Urban Renewal
A new look will outfit the town for the spring or summer of 2010 as the trendy, Philadelphia-based clothing store Urban Outfitters makes it way to Walton Street in the heart of Syracuse’s Armory Square.
The shop will open at 221 Walton St. and occupy all three floors of the building. The address currently houses The Edge, a clothing store, on the first floor, Bentley-Hall Inc., a publishing company, on the second floor and Brookline Development Company on the third floor, which owns the building and is also the company overseeing the construction of the store.
‘The deal is closing this week, so this is official,’ said Jackie Saunders, a Bentley-Hall Inc. employee and Class of 2008 Syracuse University alumna.
Saunders said her company plans to move to a new location at 121 Walton St. in five weeks. Despite the inconvenience of switching offices, Saunders is looking forward to Urban Outfitters coming to the area.
‘I always order their clothes online, so I’m looking forward to saving the money I spend on shipping,’ Saunders said.
John Vavalo, owner of J. Michaels Shoes on Marshall Street, said he is looking forward to having another store in the area to compete with.
‘I haven’t been in the store, but at the same time I’d imagine they’ll have kind of the same types of things we do,’ Vavalo said. ‘They’re not dumb, they know what they’re doing. But I welcome them. I think it’s great. It’s good for the city, I’ve been buying from them for years, they’re a good vendor for us.’
Vavalo also said that he’s glad that the store is free-standing rather than being built inside of Carousel Mall. ‘It’ll get people out of the mall. I’m glad that they went into a free-standing store rather than go into a mall. I know in Charleston (S.C.) they have a nice store right on the main street.’
Patrick Kilmartin, a county legislator and a worker for Brookline Development Company, William Yeomans Sr. and William Yeomans Jr. are spearheading the project, which received a $50,000 urban-renewal grant from the Metropolitan Development Association as well as two $75,000 low-interest loans from the Syracuse Economic Development Corp. and the Greater Syracuse Business Development Corp.
Saunders said she thinks it’s great for Armory Square and that it’ll bring a lot of students down to the area.
‘The community has been trying to get students downtown for a long time now and I think this will actually work this time,’ Saunders said.
Melissa Aponte, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she rarely goes downtown but with Urban Outfitters opening up, she’ll definitely make more trips.
‘I’ve shopped there before and I think their clothes are cool and really fun,’ Aponte said.
Iveliana Diaz, a senior child and family studies major, said she has never shopped at Urban Outfitters before, but she thinks the fact that the store is coming to the area is exciting nonetheless.
‘I look at their stuff online a lot, but I’ve never been to one of their stores. If the store opens before I graduate I’d shop there, but I don’t think it will,’ she said.
The central location in Armory Square allows easy access for students through both The Warehouse and the Connective Corridor bus routes.
Urban Outfitters recently opened a store in Ithaca, NY, in July 2009 about a mile and a half away from the Ithaca College and Cornell University campuses.
Urban Outfitters sells both male and female clothing as well as accessories and apartment furniture items.
Published on October 14, 2009 at 12:00 pm
