High rents squeeze Faneuil Hall vendors

Last spring, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, worried that Faneuil Hall Marketplace was welcoming national chains and repelling local merchants, decried the shopping center's high rents, vowed to put pressure on the management company, and ordered an audit into its lease agreement with the city.

General Growth Properties quickly agreed to start meeting regularly with Marketplace merchants and city officials to discuss compromises. The city scrapped plans for the audit.

But soon after, the company started canceling meetings, according to merchants. Rent and other costs for retailers have not been discussed and the parties have not met for about three months.

Meanwhile, merchants say, rents continue to cripple vendors, particularly pushcart owners, who have been hawking jewelry, sweaters, and painted scarves since the 1970s in Faneuil Hall's Quincy Market but are slowly being squeezed out. Last week, nine of 34 pushcarts in Quincy Market were empty, except for little placards that advertised local shops and the national chain stores that have cropped up in Faneuil Hall in recent years.

"This is the first year I've ever seen that . . . It's a ghost town," said Linda DeMarco , a pushcart vendor and a member of the advisory committee of merchants and city officials and representatives of management that formed after Menino issued a letter in June to General Growth threatening the audit.

"We need results," DeMarco said. "Nine empty carts is not results."

Michael Kelleher , who manages the Marketplace for General Growth, said many of the cart owners left their pushcarts empty for the winter season and plan to return next month. Half of the 40 pushcart vendors who traditionally sell in the summertime are returning for the season, he said.

"No one has told me that no one is coming back," he said. Kelleher said the management company asked to postpone one meeting around August so a General Growth executive could attend.

A spokeswoman for Menino said he would not comment for this story.

City officials said the advisory committee had persuaded the property manager to bring in more local merchants but acknowledged there will be work to do when the committee meets again in March.

"We need to do everything we can to retain the character and uniqueness of Faneuil Hall," said Julie Burns , the city's director of arts, tourism, and special events. "It's an incredibly important attraction for the mayor and he wants to make sure the local merchants can stay and be part of such an important attraction."

Kristen Keefe , retail section manager for the Boston Redevelopment Authority , said merchant representatives have not raised the issue of rent at the meetings and the city is unable to do much about it anyway.

"General Growth are the people who set the leasing rates and the city and the BRA do not have control over what they charge," she said. "I'm sure they're basing their leasing rates on the foot traffic."

But DeMarco said there have not been enough meetings to start discussing rent and other costs.

She was careful not to criticize Menino, calling the mayor a fierce advocate for local merchants. But, DeMarco said, vendors are becoming impatient.

"They're getting frustrated because nothing has changed," DeMarco said. "I think everyone is waiting with bated breath to see if things are going to get better."

Kelleher said the company intends to continue meeting with merchants.

"We are sensitive to the level of business, and to that end we speak often with the merchants," he said. "My door is always open."

He said that 88 percent of the pushcart vendors are local merchants who on average stay in the marketplace for 11 1/2 years.

"I'm proud of that," he said.

Vendors acknowledged that the winter season and competition from other big shopping plazas around the city have hurt business, but they say the high rent is a constant hindrance to their survival. Many said they are paying up to $40,000 a year for their space in Quincy Market.

Kelleher declined to discuss rent.

Pushcarts "are going down," said Henri Rozenberg , 61, a glass blower who sells his crafts from a kiosk in Quincy Market. He did not say how much rent he pays. "You're getting a slow death. It's sad."

Kazrani Fariborz opened his pushcart, Arman Time Co., last January, hoping the marketplace's traditionally big crowds would snap up his pastel wristwatches, silver pocket watches, and electronic clocks.

But business has been slow, he said, and some days he wonders if he made a mistake.

"If I'm spending money out of my pocket to stay in business, it's not the right business," Fariborz said.

Rozenberg, a former engineer, said he is thinking of closing.

"I'm here right now to make a living for me and my wife and I can barely survive," he said.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.