Signs Of Life In Downtown Hartford
Small Entrepreneurs' Gambles Breathe Hope Into City's Retail Future

April 22, 2003
By TOM PULEO, Courant Staff Writer

There's a new "upscale" Subway done in Tuscan decor on Asylum Street - a sandwich shop gone grinder chic.

A few blocks away, a new "art cafe and Euro lounge" beckons on Pratt Street - Hartford's answer to the party pits in Vegas, South Beach and Ibiza.

The elegant, empty retail bays behind the Goodwin Hotel are filling up fast, with a fashion-forward clothing store run by a former runway model and an Italian-style panini-and-wine bistro with cork floors.

If that's not enough evidence, two yellow cabs were spotted the other day stacked up in front of the Old State House - a sure sign to some that Hartford retail is coming back.

"Now that's urban," said Vanessa B. Williams of the Hartford Economic Development Commission. "That is so ... metro!"

Be it a faint heartbeat or false alarm, downtown streets are showing signs of energy these days as a new wave of entrepreneurs opens stores, in some cases investing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They're placing early bets, they say, on Adriaen's Landing and the rest of the state's $771 million, public-private development initiative. They see the $190 million convention center going up beside I-91 and they've heard about the 1,000 new apartments in six complexes that developers intend to open in the next several years.

About a dozen new shops have arrived in the past several months, with several more actively seeking space, according to commercial real estate brokers and city development officials.

Progress remains both fragile and patchy, and Hartford has a long way to go before it can match West Hartford Center, where retail leases are almost double those in downtown. But every comeback has to start somewhere.

"Downtown has a lot of opportunities," said Tamara Curling, who passed up West Hartford Center for a brick storefront behind the Goodwin to locate her new designer clothing shop, Fiona Stone. "There aren't many boutiques, but it's starting to change a little."

Curling and others are something akin to treasure hunters hurrying to sift through the retail wreckage of the 1990s before all the good stuff is claimed. Next to Fiona Stone in Goodwin Square, the new bin228 panini & wine bar is about to open, hoping to feed off activity across Pearl Street at TheatreWorks.

These small entrepreneurs, according to one urban planning expert, provide the glue that helps connect older cities such as Hartford to their new mega-projects like the convention center.

"They need to be encouraged; they are the soul of any city," said Roy Higgs, chief executive officer and managing partner of Development Design Group Inc., in Baltimore. "A city's spirit is found in its art galleries, coffee shops, wine galleries, designer furniture shops. These places typically are opened and redeveloped by younger folks. There's a huge demographic to be served."

Jack D. Pragosa, 30, fits that profile. Earlier this month he opened the Enchanted Garden Art Cafe & Euro Lounge on Pratt Street, until now better known for its peculiar mix of brick-paved formality and junky beeper stores.

Behind the Enchanted Garden's tinted windows, Pragosa has created a three-in-one nightclub featuring an exclusive VIP lounge, a gourmet coffee shop and a hardwood, strobe-lit dance floor complete with a 100-gallon fish tank for a foot-long bamboo shark and the neighborhood's new Moray eel.

"Hartford's never had a place like this," Pragosa said earlier this month, peering through the bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes of a first-time business owner staring at a next-day opening.

Pragosa said he checked out the old Spencer's Restaurant near South Green and the former Off-Track Betting building in the North Meadows before settling on Pratt Street. He optimistically likens it to Boston's fashionable Newbury Street.

"We wanted to do it right," he said. "Hartford lost itself and lost the people. Now what's happening is they're really trying to put some oomph back into the revitalization. It's on an upward spiral."

On nearby Asylum Street, Kapil Taneja just opened his third Subway shop, this one featuring the chain's new European décor, located in the same spot once occupied by the landmark Huntington's Book Store. Taneja, 36, said he was sold on downtown after taking in one of the many power-point presentations promoting the city's new marketing slogan, "Hartford. New England's Rising Star."

"We figured it was time for a Subway to come back to downtown," said Taneja, who wants to open another at Adriaen's when the complex's planned $100-million-plus retail-residential district, called "Front Street," is built.

In downtown Hartford, sidewalk-level retail blocks are hard to find amid the many raised plazas and cold walls that planners now discourage in favor of pedestrian-friendly layouts. The few that do exist - on Pratt, Pearl and Asylum streets, for instance - are starting to fill.

A Hartford broker who leased the Goodwin Hotel storefronts said the redevelopment of Main Street's old G. Fox building into Capital Community College's new campus has helped spark retail interest. She also cited strong years at Hartford Stage, TheatreWorks and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

"There are now more bodies in the street, and that makes retailers want to open up more stores," said Lil Prestley Nolan of Servus Brokerage.

The developers of 960 Main St. - a separate project in the G. Fox building - have leased 10,000 square feet of space to an antique store and an art gallery, among other boutique shops, with proposals out for an additional 30,000 square feet, said Maggie Gallagher, director of marketing for 960 Main LLC.

The economic development commission's Williams - who has helped several new owners locate real estate, financing and permits - said the first-wave entrepreneurs must be creative.

"You just can't sit there and wait for someone to walk into your door," said Williams, a small-business specialist. "You have to let people know that you're there."

At Fiona Stone, Curling has taken that advice to heart. She offers customers wine, even opening during off hours for a single shopper.

Curling said she checked out West Hartford Center but chose Hartford for its cultural diversity and grittier feel.

"This is real nice," she said of her rectangular storefront strung with racks of colorful designer clothes. "It's different for Hartford. Hartford needs some more fashion."