Since Covid, downtown Boston lost an average of 4.5 businesses for every 1,000 city residents. Shown is the intersection of Bromfield and Washington streets.
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.
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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.
