Rory Gale opened her gift shop on downtown in 2013 when there were more vacant storefronts than businesses, thinking it would be a pop-up and a sideline to her mainstay letterpress printing.
A dozen years later, Gale’s Hartford Prints! is an anchor on Hartford’s historic Pratt Street. And now, Gale has launched an expansion that doubles the size of the store, allowing her to display her cards, apparel, children’s items and Hartford-themed gifts in a way she’s long wanted: spread out and not all crowded in.
“I just can’t wait to get people in here,” Gale said, before a reopening. “Fill up the space, bring it to life.”
Those sentiments also reflect the larger optimism by shops, restaurants and bars on Pratt Street that are working toward a more vibrant future against the headwinds of office tenant downsizings. In the aftermath of the pandemic, employers shifted more work to home and out of the city, taking a bite out of the population of patrons downtown.
Honing an image as a destination for visitors will be essential to a long-sought revival. Those efforts, business owners like Gale say, will be augmented by a growing population of downtown residents — some of them remote workers — and college students expected to move into a residence hall on Pratt next fall.
The latest wave of storefront openings on Pratt — a half dozen so far — began more than three years ago. The activity was spurred on by the $9 million Hart Lift storefront revitalization program rolled out by former Mayor Luke Bronin, using federal pandemic relief funds.
The grants helped underwrite the addition of a bakery and coffee shop, plus a Korean restaurant, a cocktail parlor, a taproom, a vintage shop and a tattoo parlor on Pratt. In addition, the grants helped finance the expansion of a liquor store and Hartford Prints!
More openings may be on the way in the next year: a bar and live music venue and a bar focused on local sports — University of Connecticut basketball, the Yard Goats, the Hartford Athletic and others. The sports bar, on the corner of Pratt and Trumbull, potentially would be located where Huskies Tavern — a staple of the UConn campus — had previously shown interest but later dropped plans.
The venerable Tobacco Shop, however, has permanently closed. But an upscale cigar bar with locations elsewhere in Connecticut and outside the state has signed a letter of intent and is moving toward a lease for the same space, according to Kevin Kenny, founder and president of NAI Lexington Commercial, the commercial leasing arm of Hartford-based Lexington Partners.
Kenny declined to name the cigar bar.
‘Construction happening every day’
Sisters Alex Pilon and Monica Beaudoin were among the first entrepreneurs in the new wave of shops, opening Bloom Bake Shop, now nearing its third anniversary on Pratt.
They say it is a mistake to assume that a half-dozen empty storefronts means progress has slowed on the brick-lined street, considered essential to downtown’s revitalization.
“For ourselves, we like to use the analogy that things may seem different on the top than what’s actually happening underneath,” Monica Beaudoin said. “I think there is a lot of movement, and there are a lot of great things coming. It just sometimes takes a long time. It can seem that way from the outside.”
For decades, downtown Hartford’s Pratt Street seemed to have all the ingredients for revitalization: cool, historic architecture; a central location across from PeoplesBank Arena; nearby theaters; and, more recently, storefronts boosted by Hart Lift grants. Still, the struggle to achieve vibrancy remains.
At the bake shop, the sisters say they are focusing their efforts on developing offerings for the University of Connecticut students on floors above them, a former office building that is being converted to the residence hall. The dormitory will house students attending UConn’s downtown regional campus at Front Street.
“We see the construction happening every day,” Alex Pilon said. “We know its real. They’re coming whether we are ready or not. So we are doing everything we can to prepare.”
Beaudoin and Pilon already had expanded their menu to include lunch sandwiches and now, they are looking at more grab-and-go, lower-priced options aimed at student budgets. Earlier this year, they leased more space on the building’s second floor — including an outdoor patio overlooking Pratt — to add more seating.
“This could be a place where they also can bring their parents when they are visiting on the weekend,” Pilon said.
The merchants also are looking forward to the re-opening on Oct. 17 of the nearby PeoplesBank Arena after a $145 million renovation because consistent foot traffic or “feet on the street” remains elusive on Pratt.
“Obviously, with the fact that the offices are partially occupied, or in some cases, fully remote, it’s difficult to bank on office workers,” Tom Dubay, president of the Pratt Street Merchants Association, said. “And the state office workers are still largely out of the office. The corporations, obviously, are reducing their footprints because there are less people in the office, right? So, that’s a big challenge.”
Dubay, co-owner of Hartford Flavor’s cocktail parlour that opened a year ago on Pratt’s north side, said the association hopes to work with downtown employers such as Travelers Cos. to tailor events to the days workers are in the office to draw them to Pratt Street.
The association, working with the Hartford Chamber of Commerce and the Hartford Business Improvement District, has turned to promoting events that will bring pops of visibility to Pratt Street and the greater downtown area, Dubay said. But the hope is that those attending the events will come back for dining or other entertainment when there isn’t an event, Dubay said.
