetasters of Larchmont, said that his business continues to grow. He feels that his customers want to support the business and the Village. However, he added that he has asked many times for an attractive walkway between the parking lot on Wendt Avenue and the stores along his side of Chatsworth Avenue, but has gotten no help from Village Hall or anyone else. Ms. Smith noted that in part, due to her group and the more robust Chamber of Commerce, many business owners reported that they had their best summer ever in the months just past. “Larchmonters care,” concludes Ms. Smith. “We put our Facebook group up on a Thursday and by Friday we had 750 members!”