NewRoc Now

If there is a theme of New Rochelle it is reinvention. From the Huguenot origins to the revolutionary war to the civil war to prosperity to Glenn Island to Norman Rockwell to Eddie Foy to Dick Van Dyke to Lou Gherig to Rodney King riots and now to Capelli dreams, New Rochelle has seen it’s share of success, adversity and promise. But now downtown New Rochelle seems stuck in promise and in the midst of redevelopment that’s loosing momentum and funding, stranding many businesses that have bet on New Ro.

Time after time the small business owners I speak with are disappointed with downtown New Rochelle.  Dentists, real estate brokers, hair shops, coffee shop’s, restaurant owners, bar owners and others are asking the same question, “Where’s the traffic?”  The small businesses that seem to be succeeding are the old-line stores like Mexican restaurants, dollar stores and Merry Go Round.  But newer ventures are having a very tough time getting traffic.  Of course New Rochelle has it’s share of very successful businesses such as Cross Cultural Solutions, Tempranillo Inc., Sidney Frank Importing, Steiner Sports and others, but these successful companies don’t rely on the foot traffic economy.

The Trump building which was supposed to have heralded in a new era for New Ro remains largely empty. The view I have from my office confirms that more than 75% of the 30 or so apartments I can see are vacant and the pool is mostly empty.  At night the building looks like a lighthouse, tall and dark,  with a few lights guiding people here.   The doormen stand mostly idle and it has turned from a hot buy to rent to own.   The rumored stores like Wholefoods never materialize and cavernous empty retail caves echo with unfulfilled promises.

The Avalon communities are a different story, nearly filled to capacity and breathing life into downtown. But it is not enough.  Most of the people in the Avalon are college students or city workers, neither of which venture too far off the block to find interesting things in New Ro.  My incredibly informal survey shows that many venture to White Plains, the City or neighboring towns to shop, though it is far from universal

Habitat for Humanity is working very hard to breathe some life into downtown with street music from local high school students, street sales and a trolley.  A new upscale food market on Main may give more reasons to shop in New  Rochelle and slowly some of the poorly run dollar stores are turning over.  The farmer’s market limped back to South Division, though it is down from more than 4 vendors to about 2 this year. In spite of these small signs of life,  the impression remains that big redevelopment projects such as the Church and Prospect Street parking lot redevelopments, the second Capelli high rise, New Roc City redevelopment and the ‘New Street’ project all seem to be off track or off the table.

I’m sure that New Rochelle will deliver on it’s promise as it has done for nearly 100 generations but for now it seems locked in a cycle of perpetual promise that never quite delivers. Certainly it is not failure though as the base of New Rochelle is far beyond the events of the last five years and there is a lot of good to check out.  Maybe New Rochelle is just a reflection of the general malaise of the economy, but regardless, I can guarantee that for those that venture off the block and make it down here you won’t be dissappointed with what you will find here if you keep your eyes open.