Historic endeavor: Real estate collective looks to create buzz in SoNo
Real estate collective AGW SoNo Partners is hoping to make a large section of the Washington Street Historical District the gift that keeps on giving.
AGW, which acquired a 27-property portfolio from F.D. Rich Co. last December for about $11 million, recently created a marketing arm, OnWashington, for the district. That initiative includes a website, social media platforms and an agenda that the company”™s principal said is designed to build it into one of Norwalk”™s major neighborhoods.
“Obviously we want to fill vacant spaces,” Adam Greenbaum told the Business Journal. “But we”™re going about it differently. The portfolio consists of contiguous ground-floor retail on both sides of the street, so we”™re looking to harmonize businesses so that they complement each other. When we start talking with prospective tenants, we take into account how important the small businesses that are already there are, and whether they would be competing with each other.”
The plan was always to “build a community by bringing a brand-new perspective and a newfound energy,” Greenbaum said. “We have an open dialog with all of our tenants, who understand their businesses and what it takes for them to be successful.
“Everything else falls into place if you do that,” he said. “Real estate is only as strong as the tenants who rent it.”
Building an “OnWashington” brand that addressed retailers”™ and restaurants”™ pain points was essential, Greenbaum said. “We saw ”˜Entertain OnWashington”™ and ”˜Shop OnWashington,”™ a whole roster of things to bring people into the community and spend money at our shops.”
Within a few months of acquiring the portfolio, of course, Covid-19 arrived. “When the pandemic started, it was a very scary time for everybody in every corner of the economy,” Greenbaum said. “But we maintained that ongoing, open dialog with all our tenants to identify what their biggest challenges were going to be.”
While plans to address retailers”™ and restaurants”™ issues were being drawn up, AGW became aware that “certain of the economy were being forgotten about. We were hearing from artists who said, ”˜I used to sell x amount of pieces a month and I haven”™t sold anything since March.”
So it was during July and August, Art OnWashington was launched, featuring a curated art installation of multimedia works by over 20 Connecticut artists. That was followed by a decision to afford the annual SoNo Arts Fest, which had been in danger of postponement, space in eight unoccupied storefronts under the aegis of festival producer Gordon Fine Arts over two weekends spanning September and October. More than 200 artists were featured, Greenbaum said.
In August, AGW launched “Norwalk To-Go,” a custom app designed to assist its eight restaurant tenants with the takeout and delivery portions of their businesses.
“Before the pandemic, if a restaurant was making $1 million in sales, $900,000 of that was kept by the restaurant,” Greenbaum said. “But when you start relying on third-party vendors for delivery, they can take as much as 30% of sales as a commission” ”” a concern shared by several restaurateurs during a virtual roundtable with U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy last month.
“That eats away all your margin,” Greenbaum stated. “Restaurants start shutting down because it makes no economic sense.”
To date, the restaurants have saved some $40,000 using the app, he said.
The latest initiative, the inaugural SoNo Holiday Market, began on Dec. 4. Featuring more than 50 vendors selling art, jewelry, fashion, accessories, home décor and other products, the market runs through Dec. 20.
“It would be nice to do an event every two or three months,” Greenbaum allowed, “even though January, February and March traditionally aren”™t months that are screaming ”˜event”™ at us.”
He said he expected many of the AGW events to remain once the pandemic is over. “We want to continue going from a defense position (vis-Ã -vis Covid) to more of an offense.”
In addition, leasing activity continues. Greenbaum said that three tenants had left since it acquired the area, but that four new leases have been signed over the last 60 days: 4,000-square-foot restaurant SoNo Boil at 99 Washington ”” Boil’s first Fairfield County location; 1,280-square-foot Office Space at 119 Washington; 755-square-foot SoNo Tattoo at 127 Washington; and 749-square-foot coffee and ice cream shop Affogato at 132B Washington.