I took a long, slow walk down Broughton Street one evening last week.
It’s easy in this job to get caught up in the recent changes to streetscapes and lose sight of the broader long-term trends on a corridor like Broughton. So I periodically try to look at the street with fresh eyes.
Many readers will remember how deserted Broughton used to be in the evenings, but one could never use the word “deserted” now.
There seems to be a perpetual line down the sidewalk in front of Leopold’s Ice Cream. The outdoor tables at several restaurants are busy on most evenings, and hotel guests and employees are almost always buzzing in front of the Marshall House.
Anecdotally, it also seems more of the retail stores are staying open into the evening.
We were already seeing this trend toward greater activity before developer Ben Carter and his team bought many of the buildings on Broughton Street. As I’ve said before here, some locals view Carter’s efforts as a clear break with the past, but I see those efforts more as an acceleration of existing trends.
For much of the 20th century, Broughton Street was dotted with national retailers, so it doesn’t seem all that strange that larger companies would return as the downtown economy grows.
Before talking about some of the new national retailers, I should first say there are still many locally owned businesses on Broughton. Most of the Broughton Street restaurants are unique to Savannah, and many of the retail stores are, too.
Certainly, the changes brought by Ben Carter Enterprises — you can see the company holdings at http://broughtonstreetcollection.com— have made the environment more difficult for small retailers, but many local business people are thriving on Broughton. I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Still, if you haven’t shopped on Broughton in a while, you are likely to be struck by the relatively recent arrival of national retailers such as Sperry at 3 E. Broughton, Michael Kors at 115 W. Broughton, Tommy Bahama at 108 W. Broughton, Club Monaco at 212 W. Broughton and Kendra Scott at 311 W. Broughton.
And you’ll be struck, too, by a couple of significant openings on the horizon.
Work seems to be moving fast on the Victoria’s Secret at 109 W. Broughton St., and the monumental new H&M appears likely to open in the summer.
The 32,000-square-foot H&M building at 240 W. Broughton looms taller than most of the buildings around. The height is especially noticeable from Congress Street, but I was most concerned about the width of the new structure.
Yes, that’s lots of new retailers, but there are still significant vacancies, including on corners.
Buildings on corners are more visible than those in mid-block. Those corner spaces influence the choices of drivers and pedestrians who travel along Broughton. In other words, the corners matter.
Among the significant corner vacancies are the former Marc Jacobs, which is listed by CBRE, at the corner of Montgomery Street. Other vacancies include the former home of Mason Inc. at the northwest corner of Jefferson Street and the former Locos space at the southwest corner of Jefferson Street.
Yes, that’s three large corner vacancies on one block. A cluster like that has a negative impact on the pedestrian experience.
There are also some significant vacancies in the middle of blocks.
Those vacancies include the former home of the Casbah, which merged with The Mirage a block away, at 118 E. Broughton St. Workers have done a tremendous job on the renovation of the exterior of the original Casbah location, but there’s no visible sign of what’s on the way.
The now infamous Temperance building at 220 W. Broughton St. is still up for grabs, too. The sign has been up for more than four years, but the project has stalled. The Good Times Jazz Bar and Restaurant at 107 W. Broughton St. also has a large sign, but there has been no obvious movement for many months.
And there are other vacancies too, although it’s worth adding that many of the empty storefronts have been spruced up in ways that avoid that desolate, empty look so common on Broughton Street when I first moved here 20 years ago.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.