MADISON, Wis.– There’s no hiding State Street’s struggles: 40 small businesses closed for good since this time last year. However, 2021 is already looking brighter… and soon, even busier.
“There’s so much optimism,” said Tiffany Kenney, Executive Director of Madison’s Central Business Improvement District, a refreshing deviation from the difficult conversation we had five months ago.
“Madison is a unique community. We’re a community who says we support local,” Kenney added.
That’s why she’s encouraged by the latest numbers: 12 new stores have opened this year, and a dozen more are discussing the possibility.
“There’s a lot of people looking and a lot of people interested in moving their businesses to State Street. We hope they do,” Kenney said, explaining several have already signed their leases and a handful are starting to move in.
Raising Cane’s is opening on the campus end of State, and Target is moving into the former Under Armor space. However, both openings follow a national trend: a shift towards big businesses that have a better chance of surviving the uncertain year ahead.
RELATED: 31 State Street businesses have gone out of business since June. 14 more are in jeopardy.
According to the latest numbers from the University of Illinois and Harvard Business, at least 2% of small businesses closed for good during the pandemic. Although that might not seem significant, economists warn it’s part of a larger shift, from big to small, that could permanently close many of the businesses that make Madison unique.
Kenney says it is important to have larger stores that cater to people living downtown, but knows State Street is also a tourist destination.
“They have a target in their hometown,” she explained. “They want a Little Luxuries, a Soap Box, a Jazz Man.”
The Central Business Improvement District is also working with the Black, Latino, and Hmong Chambers of Commerce to give minority business owners a chance to sell at pop-up retail locations along State Street this summer.
RELATED: Meet the artists behind State Street’s transformation
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