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May 22, 2017 Reporter's Notebook

Pratt St.’s weekday open-air market dawns

PHOTO | Hartford Business Improvement District Pratt Street closes for several hours weekdays to promote shopping-dining foot traffic.

Some of downtown Hartford's most resilient merchants are housed on Pratt Street.

Nearly a year after an almost endless makeover of the one-way thoroughfare linking Trumbull and Main streets put a damper on theirs and customers' attitudes, Pratt Street merchants have revived a marketing tactic they say has led to a boost in business.

Starting in early May, many of the three dozen or so owners of restaurants and merchandise-services boutiques flanking the brick-paved strip — as part of a city-sponsored pilot — began closing Pratt Street to motor vehicles several midday hours during weekdays to create an open-air marketplace of sorts that is more welcoming to pedestrians.

Specifically, the strip closes Monday through Thursdays, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. On Fridays, when live music is featured, Pratt stays closed to vehicles until 8 p.m.

When weather permits, according to habadasher Jodi Morneault and Jordan Polon, executive director of the Hartford Business Improvement District, the district's blue-black clad staff of “ambassadors,'' sets up 20 tables and 60 chairs for visitors to eat their brown-bagged lunch or meals prepared by downtown eateries.

The goal is to establish a more pedestrian-friendly environment that encourages people to eat and shop in the city.

The city is funding the pilot with metered-parking revenue collected daily, officials said.

“It really has helped everybody's business tremendously,'' said Morneault, who with husband Ron, owns men's/women's clothing boutique Morneault's Stackpole Moore Tryon. Morneault said her sales double on the weekdays Pratt Street closes.

The event, too, is popular with young workers/residents downtown, Morneault said.

“It's like a meeting place for everyone to come to,'' she said.

Eventually, Morneault says, Pratt Street merchants hope to extend their open-air marketplace to Saturdays, and invite area farmers to sell their fresh produce.

– Gregory Seay

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