Found some news on Steve Karp, aka Downtown Newburyport's Largest Landowner, all hailing from Newburyport South, aka Nantucket. Some of this might be comforting, but the rest will probably concern.
All these articles ran in the Nantucket Inquirer & Mirror.
This first piece covers the comings and goings in the retail district, which shop has opened, which has closed. Frankly, the Daily News has run a ton of these (and I've written a few) over the years so nothing too drastic.
There is one complaint about an eviction, but those things do happen. Don't know the details.
It is worth noting that many of the new businesses mentioned in the article are locally owned.
The second one, however, is a bit troubling. Apparently, Karp's Nantucket Island Resorts gave a rather swift kick to a store called Stephen Swift Furnituremaker, telling them their lease would not be renewed when it expires on Jan 1.
I don't know what industry standards are, but it seems a bit much to kick someone out with less than two months notice.
Warning: This is a one-side-of-the-story article, but here it is.
“I have no place to go at this point and I’m frantically looking for another place to move,” Swift said. “I expected they’d be looking for more rent, but I didn’t expect they would tell me to leave without an option to pay more, or to move to another location.”
Phone calls to both Karp and NIR leasing agent Henry Wyner were not returned.
Swift said she was told the space was not going to be used for a retail operation, and that NIR simply had “different designs” for the 34 Main Street building. Representatives of the two other tenants in the building, clothing store Vis a Vis and the Robert Wilson Galleries, declined to comment for this story. It was unclear whether those leases would also not be renewed. Swift said NIR representatives advised her to look into relocating to Amelia Drive.
“With the type of business I have, I would be really hard-pressed to stay in business out on Amelia Drive,” Swift said.
The company’s namesake and Swift’s husband, master craftsman Stephen Swift, died several years ago, but the showroom continues to feature his designs. All of the company’s custom-made furniture is produced in a workshop owned by Swift in Killingly, Conn., where she employs seven people. On Nantucket, Swift has two employees, and the 34 Main St. location is the company’s only showroom. Before moving to Main Street, the showroom was located on Centre Street for 15 years. The company has been in business on Nantucket for more than three decades.
While Swift said she does some business through her website, stephenswiftfurnituremaker.com, and through catalog sales, she said 99.9 percent of her business comes from the Main Street showroom.
Some other downtown NIR tenants said they were surprised to hear that Swift’s lease would not be renewed, while a number declined to comment on the matter.
“They’ve been there a long time and if all of a sudden they were ousted, I would feel bad for them,” said Weeds owner George Davis, who is waiting to hear about the status of his lease with NIR. “That would be bad on Karp’s part. Every day we come in and there’s another rumor (about NIR leases).”
John Harding, the owner of the Fragrance Bar on Centre Street, was also surprised to hear about Swift’s lease.
“This shocks me,” said Harding, who has two years left on his lease with NIR. “It’s unbelievable. The word was that this guy (Karp) was such a nice guy and that he valued how unique downtown Nantucket is.”
If Nantucket shopowners find that a bit unsettling, then this news will tip them right over. Steve Karp is buying even more of the island's downtown.
I'll include this bit of the article because the web site is slow, but do check out the entire article when you have time.
Steve Karp is one step away from increasing his Nantucket holdings yet again, agreeing this week to buy 21 downtown storefronts, offices and apartments from Winthrop Financial Associates.
Neither side was willing to disclose the price of the deal, which Karp confirmed yesterday but must still be approved by Winthrop’s 677 limited partners.
In June, Karp, principal owner of Nantucket Island Resorts and chief executive officer of New England Development, bought 94 storefronts, offices and apartments – including Old South Wharf and Straight Wharf – from Winthrop for $55 million.
Included in the latest deal is the bulk of Winthrop’s remaining properties on the island, including the buildings that house The Atlantic Cafe, 21 Federal and Sushi by Yoshi restaurants, and The Spectrum, Camera Shop and Wayne Pratt Antiques on Main Street.
Not included in the proposed sale are the Grand Union supermarket and adjacent fuel tank farm near the Nantucket Boat Basin, and several other of Winthrop’s island properties in the same area.
“We’ve agreed to a price and sent out a notice to their limited partners,” Karp said. “We had a right of first refusal on the first portfolio. On this one, we didn’t have that right, and there were other offers. Winthrop has accepted our offer.”
Karp said the properties included in the most recent deal fit in well with his current holdings.
“These properties are very complementary. It’s all quality real estate. There’s a lot of terrific real estate in there. The properties are in really good shape,” he said.
Winthrop’s limited partners – who approved Karp’s last purchase with no publicized opposition – have 30 days to approve the latest deal.
I don’t anticipate anything different,” Karp said yesterday.
I'm not sure what the takeaway is. The first article on the Storefront Shuffle doesn't seem out of the ordinary.
The article on the furniture store closing is troubling, but we may not know the entire story.
The final piece leaves me wondering excactly how much bandwidth Karp's team really has. We keep waiting for someone to come down from the mountain top carrying stone-carved plans for Waterside East and Waterside West etched in each arm. But is Karp's bench deep enough to manage his projects in Nantucket, Plymouth and Newburyport? Who knows.
I also wonder what impact the sagging economy will have on Karp's plans. Clearly, this is a good time to buy property. But is now the time to develop it? The residential market is getting softer and softer. The financing market is in turmoil. I'm not sure how solid the "high-end" consumer market might be.
I'd love to hear from some folks who know development more intimately than me. Comment anonymously if you'd like.
But I'm beginning to wonder whether we may have to sit tight for a while.
3 comments:
I miss the photo of the little Office man.
He'll return. He's busy filming one-hour episodes of the show.
According to AP, Dwight Schrute called in sick for work in order to support the writers' strike. He's probably busy canning beets.
Post a Comment