Downtown Hudson on upswing as new businesses fill vacant spaces
Despite a year of economic uncertainty, Hudson businesses and city officials are confident in the city’s economic health.
While several “for lease” signs are visible downtown, Katie Behnke, Hudson’s economic development manager, said the overall picture is positive.
Since beginning her tenure with the city last November, Behnke has seen 20 new businesses enter the city, eight leave and two relocate within Hudson.
"Given that timing aligns with emerging from the pandemic and a period of uncertainty in the global economy, I view this as a strong performance," Behnke said in an email to the Beacon Journal.
The net number of businesses in the city is increasing, she said, and most of the city's businesses weathered the pandemic well.
"A few of the family-owned business closures on Main Street are the result of positive outcomes, like owner retirement or relocation of a successful business out of state so it could be handed down to family members," she said.
Favorite Sister clothing boutique to open in former Grey Colt
Third-generation Hudsonites Emily Westlake and Carrie Cronkey are among the small business owners investing in downtown Hudson.
The sisters are opening a women’s boutique clothing store in November called Favorite Sister at 150 N. Main St., formerly The Grey Colt.
Westlake and Cronkey’s first jobs were at The Land of Make Believe, a toy store in downtown Hudson that closed in 2019 after 20 years of business. Cronkey also worked at The Grey Colt.
They’ve seen Hudson go through cycles of boom and bust before, which Cronkey calls a “natural cycle of rebirth.”
Both sisters are confident the city is robust enough to keep Favorite Sister afloat through good times and bad.
“Hudson has a deep commitment to the community, to the merchants,” Cronkey said. “And so, it’s this symbiotic relationship that has enabled the businesses even through the economic downturn, and upturn.”
“We believe in Hudson, and we hope they’ll believe in us,” Westlake said.
Awaken Bake fills void in former Great Lakes Baking Company space
At 85 S. Main St., husband-and-wife duo Ari Friedman and Stacy Siddle recently opened the Awaken Bake Company in the former site of the Great Lakes Baking Company.
Both expressed a similar confidence in their decision to open a business in Hudson.
Friedman isn’t concerned about the number of vacant storefronts along Main Street.
“If things get really bad, I can provide bread for the breadlines,” he said.
Siddle said Awaken Bake’s philosophy is that small towns deserve bakeries.
“It seems that everybody I’ve met sees that bakeries are important, and people feel the same way we do,” Siddle said. “We had a phenomenal first week — better than I could have imagined.”
Of rent and real estate
At a September City Council meeting, Behnke spoke about downtown Hudson's businesses and said recently vacated spaces are generally turning over quickly.
Behnke told council the price per square foot for retail space compares favorably to areas like Kent and Dublin and fell below Pinecrest and markets in Columbus.
"We do hear that narrative that it's too expensive, but when I did a quick market study, it did really feel like we were falling in line with peers in other communities," Behnke said.
However, she declined to release the average lease amounts because her study only included a small number of properties that opted to publicly list their prices.
Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: New businesses fill vacant space in downtown Hudson post-COVID-19
