The Buzz: Rental costs push businesses out of town

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

By Robyn Vincent

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Facing an economic slump and rising rents, locally owned stores on and around Town Square and its neighboring avenues, have little option but to roll out, leaving some to speculate that out-out-of-town conglomerates will take their places.

“Unfortunately, the stores on the Square have to be geared towards the tourists in order to compensate for the rent,” said co-owner of Queenie and Co., Queenie Reid from her Broadway Avenue shop.

Reid, along with her daughter Cammie Keene launched Queenie and Co. three and a half years ago with the hopes to cater to the local populace. But since then, their rent has escalated about 30 percent.

Although their lease isn’t slated to expire until May of 2010, Queenie and Co. will be deserting their downstairs storefront, adjacent to the Bootlegger, as soon as they find a taker interested in subletting the space that the mother-daughter duo “completely gutted and renovated.”

Reid and Keene said, with a hint of cynicism, that they will transport their clothing racks to another location if they can indeed pinpoint a smaller, more affordable spot.

Throughout their Broadway Avenue tenure, the mother-daughter duo peddled affordable boutique apparel for women and pre-teens and briefly for men. But the business generated by locals and the occasional tourists just hasn’t been enough to sustain their rising rent costs.

Now in the middle of a storewide consolidation sale, Reid and Keene are uncertain of the future of a business that, unlike the majority of Town Square vendors, was created with Jacksonites in mind.

A little more than a stone’s throw from the Square, another business – the only one of its kind in Jackson - may also have to abandon its downtown location due to soaring rent costs.

“When my lease is up [in one year], if I can’t find something comparable in Jackson - which I don’t have much faith that I will - I’ll either have to move to Victor or just close up shop,” said owner of Mountunes and Sub-Urban Body Arts, Susan Woodward.

The indie music/tattoo shop owner thinks that rent costs have made it difficult for small businesses to maintain a presence in town. “All the new businesses opening up are not independently-owned,” Woodward noted.

But rental troubles are not isolated to the downtown area. Patricia Pistono began Jackson Gymnastics in 1986. Since then she has spent several years in different locations, her latest being at the South Park Service Center just north of the Enclosure. Now, however, Pistono is paying approximately $2,000 more each month in rent.

The building that she operates out of is also for sale but Pistono cannot make the purchase without financial backing from an investor. “If I’m unable to find investors; if I’m not the one buying it, I don’t know what I’ll do from there.”
Although local businesses are pointing a finger of blame at rental costs for their uncertain future, some real estate brokers said despite a bad economy, commercial real estate has not been significantly impacted.

“All segments of real estate are somewhat subdued in an economic downturn,” said owner of Rocky Mountain Appraisals Andrew Cornish. “Even segments such as retail and light industrial are dependent on a healthy economy but commercial real estate has been affected to a lesser degree.” Cornish added that commercial real estate has seen “fewer changes in the financing landscape than residential real estate.” PJH

Photo by Randy Shacket
Queenie and Co.’s ammended storefront sign.

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Reader Comments

Ever since the article “Rental costs push businesses out of town” appeared in the Nov. 19th issue. I have been bombarded with concerned customers and friends telling me they have heard I was closing up shop. I feel I must set the record straight and reiterate what I had said in the article which was… “If at the end of my lease (which is in two years, not one, as the article said) if my landlord chooses not to renew my lease or increases my rent substantially, as is common practice, and I cannot find something comparable, I will be forced to look to open something over the pass, or close up shop. I live in Victor and not having to drive the pass everyday wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Right now I have no immediate plans to close my doors. I’m still hanging in there, that’s why we have so much more than just music these days. But to all those people who think it would be a shame for a shop such as ours, that has been a Jackson staple for the past 20 years to close, please, please come in and do your business locally, instead of shopping from the warm comfort of your living room and buying online. I know times are tough for everyone, but if people don’t start spending their money locally, we will see a lot more businesses than we already have, closing their doors. It is a shame that independently owned businesses are being phased out of Jackson due to the high cost of doing business here and people’s affinity for buying online. Another big problem is our customer base has always been the twenty something crowd, over the past five years or so our customer base has disappeared. The town seems now geared to a thirty five and over money crowd that has no need for the likes of us. I’ve noticed that the average lifespan of my twenty something employees these days is four months or so. By the end of the season they realize there’s nothing for them here and they can’t afford to live here anyway. When I first moved here in 1986 it was still relatively transient but there was always a handful of seasonal people who stayed and built a life here, that isn’t true anymore. It’s very sad to see our town lose it’s local character. These days I do see more and more people and businesses giving it a shot on the other side, maybe I’ll have to join them, but I’m not ready to give up just yet.
Susan Woodward