Dubay said local merchants also are anticipating the next event “Stars Hollow Saturday” on Oct. 4 — its name drawn from the fictional Connecticut town that was the setting for the television series “Gilmore Girls.”
The show aired from 2000 to 2007, but has found new life and popularity on streaming platforms. In 2016, the original cast reunited for a four-part miniseries.
A large crowd is expected, Dubay said, with those attending encouraged to consider dressing like their favorite character in the show.
The city has been supportive of the events, granting the association and its partners $20,000 for marketing events this past summer, according to city officials. Dubay said he hopes the grant, drawn this year from Hart Lift funds, will become an annual grant.
‘Starting to balance out’
At another Pratt Street anchor, Morneault’s Stackpole Moore Tryon, the upscale clothing store for men and women, co-owner Jody Morneault said events certainly have their place.
“But if you don’t have an event, there is no one here,” Morneault said, of Pratt Street. “You can’t gauge your business on an event.”
What’s needed for Pratt Street — and indeed, the larger downtown area — is being part of a larger, coordinated marketing effort that places Pratt Street in the context of the city’s other cultural, historical and entertainment attractions.
Morneault, a longtime booster of Pratt Street, who with her husband, Ron, has run Stackpole for nearly two decades, said there needs to be a strong, guiding vision for the mix of storefront tenants to ensure that there is a variety.
Two establishments that are similar could both end up not doing well in competing for, as of now, a limited number of patrons, Morneault said.
The business owner who plans to open the bar and live music venue — likely featuring local bands and open mic nights — says he will bring something to Pratt Street that it doesn’t offer.
Marc Alderucci, who now operates 144 Temple Street in New Haven, Cousin Jimmy’s Pizza Bar in Storrs and the Social Lounge in Glastonbury, said Rock Bar would offer lower-cost beer and drinks, plus a limited menu of food.
“It’s going to be basic on the food as far as we’re not doing a full-service restaurant because there’s so many surrounding restaurants in there right now that there’s plenty of options for people,” Alderucci said. “I don’t need to thin out the crowd more in the restaurant business.”
Alderucci, who has two decades of experience in the restaurant and bar business, said he is seeking the type of liquor permit that would allow patrons to bring in take-out from other restaurants.
The former owner of three bars in Hartford, including the Pourhouse and the Palace on Allyn Street, Alderucci said the addition of the UConn residential hall is encouraging, but what he has watched most closely is the increase in downtown residents that has followed the addition of more than 3,500 apartments in the last decade.
“In my personal opinion, a few years ago, we had plenty of food and beverage and not enough residents to accommodate that,” Alderucci said. “And now I think it’s starting to balance out a little bit.”
Alderucci also is in serious discussions to open a sports bar at Pratt and Trumbull across from PeoplesBank Arena, possibly serving pizza and wings
‘Adds a whole other layer’
As Hartford Prints! Gale celebrates the launch of her expanded store, she still remembers how lean sales were those first few years, once she knew she wanted to remain committed to Pratt Street.
To keep the gift shop open, Gale said she relied on the income from her custom printing business.
“It tends to give you the cushion in what can be a challenging environment,” Gale said. “The custom printing allowed us to have a gift store that wasn’t making money in those first five or six years.”
Now, Gale said the retail operations are seeing as much as 20% year-over year sales growth.
At the bakery, Pilon said she and her sister nurtured their business from the incubator stage, supplying corporate events and wholesale customers. They are further diversifying in their new leased space, offering workshops on cookie decorating and flower arranging. Eventually, they hope the space could accommodate events up to 45 people.
“We started in a very small footprint and built our business, so we knew when we moved in here, we could pay the bills,” Pilon said. “It’s a really high cost of entry to open a restaurant. Some of these spaces [on Pratt Street] had been vacant for so long, they needed a serious build out.”
Hart Lift, Pilon said, was essential to opening up the bake shop.
The cocktail parlor is an expansion of Hartford Flavor’s well-established liqueur distillery in the city’s Parkville neighborhood.
Elsewhere on Pratt, other new businesses are looking to diversify from where their sales come.
At Urban Lodge Brewing Co., which opened two years ago in an expansion of its Manchester brewery and taproom, began opening at 8 a.m. this summer, introducing a coffee bar, well ahead of when it had starting serving lunch.
The new business came about after it purchased the equipment from Hartford-based BOP coffee, which had shared space in a tattoo parlor across the street.
“It gives us the morning hours to 11:30 when we open for lunch when it is vacant and empty,” Mike Smith, the general manager in Hartford, said. “So its gives us a better use for those hours. It gives us more visibility, another business revenue stream. It adds a whole other layer to the business.”
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.