[SteveM85]

Originally Posted by JayCT

More information on Phillip Morris International’s move to Stamford. Jay

https://westfaironline.com/142157/ph...g-to-stamford/

Originally Posted by Cambium

Phillip Morris moving from NYC to Stamford. 200 jobs to Stamford.

The Marlboro Man is coming to CT with 200 well paying jobs. First cigar wrappers, now this.

How does CT do it? how does the state attract so much business? why didn't they choose the state known for growing tobacco? or Virginia Slim?
CT's come a long way baby!

[AntonioR]

Originally Posted by SteveM85

The Marlboro Man is coming to CT with 200 well paying jobs. First cigar wrappers, now this.

How does CT do it? how does the state attract so much business? why didn't they choose the state known for growing tobacco? or Virginia Slim?
CT's come a long way baby!

A little known fact is that CT grown tobacco leaf wrappers cover most of the cigars made in the Dominican Republic. Right now, the Cibao Valley produces many of the top cigars in the world. Many say they are better than the traditional Cubans (I'm not a smoker, so I can only go by what they say.) What people don't often say is that Dominican grown tabacco is the filler in the cigars, the tobacco leaf covering most of them is actually grown in CT (CT River Valley area.) CT's climate produces high quality of that stuff.

So technically, many of the world's top cigars have CT written all over it.

[JayCT]

Stamford’s South End’s The Village mixed use complex, The Village, has reached its full capacity. Nice. Jay

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/bus...n-16594785.php

[SteveM85]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Stamford’s South End’s The Village mixed use complex, The Village, has reached its full capacity. Nice. Jay

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/bus...n-16594785.php

Full capacity!
The hits just keep coming in CT. They're piling on in Stamford like a scrum in rugby, it's unreal. It's On!

[JayCT]

Interesting article on 677 Washington Boulevard and it’s very successful program to fill the building. It’s all about location, location, location but also an upgrade of the building. Now the owners are planning to add a residential component to the complex. I know the market for new speculative office space is very limited these days but if any location could support it, I do believe this is the one. Jay

https://westfaironline.com/142414/ge...orris-to-city/

[Connetquoter]

Digital Currency Group is moving its HQ from NYC to Stamford ( 290 Harbor Dr ) after looking at other options in the tri state area.. Go Stamford

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by Connetquoter

Digital Currency Group is moving its HQ from NYC to Stamford ( 290 Harbor Dr ) after looking at other options in the tri state area.. Go Stamford

Yes, I posted it on the Economic Climate thread. 300 jobs. Great news. Jay

[New Englander]

Originally Posted by Connetquoter

Digital Currency Group is moving its HQ from NYC to Stamford ( 290 Harbor Dr ) after looking at other options in the tri state area.. Go Stamford

Terrific news! Stamford is a gem of a city. Great location, excellent restaurants, varied neighborhoods.

[JayCT]

Three financial services firms are moving their headquarters to Harbor Point. Nice additions to the city. Jay

https://westfaironline.com/143733/th...-harbor-point/

[Connecticut203]

STAMFORD — Elia Kazan's 1947 movie "Boomerang" opens on a shot of downtown Stamford. All the old hallmarks of city center are firmly in sight.

Actors climb the storied steps of Old Town Hall; trees peek out from present-day Columbus Park in the background; the camera rolls past the Stamford Savings Bank, then surrounded by other storefronts. It's supposed to be any small bustling city, and Stamford is teeming with life on the screen.

That downtown effervescence caught on the silver screen has ebbed and flowed over the years. Still, experts and residents overall agree that Stamford's downtown is successful, even with the challenges that any city faces like low retail occupancy rates and urban renewal-era design.

In spite of the overall victories, criticisms of Stamford's downtown range from too many restaurants to too high rents.

Amiel Gause, a 22-year-old student at UConn Stamford, said he thinks Stamford has a ways to go in terms of having something for everyone. Gause works at Honey Joe's, one of the neighborhood's smattering of coffee shops.

"On Bedford where I live, there are a lot of bars, and that's not really my thing," he said. Simply put, he wants to see "more artsy" offerings nearby, like art galleries and open mic nights.

