Golden Opportunity

Yesterday's Republican-American ran this short little piece about the China Shop closing its location at the Mall because the owner doesn't like the mall's hours:



For everyone involved with downtown Waterbury, this little news article should be a giant beacon. I think the China Shop was originally on Bank Street before it was lured away to the mall. It would be a tremendous symbolic victory for downtown if the current owner could be persuaded to move there. You could even get some good publicity about it--are malls dying? does this move signal the rebirth of downtown retail districts? With the right targeted press release, if any of the stores in the mall relocated to downtown, we could even get some minor national interest going.

I can think of half a dozen economic developers and downtown building owners who should be jumping all over this one. Now, granted, the business owner seems to have other concerns besides the mall's hours, but the article clearly states that he's interested in a new location. Why not downtown?