Rochester’s downtown is different. What do business owners have to say? – Post Bulletin

ROCHESTER — Ask business owners how things are in downtown Rochester today and you’ll get a wide variety of answers, but you might not hear the word “vibrant.”

However, most working downtown do say that business in the city’s core today is better compared to 2023.

“Things are good now, but it’s a different mix now,” said

Travis Yager,

who manages the 16-year-old

Chocolaterie Stam

in the Galleria at University Square mall. “We learned to survive through the changes. Coming out of it (the pandemic), we realized about 20% of our business was gone.

Mayo Clinic sent all those employees home.

Now we’re getting back our main customer, which is the Mayo Clinic patient and their families and then much of the Civic Center event traffic came back.

“This is our first year since all of that started that we have been fully staffed. We have all 13 jobs filled.”

Andrew Meissner,

co-owner of

Bravo Espresso

in the Galleria, said his days and weeks were very predictable before the pandemic.

“I knew how business would be day-to-day, every day of the week. I could tell you the customer traffic from hour-to-hour,” he remembered.

After serving coffee and pastries to a surprise surge of Tuesday morning customers for 90 minutes, Meissner described today’s downtown as unpredictable as the ocean.

“Some days the tide is high and then the next day is calm. … There’s no structure to our days or weeks anymore. We always had the same rush times before. Now it’s all over the map,” he said.

The Williams family, who run the 158-year-old Eagle Store gift shop at 23 Second St. SW, has seen a lot of changes downtown. But this latest version of downtown has been particularly challenging for longtime businesses.

“I’ll just say we’re surviving, but it’s certainly not what it was before,” said Steve Williams, who runs the store with his brothers and

his 94-year-old father

. “We keep thinking that it’s going to come back. I would say that this year does not seem exponentially better. It feels like it’s a little bit better.

“It’s just the lack of people working downtown,” he said. “It has really hurt the vibrancy.”

Rochester’s core is seeing a mix of factors not unlike most other downtowns across the country, which are also struggling to find a new economic balance.

Organizations like the Rochester Downtown Alliance, the Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency, Rochester Economic Development Inc. and the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce are trying to clear the path forward for downtown businesses.

“Somebody may call it vibrant. Somebody may call it terrible. Somebody may call it OK. Whatever it is today, we want it to become better,” said DMC EDA Executive Director Patrick Seeb. “However people want to characterize it today, we want it to be more vibrant tomorrow.”

Lunch Hour in Downtown Rochester

Jeremy Jewel performs as part of Music on the Plaza in downtown Rochester on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024.

Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

One word almost everyone uses to describe downtown Rochester in 2024 is “different.” Many describe it as feeling different and having a different rhythm than the pre-pandemic downtown did.

Walking on the sidewalks or in the skyways during lunchtime today is more subdued than the crowded hustle and bustle of the past.

Vendors like Wabi Sabi,

Thai Garden

, Taste of Philippines and Corona’s Tacos still have lines at their booths in the First Avenue Food Court. However, the food court is not nearly as active as it was in pre-pandemic years when it was difficult to find a seat on most days as the mob of downtown employees swarmed in for lunch.

Ahmed Elkhalifataha, who manages the food court for owner

Baheya, LLC

, says the First Avenue Food Court has six of its nine vendor spaces filled. Of the three open vendor spots, two are at its skyway entrance.

“Business has improved for them recently,” he said of the food court restaurants. Elkhalifataha said he does have vendors interested in leasing the open spaces.

Natalie Victoria

, a co-owner of Victoria’s Ristorante & Wine Bar, Victoria’s Express and the Tap House in downtown Rochester, is optimistic about how business has returned following the pandemic.

“Business downtown ebbs and flows, like everything,” she said. “We have swung back around this summer to our pre-pandemic levels of sales. It actually has been a fantastic summer for us.”

Lunch Hour in Downtown Rochester

Patrons come and go from the food court near Galleria at University Square in the skyway Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in downtown Rochester.

Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

Victoria’s Express is a small grab-and-go shop that sells pre-made Victoria’s salads, pasta and calzones. Despite it not having much visibility, it has long been a popular stop for downtown workers looking for a quick lunch.

“It’s a value-based store. We operate it tucked away in the back of a hallway that was kind of a happenstance location 12 years ago when the food court went under renovation. It was successful then, and it continues to be successful,” Victoria said. “We have seen a huge uptick in construction workers downtown. We are going to more calzones and more pastas because they are choosing more of the heavier foods over salads.”

The increase in construction workers is not the only recent change. Victoria has seen an uptick of afternoon customers at the main Victoria’s restaurant starting at 2 p.m. and leading into Happy Hour.

In addition to their current downtown businesses, Victoria and Christine Stahl are also working on a 1920s-themed downtown event venue called

The Social at the Avalon

in the historic 104-year-old Avalon Hotel building at 301 N. Broadway Ave.

If lunchtime is overall more subdued than pre-pandemic, dinnertime in downtown feels more active. It can be difficult to get a reservation at popular restaurants that have opened since the pandemic, including Thai Pop, Our Paladar, Marrow, Olde Brick House, Latitude 44 and Bebap. Downtown is known for its unique one-of-a-kind restaurants, also including Chester’s, Bleu Duck, Victoria’s and Terza.

