Clothing and crafts are sold by stores filling the retail space in the Peerless Building on Westminster Street.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The store closings came in quick succession on downtown Westminster Street.

Just before Thanksgiving, the corner spot on Westminster and Eddy streets was vacated, after the regional housewares store Bowl & Board, a kind of Pottery Barn New England, announced it was liquidating all its stores after 43 years. It had opened the Providence location about four years ago.

Around Christmas, the high-end women’s clothing boutique Elsa Arms held a liquidation sale. While the store remained open for a few more weeks, it officially closed Saturday.

In late December, Dress Barn, the national chain of women’s clothing stores, vacated the 8,500-square-foot space it occupied at the corner of Westminster and Dorrance for at least a decade.

Then following its annual New Year’s Eve bash, the Providence Black Repertory Company –– a cultural touchstone for the state’s black community and a popular downtown nightspot –– officially closed its doors, having won a brief stay in its receivership proceedings to hold one last party.

The losses give a visible emptiness to the narrow cobblestone throughway that was once lined with major department stores and served as the downtown’s main commercial strip.

Joelle Kanter, program manager at the Providence Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes downtown development, says the retail district’s recent struggles are largely part of a national decline in downtowns because of changes in consumer spending. But some of the downtown’s challenges, she acknowledges, are all its own.

“What we’re not getting is the audience beyond the downtown,” Kanter said. “The people who live in the downtown appreciate and support the local shops. The out-of-staters who stay in downtown hotels appreciate the neighborhood. But around the state, I’m not sure people realize how great the downtown is.”

In Providence, vacant downtown retail space totaled 76,345 square feet in 2009, with about 60 percent of it, or 45,721 square feet, found along Westminster Street, according to the Providence Foundation. The total retail square footage downtown, according to a 2003 survey, was 457,830 square feet.

Even amid the empty storefronts, downtown advocates remain positive. They say there is a transition taking place on Westminster Street that could bode well.

New businesses that have cropped up recently are enjoying some degree of success. Property owners say they’re close to landing deals that will bring new stores and new options to the retail strip.

They’re also working with downtown boosters like the Providence Foundation, the mayor’s office and the state Economic Development Corporation on new strategies, such as bringing temporary businesses to fill storefronts, offering smaller retail spaces, or encouraging business collectives to share space.

“It looks like a lot of emptiness, but it’s not showing what’s going on behind the scenes,” says Joanna Levitt, director of retail leasing and marketing for Cornish Associates, which is the property owner. “It’s a period of fixing up shop and getting ready for new stuff.”

What worked best in 2009 on Westminster Street were the decidedly less high-end and the everyday practical-type stores.

Craftland, an annual downtown holiday craft sale by local artists, became a year-round retail store this August, occupying a long-vacant corner location at Westminster and Union in the Peerless Building. The store, which sells handicrafts made from up to 90 independent artists, has a mix of pricey items, but also gifts for $15 to $20.

Farmstead, a cheese and meat shop, offers deli sandwiches and other lunch items for the workday crowd. The three-year-old wine store Eno has a broad selection of wines, but it is still the downtown’s only liquor store, so it also offers the $5 six-pack of Narragansett tall boy cans.

A new bar –– the 201 –– opened over the summer at 201 Westminster St. and is starting to build a following with its unadorned, low-key style, cheap drinks, and quirky events.

A block over, on Weybosset Street, Gourmet Heaven opened, offering the downtown its first New York-style corner store: part deli, quick lunch place, and grocer.

“The businesses that do well here are the ones that have a range of prices,” says Daren MacDonald, coffee manager at Tazza restaurant and café. “The ones that are not successful are the ones that went too high-end, although that type of clientele is here.”

Property owners say they’re learning from the successful business. They say they want to cater not just to the well-to-do downtowners, but also the college students, many of whom either live in the renovated lofts along the street or attend classes nearby.

Many of them predict a significant influx of new businesses in the coming months.

Joseph R. Paolino Jr. says he’s negotiating with a company to open a gourmet pizza place in the space vacated by Bowl and Board, which he owns. Levitt, of Cornish Associates, says the firm already signed on a new business to take over Elsa Arms’s space and is negotiating with another retailer for another Westminster Street space.

On Friday, Realtor Sandy Schacht was talking with a business owner interested in opening a hookah lounge on the street and says he is talking with an employment company interested in another Westminster location.

“We’re banging around at the bottom of the recession, and pretty soon we’ll hopefully have some liftoff,” says William Greene, a partner at downtown real estate broker Hayes & Sherry, which manages properties along Westminster Street.

Meanwhile, Westminster Street stores are doing what they can to get through the lean months.

Deb Dormody, “Boss Lady” at Craftland, says the shop is looking to keep things active after a banner December by offering programming that draws visitors to the downtown, such as arts and crafts classes, local artist showcases, and other events.

“If we can make it to March, I think we’ll be out of the weeds,” she said.

pmarcelo@projo.com