City mall looks to find a niche
As published on page one of the Jan. 3, 2012 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.
The sidewalks are cracked and uneven, and many of the display windows open onto dark and empty rooms.
More than a year has passed since a change of management offered hope for a new future for The Center at Keene. But the number of tenants in the shopping center has continued to decline -- leaving one in three storefronts vacant, and prompting remaining businesses to wonder what the future holds.
"It's not a hopping place," said Edward S. Forster, co-owner of Little Zoe's Take-and-Bake Pizza, which opened in the center last year. "It has potential, but it kind of seems like it's in a state of limbo."
The property management group Keypoint Partners took over running The Center at Keene and the neighboring Colony Mill Marketplace in 2010, after their owner, Mayo Group LLC of Boston, defaulted on its mortgage. Mayo was sued by its lender, Wells Fargo, and became entrenched in bankruptcy proceedings.
The long-term vision for The Center at Keene is up to whoever takes over next, Robert T. Hayes, Keypoint's vice president of property and asset management, indicated in an interview.
"Ultimately, whether it's sooner or later, we anticipate there will be a permanent owner," he said. "Our goal is to stabilize the property so it can be sold."
Businesses that have vacated the center recently include Rick's Gourmet Ice Cream, which is moving to Key Road, and Cass's Closet, a consignment store that has reopened on Ashuelot Street.
The Vacuum Store and Sylvan Learning Center are both on their way to Winchester Street, while the Winning ComboNation Deli, which opened last year, appears to have closed for good.
The cracked sidewalks and a leaky roof are among the reasons some departing businesses give for looking elsewhere.
But Hayes defends his company's maintenance of the building, calling the change from Mayo's tenure "like night and day."
"We don't deny that there are certain things that had some deferred maintenance," he said, but the company has given its first attention to safety-related repairs such as outside and emergency lighting and fire alarms.
The Center at Keene is a former industrial building that was converted into a shopping center.
"Everything's kind of showing its age," said Forster, of Little Zoe's.
But the center still has a lot to offer businesses, said Jesse Rix, who has operated his tattoo parlor, Secret Lake Tattoo, there for three years. He praised the center's location, on Emerald Street in the center of Keene, and ample parking.
"Since Keypoint has taken over I've noticed things getting a little better," he said.
Rix has two years left on his lease, and is looking forward to the new apartments for Keene State College students going up nearby increasing his already-steady business.
"I'm hoping to stay, as long as Keypoint keeps the place up," he said. "(But) I don't know what the future's going to hold."
Meanwhile, the neighboring Colony Mill Marketplace has added a couple of new tenants, including a planned Children's Museum that Hayes hopes will draw people into the mill.
Redwood Treasure, a gift store that opened on the first floor in December, moved from the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester because of the mill's more attractive rent, according to co-owner Anne-Marie Saunders.
Other business may be interested in following suit, she said.
Saunders praised Keypoint's management.
"They're really working to get people in here," she said.
At The Center at Keene, there is space for more than 30 businesses. It's approximately two-thirds full.
Stores and restaurants today share the building with Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene's urology and ophthalmology departments, an H&R Block office that is only open during tax season, and a water-testing lab that moved in last year. All this might make the center look less like a shopping destination than an office building. But it is still home to well-established retail businesses, including Cheshire Music, Famous Footwear and Penelope's consignment store.
"There needs to be an appropriate mix of retail and quasi-retail tenants," Hayes said. "It can't be 100 percent retail. ... We've been beating the bush looking for retail tenants, and there just isn't enough retail to go around."
In spite of this, Hayes expressed little regret about the departing businesses.
"Sometimes there's addition by subtraction," he said. "A center has to have economically viable businesses."
tagged with: Center at Keene, Keene N.H., Keypoint Partners, real estate, retail
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