Mainebiz

V O L . X X I V N O. X I V J U LY 9 , 2 0 1 8 20 S am Ostrow is Kittery's newest business owner, after fi nding the perfect spot for an Italian restaurant called Festina Lente that serves rustic pasta and vegetable dishes, seats 26, and doesn't take reservations. "It's a small space in a grow- ing region," the chef-owner says of Kittery Foreside, an up-and-coming neighborhood near the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and about two miles from the Route 1 outlet shops. "I like that a lot of people don't know about it and when they come down here they're surprised," he says in the midst of making lunch preparations. "At night there's a line at every restaurant." at same afternoon, the Kittery Premium Outlets are eerily quiet except for determined bargain hunters like an older South Carolina couple taking advantage of a lower sales tax to stock up at Jockey for him while lamenting that there's no J.Jill for her. ere, are, in fact, several blackened windows with signs touting "Another Premium Outlet opening soon," but nothing about what's coming and who — save for a Kate Spade Outlet promised for this summer. "Reebok left and it's been empty for years," notes one shopkeeper. A 'shift in the way we shop' Store vacancies are more striking in Freeport, Kittery's main retail-outlet rival about 65 miles north. Slightly smaller in population and area but with more square feet of commercial real estate (see 'Facts and Figures' box), Freeport is also seeing retail-property churn, driven in part by an industry- wide upheaval. Around the country, national retailers trying to ride the e-commerce wave led by Amazon are shifting their attention from physical stores to online sales. "If I told you 10 years ago the Maine Mall would have some vacancies, you would have said, 'You're crazy," says Greg Boulos of CBRE | e Boulos Co. in Portland, which currently has six vacan- cies in Freeport available for lease. "It's a fundamental shift in the way we shop, and the retailers who know how to adjust survive, and those who don't, won't." e towns are responding in diff erent ways. Freeport is tackling its long- standing problem of pricey parking, which is subsidized by property and business owners so that visitors can park for free, as Kittery seeks to shed its shop-till-you-drop image. How they fare will matter for retail tourism expen- ditures in Maine, which came to around $1.5 billion in 2017, according to the Kittery vs. Freeport Different ways of coping with shifting retail trends B Y R E N E E C O R D E S S O U T H E R N M A I N E BUSINESS | CYBERSECURITY | CRIMINOLOGY | EDUCATION 207-859-1159 thomas.edu/mba Expand your knowledge and ADVANCE YOUR CAREER with a graduate degree. F O C U S Shoppers at Kittery Premium Outlets. P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R CITY FACTS AND FIGURES Freeport Kittery Estimated 2015 population 8,316 9,653 County Cumberland York 2013 median home sale price $283,500 $261,000 Retail landmark L.L.Bean Kittery Trading Post Total commercial space 1 1,194,672 sq ft 801,857 sq ft 1 Figures provided by offi cials in each town for all commercial space, including retail. S O U R C E : Maine State Data Center, using U.S. Census and other data.

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