Many businesses in downtown Brunswick are temporarily closed, but as of Monday, three have announced permanent closures. Hannah LaClaire / The Times Record
BRUNSWICK — Many downtown shops and restaurants are closed while the state tries to stem the spread of coronavirus, but at least three Brunswick businesses have announced that their closures will be permanent.
In a Facebook post on Monday, the owners of Maine Street Sweets announced that the “little nostalgic candy store” is closing its doors on June 20.
Julie Marshall and Paul Giggey opened the old-fashioned sweet shop on Maine Street in 2017, hoping to bring customers on a trip down memory lane, invoked with the decades worth of candy and a slogan asking them to “remember when.”
In a comment on the post, owners said the decision was an economic one, based around the likelihood that the summer months, usually their busiest, will not bring the number of customers they need. The lease is up at the end of June, so the timing was right, they said.
Debora King, Executive Director of the Brunswick Downtown Association said Maine Street Sweets also discussed closure prior to the pandemic. Candy is available for curbside pickup until the shop reopens to visitors on June 1.
The owners of Benchwarmers Sports Pub, also on Maine Street, made a similar announcement last week, and said the restaurant would be closing due to “restrictions in place due to COVID-19.”
Benchwarmers stopped serving customers since March 18, according to its Facebook. The business noted that “no amount of curbside or take-out or limited inside seating” would sustain them, writing that there is no “magic pot of free money” that can help, and the businesses relies on a “robust, fully packed bar crowd on Friday and Saturday nights.” Further attempts to stay open would just cause the business to “bleed to death a little slower,” the owners wrote.
“Unfortunately, I know we’re not alone in this struggle, and I shudder to think about the other small businesses in town that will inevitably be facing a similar reality,” they said. “The only hope at this point is for someone else to step forward and take a chance on picking up where we’ve left off, when things get better.”
Patricia Porell also hopes someone will take over her little downtown shop, Timeless Cottage, which is closing at the end of June after nearly 10 years.
The decision was made pre-coronavirus, she said, but the pandemic has thrown a wrench into her liquidation plans.
“The plan was to have a big sale,” she said, but the store has been closed to the public since mid-March and “now I have $100,000 worth of inventory to get rid of.”
Pieces are listed on Facebook and are available for curbside pickup.
The store was a sort of a second career for Porell, who turned her hobby, or “shopping superpower,” into a brick and mortar location for people seeking interior decoration inspiration.
But retail is “not for the faint of heart” and while the store paid for itself, it was not profitable, and Porell said she is ready to go in a different direction.
Leaving Brunswick’s downtown, especially during such a trying time, is difficult.
“I feel like I am abandoning Maine Street and I feel bad about that,” she said. “I wish someone would carry on, but it’s an awfully hard time to encourage someone to buy the store.”
The Brunswick Downtown Association confirmed the three closures are the only three the organization is currently aware of.
According to King, the Brunswick Downtown Association is working with closed businesses on ways to safely reopen within state guidelines and with businesses that are still open as they move into a new, but likely still difficult season.
“With the cancellation of many events both locally and within the region plus the 14-day quarantine on out-of-state folks traveling to Maine, we expect the number of visitors to Brunswick to be significantly less than prior years,” King said in a statement. “Our efforts will be on encouraging Mainers, and especially our local and area residents to ‘stay-cation’ and support our local economy. Our business community has already displayed incredible ingenuity and stamina during this time and we will continue to promote their efforts and plan activities and events that will encourage people to shop, dine, and enjoy downtown Brunswick.”
The organization is also working with the community to develop a strategy in case of a resurgence of the virus, she added.
To help keep local businesses afloat, the Brunswick Development Corporation recently launched a Pandemic Emergency Loan Fund.
The fund, established in March, allocated $100,000 to be dispersed to Brunswick businesses “that have experienced interruption or hardship due to COVID-19,” according to the organization. Then, in April, Brunswick Town Councilors approved $25,000 in funds from the Cook’s Corner Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district to match an anonymous $25,000 donation to the Brunswick Development Corporation’s Pandemic Emergency Loan Fund.
The loans, available on a first-come, first-served basis, are no-interest loans of up to $5,000, for a two-year term and deferred principal payments for 12 months. The money is intended to help supplement other state and federal emergency disaster relief funding.
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