It was a common refrain all summer, from former Westporters who returned to visit parents, attend high school reunions or just passed through: “What happened to Main Street?!”
They saw the butcher-papered storefronts. They noticed empty signs where national chains once stood. They found plenty of parking, but not much life.
Behind those grim facades though, another story is emerging.
Frequent flooding has taken a toll on downtown businesses. Chico’s, for example — and Sunglass Hut, across the street — were closed for at least 6 months after Hurricane Sandy. Both are now gone.
Main Street, a bit after the worst flooding from Hurricane Irene. This photo was taken exactly 7 years ago today: August 28, 2011.
High-tech gates offer a solution. Basements are filled with special concrete. Foundations are poured. The gates are stored off-site. But — with just a couple of days’ notice of impending bad weather — they can be trucked over, and clicked into place on both the Main Street and Parker Harding Plaza sides of buildings.
When the storm passes, the gates are removed.
It’s a new approach, resulting in fortress-like properties. A similar project is underway in Lower Manhattan, following Sandy’s destruction there. Closer to home, David Waldman flood-proofed Bedford Square as it was built.
But it’s expensive and labor-intensive. It takes several months for the concrete and foundation work to be done. And that’s after the long permitting process, involving a number of town bodies.
Plus, every Main Street landlord needs to be part of the project. If one store is not protected, water pours into adjacent properties through the walls.
But it’s a solution that landlords and merchants have worked on for months. Skip Lane — a 1979 Staples High School graduate who remembers downtown’s mom-and-pop days — is now a retail director for commercial real estate broker Cushman & Wakefield. He works with Empire State Realty Trust, an enormous firm that owns the Empire State Building, along with a substantial portion of Main Street.
They’re in the midst of flood-proofing the now-empty stretch, from the former Chico’s to the old Ann Taylor.
Stores on Main Street frequently flood. This is the scene at Parker Harding Plaza. (Photo/Chip Stephens)
It’s not easy. Though they’re Empire’s buildings, for example, the town owns the sidewalks that are part of the project. Many other municipal obstacles slow the work too.
But it’s important. As Lane notes, landlords have gotten hammered for the vacancies on — and vacant look of — Main Street.
Lane says that commitments have already been made for key retailers to fill the former Nike, Allen Edmonds and Ann Taylor stores. Peloton is moving in to the old Sperry spot — and they’re flood-proofing too.
“Main Street is not as bad as it looks,” Lane adds. “But with all the construction, it will probably look that way for another 9 months.”
Meanwhile, downtown shoppers should not miss some real gems. Shops like Savvy + Grace and The Brownstone are open, thriving, and vivid reminders of the days when downtown pulsed with fun, unique (and locally owned) options.
Let’s hope they’re flooded soon.
With shoppers.
Savvy + Grace is on Main Street, underneath Tavern on Main. It’s one bright spot in Westport’s downtown retail scene.
But I thought that climate change was “just
a hoax!” mmm
You should research the history of hurricanes in New England…Sandy was a category 1 before it hit and wasn’t considered a hurricane when it did hit (Super storm). The hurricane of 38 was a Cat 5 before it hit and was a Cat 3 when it hit…
We tend to think things are the worst in our lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_England_hurricanes
Is there any plan in the works to dredge the Saugatuck River to help to allevite the flooding?
Dredging the River won’t help with flooding… but it needs to be dredged…and there are no federal funds so doubtful it will happen unless the State or Town picks up the tab.
Thanks for sharing
Funny you should run this article about the problem of Main Street Flooding. I am in the process right now of installing easy to insert flood gates for the entrances to my beach area house, even though I am above the supposed 100 year flood plain. If Sandy had hit at high tide, I would have needed them. And I have many more low lying neighbors who should consider the same relatively low cost option that has been used successfully in Venice Italy for decades.
What model flood gates did you get?
Dick,
A word of caution:
Please make sure your exposed foundation or walls can withstand the water that will be up against it, should you have a flood and use barriers to hold water out of openings. more often than not, people try to protect their garage or doors, but fail to realize that if there is no water on the inside of your walls to counteract the pressure from the outside, your house could crumble and your damage will be a lot higher than a flood. maybe you’ve done your research, and if so then great. I am a local westporter and am in the flood business for many years now, Aquafence is a barrier we have supplied now to over 100 commercial properties nationwide. we are very hesitant to work with residential properties due to the issue i mention above, but in some instances have found solutions or an engineer was able to certify the structure. As for what’s happening on Main Street, it’s a great idea for stores to protect themselves, but there are proven solutions out there, such as Aquafence that might be easier and faster to deploy without all of the upfront concrete construction and foundation work.
To Dick Jay comments re time of high tide: You comment is the only time I’ve seen mention of this. Family had a house on Norwalk Ave at Compo for decades including Sandy & Irene. I believe high tide for Sandy in Westport was 11:57 PM PM and Sandy made landfall (in NJ) around 8:00 PM. On a normal tide that time differnce would have meant around 4 feet, or more, of additional water depth. On a full moon-ish/storm surge tide it would be more. Even though Compo Beach/coastal areas got hammered, it easily could have been under a 5-6 feet more water. Meaning much more, and more widespread, damage. Timing is everything.