will Portwalk be filled with corporate chains, local independents or both?

Property professionals involved with the Portwalk project are exceedingly confident that offices and retail spaces at the downtown Portsmouth site will quickly be occupied by a blend of national, regional and local businesses. The development is expected to generate more than 800 new jobs and more than $1.6 million in annual tax revenue, all while implementing a variety of green features and adding to the renaissance of the city’s Northern Tier. 

Lead developer Cathartes Private Investment recently posted this informatoin in a glowing release about the desirability of the project’s vast office space. In it, N.H. Department of Resources and Economic Development Commissioner George Bald is quoted as saying, “I expect Portwalk tenants will go far beyond the usual confines of the greater Portsmouth economy; they will bring new investment as well as good new jobs to the entire Seacoast region.”

Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm based in New York, is pursuing tenants for the project’s approximately 175,000 square feet of office space. According to Tom Farrelly, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield in New Hampshire, the firm is looking for high-tech, professional tenants in the fields of software, medicine, law, insurance, finance and brokerage. Although he could not provide any specific names, he said a number of potential tenants have expressed interest.

“It’s all still in the negotiation stage, but we’re very, very far along with some very significant names,” Farrelly said. “We’re very anxious to get to the point where the names can be used, but we’ve got a lot of tenant traffic and a lot of discussions going on.”

The picture is a bit clearer for the approximately 20 retail spaces available, which are being marketed by Strategic Retail Advisors. A retail flyer posted on the Portwalk Web site (www.portwalknh.com) shows a layout of the ground-level suites, branded with the logos of companies that have leased them. Those companies include Starbucks, Chico’s, Talbots, J. Crew, Apple, Williams-Sonoma, Cold Stone Creamery and other massive chains, including at least five women’s clothing stores.

SRA Portwalk representative Ginny Roberts could not be reached for comment and did not respond to several messages last week.

Portwalk will replace the Parade Mall building located between Deer and Hanover streets and abutting Maplewood Avenue. The LEED-certified design includes four new buildings and a 350-car underground parking garage. The buildings will house an extended stay hotel, office space, 28 residential units and a number of shops, cafés and restaurants. The four mixed-use buildings will be connected by a two-lane, one-way thoroughfare with on-street parking and wide sidewalks.

Portsmouth Mayor Tom Ferrini said the Portwalk project will offer a number of benefits for residents, including tax relief, quality services and local jobs. He predicts that the offices at Portwalk will be occupied by professional businesses that will be eager to hire Portsmouth’s highly educated residents.

Asked to respond to concerns about corporate chains overrunning the city and drowning out independent businesses, Ferrini indicated that there isn’t much the city can do to keep chains out. “While we all want to maintain our local character, I think private sector property rights are protected in the United States, last time I looked,” Ferrini said. 
The first-term mayor noted that he and City Councilor Ken Smith co-sponsored a bill that would have placed size and advertising restrictions on chains attempting to locate in the downtown area. The “formula business” ordinance failed to pass the Council early last year, and Ferrini thinks any attempt to prohibit national chains from buying or leasing property where small businesses are entitled to do so would be challenged in court. 

Farrelly said Portwalk’s office space is likely to attract several businesses that began in Portsmouth but have since moved to surrounding communities.

“A lot of the office options that are in the heart of downtown have had the perception of being difficult to get to, and once you got to them it was hard to find parking,” he said. “This offers them a chance to move back downtown, and there’s a lot of companies that are very excited about putting more Portsmouth in their Portsmouth business address.”
Portwalk offers a cheap alternative to Boston, where rents at downtown offices have soared over $100 per square feet. Portwalk offices, by contrast, go for about $20 per square foot. Portwalk’s green design makes it attractive to a variety of professional employers, and the development is conveniently located close to Interstate 95, Farrelly added.

The types of businesses that have expressed interest in leasing offices at Portwalk would offer livable wages to educated Portsmouth residents, according to Farrelly. And many of those businesses grew up in the immediate region.
“There’s really a broad spectrum of companies that fit the target profile,” he said. “It’s kind of a mix of local and regional tenants.”

Cushman & Wakefield is also close to finalizing a deal with a “major health club,” which would offer full services at Portwalk, including a pool, Farrelly said.

Construction on Portwalk is expected to begin this summer and conclude in the summer of 2010, but Farrelly said at least one building could be completed as early as August 2009.