Residents of Alexandria’s Cameron Station used to be able to walk down the community’s tiny main street on Brenman Park Drive, buy a bouquet of flowers, grab a latte and even stop in for a spa treatment. Afterward, they would gather at the local restaurant to chat about the gossip of the day.
But since January, the mixed-use town center has lost three of its eight retailers for a variety of reasons, ranging from a highly publicized shooting and suicide to economic problems.
As Cameron Station works to recover from its losses, the center symbolizes the struggles many small retailers and landlords are facing in this recession.
“We were fully leased until this year,” said Christina Sanders, vice president of Tysons Corner-based GreenVest LC, which developed and manages the property. “It’s an unfortunate situation.”
The first casualty was in January, when Stems, a flower shop, closed. The owner filed for bankruptcy under the Chapter 7 liquidation process.
The second loss was higher profile. Cameron Perks coffeehouse owner James Downs shot his business partner and personal partner (who survived) and then killed himself in his townhouse within the development in early February. The store closed.
Now the development is facing another setback. L’Vida Spa closed two weeks ago, after months of struggling to stay viable.
Owner LeisaMarie Brewer, who bought the spa in November 2007, saw her business begin to falter in October due to the struggling economy. Brewer said she made repeated attempts to renegotiate her $10,000-per-month rent from her landlord. She believes that traffic to Cameron Station was not helped by the highly publicized shooting tragedy, she said.
Brewer had high hopes that this month’s Spa Week, a promotion in Virginia to lure customers to participating spas with special deals, would boost business.
She had more than 60 new clients scheduled for that week and an offer from Northern Virginia Magazine to be featured in its “best spa” section.
It obviously wasn’t enough.
On April 17, Brewer went to her store and found the locks changed. Her 12 employees were “instantly unemployed” she said, and she still has not been able to access the property.
“I was hoping to salvage the business, make some money to put toward our debt, but we weren’t allowed to do that,” Brewer said. “My reputation has been damaged, and I’ve been doing business in Alexandria for 20 years.”
Brewer’s attorney, citing the lack of notice for eviction and the locked property, charges that GreenVest wrongfully terminated her lease.
Michael Chamowitz of Alexandria law firm Chamowitz & Chamowitz PC said he and Brewer are weighing their options.
Sanders, the GreenVest executive, declined to comment on the specifics of Brewer’s case, beyond noting that the landlord has not been paid rent since the third quarter of 2008.
“She owes us more than $100,000 today,” Sanders said. Henry Brandenstein from D.C.-based Venable LLP, GreenVest’s counsel, stated that his client made overtures in January to Brewer but said there was no response. Brandenstein also said Brewer’s attorney was notified that the store was going to be reclaimed by the owner.
Cameron Station residents are taking the loss of their Main Street’s third store seriously.
“It’s definitely an issue for us,” said Ingrid Samven, president of the Cameron Station Civic Association. “Residents don’t have places they can walk to to get the services they need, and there’s a general sense in the neighborhood of, ‘Oh, there goes another business.’”
There are still businesses surviving in Cameron Station. A dry cleaner, corner mart and the Food Matters restaurant remain. A dentist office and day-care facility are operating.
Workers at both the dry cleaner and convenience store say they have not felt too much of an impact from the empty storefronts because their businesses can survive on customers strictly within the Cameron Station boundaries.
“But people are very worried about all the closings,” said Moo Sang Ve, manager of Main Street Market.
Food Matters, which opened in January 2007, saw a 30 percent drop in business between September and December. Co-owner Gerald Hebert attributed the decline to worries over the economy but said business since the new year has turned around.
The restaurant changed its menu and has been getting more publicity from its sustainability and local farming message. Customers also heard that business was down and responded.
One thing that all parties seem to agree on: Cameron Station needs better signs in the surrounding area to draw people outside of the community to the main street. Community leaders have been working with city officials to do this, and have seen some response.
There are signs of progress for the shopping center, Sanders said.
The day-care center, Bright Start Learning Center, is expanding into some of the space formerly occupied by the Cameron Perks coffeehouse. GreenVest is in talks with one prospective tenant for the rest of the coffeehouse space, and three tenants have expressed interest in the spa’s location, Sanders said. Possible tenants could include a gift shop, a UPS packaging store or other amenity-type retailers.
“There’s a lot of activity going on,” Sanders said. “People are still wanting to be at Cameron Station, despite the series of bad events.”
Retail vacancy inches up, sluggish sales continue
Local retail sales will remain soft throughout most of 2009, with a slight rise later in the year, according to a new report from Alexandria-based real estate research company Delta Associates.
The company’s annual survey of more than 300 grocery-anchored retail shopping centers showed a metrowide vacancy rate of 3.7 percent at the close of 2008, up from 2.3 percent a year earlier. Delta noted that the vacancy rate is still more than a whole point less than the last downturn, when vacancies hit 4.8 percent at the end of 2002.
In suburban Maryland, the vacancy rate was 3.8 percent, up from 2.2 percent. The Northern Virginia vacancy rate was 3.6 percent, up from 2.4 percent.
Rental rates at the centers surveyed increased 1.7 percent in 2008, less of an increase than the previous year, when they went up by 3.9 percent. The average rate for the tenants was $33.71 per square foot per year in the metro area.
Delta noted that the decline in retail spending nationwide is having less of an impact on the Washington area than nationally. For example, the consumer price index increased locally by 0.4 percent during the year ending March 2009, compared with a 0.4 percent national decline.
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Meanwhile, La Belle Amie is located at 344 Main Street in downtown Grand Junction. Their phone number is (970) 242-0622.
