Higher rents, increased competition quickly separating the wheat from the chaff. Heidi Schiller Remember when Fairhaven was a bohemian enclave? When the floor creaked underneath your feet at Village Books and there were fewerthan six places to eat?
The district may seem like an entirely different place now to some, as it has seen an explosion of commercial and residential growth in the last few years. The last two years, especially, have hosted an enormous addition of commercial space to the area and a slew of new developments are on the way. New commercial space Since , developments like Fairhaven Gardens, Harris Square, 12th Street Village and Fairhaven Heights have added 51, square feet of commercial space to Fairhaven.
He said the business grew steadily over the next few years and experienced a rate of 30 percent growth between and After , the high rate of growth dropped off, but the business continued to grow. He said that the area seems to support startup businesses that make it past their third year. The extra commercial space has not come without some challenges for developers wanting to lease their space out quickly, however.
Some even have waiting lists. Other spaces that are on the periphery of Fairhaven, like Harris Square and 12th Street Village, are taking a bit more time to fill up, he said. But whether all the new residents are able to support all the new businesses, plus the older ones, is questionable.
Survival of the fittest While the area continues to see immense growth and activity β new buildings climbing into the sky, new residents clamoring for a scoop of gelato at Sirena or waiting in 6 p. During the same period, 38 businesses either closed or moved in downtown. However, of the Fairhaven businesses that closed or moved, all either shut down or moved out of Fairhaven, and 75 percent closed. In contrast, only 11, or 29 percent, of the 38 downtown businesses closed, and the rest simply moved to another location.