“I would say what makes Rochester so special is the authenticity of the makeup of its downtown businesses. Nearly every business in downtown Rochester is locally owned, locally founded, locally developed,” Seeb said of the downtown restaurant scene.

David Currie is the co-owner of Newt’s Express across the skyway from the First Avenue Food Court as well as the City Market deli at 212 First Ave. SW.

“I wouldn’t say that

Newt’s Express

is quite back to pre-pandemic levels, because so many people are not downtown every day like they were before,” Currie said. “But that said, City Market, which has a great team, is growing and growing. I’m hopeful that the new buildings that Mayo is building downtown will bring more transients and workers downtown. I think a lot of businesses are hopeful for that.”

Currie added that the biggest challenge for many downtown businesses is that there are fewer potential customers than before, but rent remains “very, very high.”

The challenges have been too much for some downtown restaurants.

The 507 Pub(lic) House

at 304 First Ave. SW recently closed its doors for good after only a year in business. The Well, another downtown restaurant, closed at 255 First Ave. SW in December 2023. It was also open for less than a year.

Attracting people downtown

One downtown highlight of this summer was the Rochester Downtown Alliance’s weekly Thursdays Downtown street festivals. The 2024 summer season attracted an average of 9,600 people per week, which is up about 1.5% from 2019, said RDA Marketing manager

Shawn Fagan.

Fagan said the RDA is trying to give Rochester residents and visitors more reasons to spend time downtown. The RDA has free live music on the Peace Plaza scheduled mid-day and in the evenings every day of the week. It offers family activities on Saturday mornings. Special events, like the Latino Fest, Dogs Downtown, SocialICE and more are also in the pipeline.

Fagan said he feels downtown is special because you can do many different things during one visit.

“There’s lots to do for everyone every day. Nowhere else in town will you find so much activity,” he said. “It’s the only place in town that you can go do X and after that you can do Y, and then do Z after. And your car doesn’t move.”

Thursdays Downtown

The lunch crowd fills a portion of First Avenue Southwest during Thursdays Downtown on July 25, 2024, in Rochester.

Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

While people filled the streets on sunny Thursdays this summer,

several storefronts and office spaces they walked by were empty

and sported “For Lease” signs.

The first two floors of the City Centre building at 310 S. Broadway are empty. The second floor of the Associated Bank Building at 260 S. Broadway is vacant. Many spaces in the US Bank Building at 155 First Ave. SW and in the subway below stand empty.

Shifting demographics downtown

Downtown Rochester businesses, including the Post Bulletin, Exhibitor Magazine,

Swoon Lash + Beauty Lounge,

Smith Schafer accounting and Essence Skin Clinic, have moved out of downtown to other city quadrants with free parking.

However, the DMC EDA has compiled a list of businesses that have opened since 2020. Looking at the city core, the list shows more than 30 new businesses, including Treedome, Griot Arts,

Ama La Vita,

Popus Gourmet Popcorn and more.

Doing business in any major downtown is very different today than it was five years ago. That is a reality that can be seen in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Raleigh or many other metropolitan areas, where thousands of downtown workers abruptly shifted to working from home. In Rochester, some workers are coming back downtown on a hybrid basis of one to three days a week.

The introduction of hybrid work has brought back some traffic to Chocolaterie Stam, reducing the business’ overall losses to about 15%, Yager said.

Mayo employees and patients have long provided a core customer base to help downtown businesses weather slumps in the economy better than most other cities. Mayo Clinic officials declined to answer how many employees are working downtown full-time and how many are working there on occasional hybrid schedules.

Lunch Hour in Downtown Rochester

A sign advertizes space available in downtown Rochester on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024.

Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

In 2021, Mayo Clinic estimated approximately 20,000 employees, half of its then-Rochester workforce of 40,000, had been considered downtown workers.

In its most recent five-year plan update report to the city of Rochester, Mayo Clinic reported 18,500 employees worked in the Central Sub-District and 2,000 worked downtown outside of the medical district as of March 31, 2023. That report, which Mayo Clinic describes as a “snapshot” that fluctuates, listed the total Rochester workforce at 42,500.

Mayo Clinic says its overall Rochester workforce has grown by about 6,500 in the year and a half since that report.

“Mayo Clinic in Rochester employs over 49,000 staff, with the majority working on site. Many others come to campus periodically, making use of drop-in spaces or participating in events organized for staff,” wrote Kristyn Jacobson of Mayo Clinic’s communications team. “A strong, safe and vibrant downtown is critical to meeting the needs of Mayo Clinic patients, staff and a growing community. … We are grateful to the local businesses that make downtown Rochester a caring, welcoming and hospitable environment.

Mayo Clinic is now gearing up to transform downtown with its

$5 billion “Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Rochester”

expansion project. The preparation for that is currently focused on creating ways for Mayo Clinic employees and patients to park and access clinic buildings during the massive construction project that is slated to run into 2030.

DMC EDA’s Seeb said any downtown is dependent on its workers, visitors and residents. While there might not be as many workers as pre-pandemic, hotel occupancy shows that visitor numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels.

A factor that has grown since the pandemic is people living downtown. There are a lot more residents now, as several new apartments complexes have opened and the University of Minnesota Rochester has added student housing.

“That’s a new market. … And that’s a different type of customer than either the visitor or the worker,” Seeb said. “Every downtown is unique. There is no downtown that is the prototypical best example.”


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