Gause's coworker, UConn student Michael Roca, has a roughly favorable view of downtown, too, though he admits he doesn't spend much time there outside work and school. However, his praise came with a caveat: "There's nothing wrong with it, but I think we should fix the mall."

As head of the neighborhood's business improvement district, part of Stamford Downtown President David Kooris job involves addressing concerns like Gause and Roca's and developing a cohesive strategy for the neighborhood, its stores and restaurants.

The mall is a beast in its own right, and one Kooris said he is acutely aware of, though he pointed to the ongoing efforts to revitalize it. The 761,000-square foot fortress lost flagship businesses throughout 2021, including longtime tenant Gap and Saks Off 5th, one of its flagship businesses. However, under new ownership, the Town Center hopes to reconfigure itself as a more community-oriented space.

"We have to strengthen the relationship between downtown and the mall, make those connections easier... and not have it be this kind fortress on the periphery," Kooris said.

When he looks toward the future of downtown, he says he understands that it's constrained by the city's size. So understanding what Stamford can achieve and what it cannot is an exercise in setting expectations.

"You have to be sure, first and foremost, that you are holding yourself to an achievable standard," he said. "It doesn't make any sense to compare ourselves to New York City — at least to Manhattan — or to Boston, or to Salt Lake City just because it's a totally different scale."

Instead, he looks to the smaller cities near large metropolises for inspiration. Think Santa Monica, Calif.; Arlington, Va.; or Bellvue, Wash.

Emulating those places has meant embracing urban design hallmarks that most people agree are beneficial for cities and people. For example, city officials have backed outdoor dining, more street trees and broader sidewalks in the past year. All three features have lent themselves to increasing walkability — how easy it is to navigate an area by foot — in Downtown Stamford

Comparing Stamford with those cities also acknowledges the unignorable — Stamford has grown tremendously in the past decade. The citywide population soared by more than 10 percent between 2010 and 2020.

In many ways, downtown is one of the epicenters for the city's growth, along with its southern neighbor Harbor Point. Census data released in 2021 shows that the city's central neighborhood became home to thousands of new residents in the past decade.

That population growth has been central to building out the city's central district, according to Kimberley Parsons-Whitaker of Connecticut Main Street Center, a nonprofit dedicated to downtown growth.

"Retail follows people," she said. So the more people who live in a community, the more businesses will open up there.

But nothing is that easy, especially when it involves profit and loss.

Particularly in the past year, brick-and-mortar stores have shuttered nationwide at a historic rate. Business Insider reported that retail vacancies are at a seven-year high in the United States as the pandemic exacerbated conditions in the already-vulnerable market.ook and cranny of the quarter.

Kooris knows there are now a lot of restaurants in Stamford's central corridor — "It's over 100 now," he said — but he views the abundance as a distinctive positive feature of the neighborhood rather than a detractor.

"We are a regional tourism destination because of our cluster of restaurants," Kooris said. He said it gives people a sense of ease to have so many restaurants in one area.

"If someplace interesting that you want to go to doesn't have a table, you want to know that there's going to be other things close by that you can just pop over to," he continued.

Yet downtowns are more than just shops and restaurants, wider sidewalks and street trees, Parsons-Whitaker said. They also rely on the energy of a place — and the people who live there.

Parsons-Whitaker said she thinks of downtowns as a series of overlapping circles, each containing a vital component of life on Main Street. There's economic vitality, inclusivity, sustainability, stewardship, connectivity and a firm sense of place. Without one link, the entire chain falls apart.

"Without being inclusive, you can have all the parades and events and gorgeous architecture that you want, but you don't have a downtown," she said.

Fostering inclusivity means making Downtown Stamford's physical environment into one where people feel welcome. It means giving everyone something to do and a place where they can exist without necessarily engaging with restaurants or retail, officials said.

Problems aside, Downtown Stamford looks more like it did in the opening scene of Kazan's "Boomerang" than in years past. The players have changed, and the neighborhood has too, but the streets are still teeming with people hustling from place to place at the right times of day, as they did on the silver screen.


https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/new...f-16758325.php