Aug 16, 2010

University, shops help Brockport stay vibrantBy Matthew DanemanDemocratandChronicle.com

When the Red Bird Tea Shoppe in downtown Brockport serves its lunchtime salads and sandwiches or rings up a Crabtree & Evelyn lotion sale, the customer might well have come from as far away as Batavia.

And as many as 75 percent of Marie Bell’s customers at her quilting and home accessories shop, Country Treasures, are from outside the Brockport area.

“Brockport’s done a good job establishing itself as a destination,” said Red Bird owner and former village mayor Jo Matela. “All the stores here have a niche market.”

The result is one of the more vibrant village downtowns in the Rochester region, where open commercial real estate space in the cluster of primarily mid-19th century buildings is at a premium while chains and franchises are a rarity.

“A lot of the communities around here are withering away,” said Chad Engert, owner of Seaward Candies, a Main Street candy shop and ice cream parlor that opened in 2002. “Brockport, not so much.”

The heart of Brockport’s downtown lies between the Erie Canal and the Main Street-State Street intersection. North of the canal is less pedestrian-friendly retail such as fast-food joints and strip malls alongside a Christian bookstore and diner. At the south end of Main Street is the commercial corridor of Route 31, with a number of other fast-food eateries, a Wegmans, a WalmartSupercenter and a planned CVS.

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