Salem’s downtown has seen some local businesses shut their doors in recent years, but the Salem Reporter found that the economy is still strong there. Currently, the vacancy rate for storefronts stands at 3.8%, and about half of the available spaces have new tenants within 6 months. Abbey McDonald is the homelessness and housing reporter for the publication. She joins us to share more.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We start today with Salem’s downtown. A number of local businesses there have shut their doors over the last year or so, but the Salem Reporter has found that they’re often being replaced by new ones. The vacancy rate for storefronts is under 4% and about half of the available spaces have new tenants within six months. Meanwhile, downtown boosters are hoping that new developments could have a big impact on the area. Abbey McDonald is a homelessness and housing reporter for the Salem Reporter, and she joins us now. Abbey, welcome back.
Abbey McDonald: Thanks for having me.
Miller: You wrote recently that business owners and other stakeholders agree that downtown Salem is at a crossroads. What do people mean by that?
McDonald: Well, we’re coming out of the pandemic still. It’s only been four years. So we haven’t seen the full impact of how the changes that happened during that era are going to shake out. And then we also have business owners who say they feel that right now we’re seeing a shift toward online shopping bigger than they’ve ever seen before. That foot traffic is going down and simultaneously Salem’s face of downtown is changing. We’re having housing and types of businesses that it’s never seen before in its hundreds of years of history.
Miller: What kinds of retail closures have there been in Downtown Salem over the last year or so?
McDonald: So recently, there’s been three that kind of led me to start doing this reporting. So there’s this huge storefront that’s super involved in the community called The Freckled Bee and they do children’s and baby clothes, and they moved out of downtown pretty recently and she started doing her business out of her home. Then we have a couple of businesses that opened during the pandemic that have closed their doors. And then we had a long-standing vintage clothing store that packed up and moved away pretty recently.
Miller: One of the themes that emerged in your reporting is that the last year or so was actually worse for many retailers than the pandemic years. Why is that?
McDonald: A lot of retailers say that people during the pandemic went out of their way to support local business. So, one was telling me about how she would facetime customers, pick out clothing for them, and then bring it to their car. And now there’s been a decline in that sort of attention toward local businesses. Also just anecdotally, people believe their customers have less money to spend nowadays. They’re feeling the tensions of inflation. Both business owners are feeling that and people in their households.
Miller: But as I noted, you write in your article that vacancy rates are low and that often when say some retail store is closing, some other business will take its place within half a year or so. What kind of a shift are you seeing in the kinds of businesses that are more likely to be operating in downtown Salem?
McDonald: Yeah. So, it was kind of a tension of this article was we had these business owners who are facing very real issues and then this data from an aerial view that’s showing that downtown is thriving in a lot of ways ‒ really low vacancy rates, people tending to move in really quickly. And we’re seeing a lot more restaurants popping up. We’re seeing entertainment venues investing in Salem in a way that there hasn’t really been before. Downtown Salem entertainment, there’s a couple live theaters, but now it’s going to be things like arcades and places for people to hang out. So it’s kind of shifting and trying to bring in, I think, there is a new audience.
Miller: What are some of the big developments that could change downtown Salem in the coming years?
McDonald: Well, talking to people for the story, everyone’s pointing to hundreds and hundreds of apartments that are going to be moving in. If you look at Salem 20 years ago, I believe there were less than 20 apartments in the whole downtown area and now there’s going to be over 500 in the next five years. So those developments, business owners are hoping are going to have this customer base who are walkable to their businesses or eating out every day and then going back home. So that is going to, I think, change how downtown operates.
Miller: Also what you’re describing and what they’re describing it is a very different urban space, not a place that people are likely to go to during the day, or maybe less to go to during the day to shop, but more likely to live and maybe work in, and more likely, so the hope is, that they would stay there to eat in the evening or to do various entertainment options. It’s a very different vision for downtown.
McDonald: Yeah. Yeah. And, and no one knows how it’s gonna turn out, but most people I talk to are very optimistic. They think that this is the change that downtown Salem needs to get back on its feet because there is still that feeling that things aren’t as good as they once were or that they could be better. So people are hoping that housing is the way to do it.
There’s also going to be a big shift coming soon with the way that the city does parking. There’s free parking downtown right now, but soon that’s going to be paid parking and that’s a little more controversial, but we’ll see what kind of impact that has. It’s yet to be seen.
Miller: What’s the range of points of view you heard about that from business owners, people who are going to have a different relationship to how parking is paid for either on their part or on their customers' part?
McDonald: Yeah. Right now, parking is an expense for downtown businesses. So the larger the business, the more they pay per year and this parking fee that pays to maintain the parking garages and the street parking here. So now that’s going to be shifting to the customer who’s going to be paying, likely, an hourly rate. I did a big story on this last year, so it’s been a while since I’ve updated the reporting, but from what I heard, people are concerned this could drive people away from downtown. But they’re also grateful that the spending is not going to be on the businesses' responsibility anymore.
Miller: Finally, how much did you hear when you were reporting on this story ‒ whether from existing business owners there, people who’ve left, people who are putting in hundreds of apartment units right now ‒ how much did you hear about the issue of safety?
McDonald: This is probably the main issue that I’ve heard from people. So, a topic that came up a lot is at the car break ins. A lot of people either themselves or know someone who’s had their car broken into in a parkade in Salem. Another thing that business owners were bringing up a lot is the presence of unsheltered people downtown, which the city has been opening a lot of shelters and has… I think there’s been market improvement in recent years on the presence of unsheltered people downtown. But the business owners told me that their customers say that that’s been impacting the way that people want to shop and park and be downtown.
Miller: And you actually talked to at least one developer who has sort of taken this on themselves, right, with their own private security?
McDonald: Yeah. So there’s this huge development that’s coming in that’s going to renovate this kind of underused plaza and they’re planning to kind a cohort of all the local businesses moving into that plaza are going to hire their own private security and install cameras which will be different. I don’t think that’s been seen downtown before.
Miller: Abbey, thanks very much.
McDonald: Thank you.
Miller: Abbey McDonald is the homelessness and housing reporter for the Salem Reporter.
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