An already struggling downtown bid farewell to Internet security company Symantec and its 800 employees one week ago, but some business owners aren’t shedding tears over the company’s departure.
Symantec, maker of the Norton Anti-Virus program, officially opened its new Springfield building Wednesday, Jan. 2. Although some downtown businesses, including Theo’s Coffee House, were hit hard in the first week of the company’s departure, others look forward to the long-term benefits of filling Symantec’s old office spaces with retail stores.
“Certainly the effect of (Symantec’s) leaving will be felt in the short term,” Broadway Market owner Rich Hardy said. “But it won’t be that severe. Sometimes their workers came and bought individual items, like candy and cigarettes, but you never really saw 500 workers out on Broadway milling around.”
Hardy added that Symantec’s workers did not frequent the shop anyway because the company provided its own catered cafeteria.
Hardy said Symantec’s 1993 purchase of its main building, which had been a Bon Marché store, hurt downtown by reducing consumer foot traffic. He said his business should soon pick up, however, with the construction to open Broadway to motor traffic scheduled to begin in May and end in September. A new public library is also scheduled to open in December on 10th Avenue and Charnelton Street.
Symantec’s lease on its downtown property does not expire until 2006, and Hardy said he is looking forward to new retail shops opening in the property.
“When we first leased the property, we had always planned to move into a bigger building,” company spokesman Phil Weiler said. “We knew we might have to get someone else into the property. Obviously it’s in our best interest to get it subletted as quickly as possible.” Weiler said Symantec is working with the city’s metro partnership to put retail businesses into the five properties, which total more than 162,000 square feet of office space.
Companies that move into the subletted space will also receive Symantec’s 550 spaces in the Broadway Place parking garages, which the company purchased from the city for the duration of the downtown lease, according to Eugene Parking Director George Jessie. The downtown pedestrian mall is a four-block area of mostly empty storefronts. Groups of three or four locals occasionally wander through or play hackey-sack in front of one of the empty business spaces, but for the most part, downtown is silent, sometimes even during the noon hour.
“There is a silver lining to the downtown situation, with the library and the courthouse opening up, but it’s kind of a hard silver lining to find right now,” said Dave Hauser, president of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce.
Hardy said he expects companies move in before rent skyrockets.
“There is a lot of property on the other side of us (from the Symantec building) that’s dead right now, and when some businesses move in there the whole downtown will be much better off,” he said.
Until then, Broadway Market is hoping to “weather the storm,” according to store manager Angus James.
Some businesses aren’t as pleased about the loss of 800 potential customers, however. Doug Randels, co-owner of Theo’s Coffee House, said that his business was down about 25 percent in the first week since Symantec’s departure.
“They were good customers, and they bought high-end items like lattes and mochas, not just cheap coffee,” Randels said. “We’ll miss their business, but they were fun, too, and we’ll miss that.”