Business & Tech

What Would You Like to See Here?

Discount outlet The Firefly Trading Co. closed late last year at the Healdsburg Center on Center Street.

 

The Healdsburg Center, formerly the Mitchell Shopping Center, lost a major tenant late last year when an outlet store that sold seconds from a range of other retailers, closed its doors.

Firefly, which bought its business from the former Healdsburg Outlet, had a 6,580-square-foot space at 449 Center St., inside the popular shopping center which also has a busy and a number of other smaller stores, shops and cafés.

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Dana Wood, one of two leasing agents on the property, said he and co-agent Eric Drew haven't had any takers yet for the Firefly space -- likely because of its large size.

"It would be a perfect place for all different kinds of stores," Wood said. "Something like a Trader Joe's would be great."

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The Firefly vacancy came just a month or two before the closure of the at 431 Center St. in the same shopping center. Wood said he has had a few inquiries on the Sears space, likely because, at 3,200 square feet, it is smaller and thus more affordable.

This is the first time in about five years that the shopping center has had so much vacant space, he said.

Wood said the struggling economy was probably at least partly to blame for both closures. The Sears store, part of a chain of four other North Bay Sears outlets, established itself in Healdsburg just at the time when the economy was about to collapse.

With Firefly, it was probably a combination of the economy and other factors, Wood said.

The result is some gaping holes in an otherwise bustling shopping center.

What would you really love to see in place of Firefly? Or the Sears space?

"I'd really like to know what people want to see there," Wood said.

Tell us in the comments.

 


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