Nearly four years since the pandemic hit, the effect of remote-work policies on downtown retail is stark. In and around Downtown Crossing, an area spanning less than one-and-a-half square miles, there are some 50 retail vacancies, totaling roughly 300,000 square feet.
Not all have closed because of the pandemic. Barnes & Noble, which had one of the larger ground-floor retail footprints, closed in 2006 on Washington Street.
Fewer retailers have opened downtown since the pandemic hit. Among them are High Street Place, a food hall conceived before the pandemic that opened in March 2022; the restaurant Hobgoblin, which replaced Stoddard’s on Temple Place; and Chinese restaurant JiangNan Boston, which opened on Tremont Street.
More on this story from Boston Business Journal
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