The Cocoa Tree in Germantown closes

A couple of weeks ago The Cocoa Tree announced on its website that it was closing for good on July 28, which is sad news for all of us in the North End who feel loyalty to our local businesses. The closing also further casts the haze of uncertainty on the capacity of Salemtown to plan for small mixed-use complexes without any specific demand from small business owners who look to locate here. Germantown is a mixed use bellwether for Salemtown's capacity to develop more than residential.

The Cocoa Tree is closed. Zackies hotdoggery shortened its hours a while back as did Drink Haus. The business space in Germantown's mixed used development at the corner of 4th Ave N and Monroe St. still sits empty with "for lease" signs in the window. All these trends suggest to me that we need to work harder on keeping the businesses that we have and on listening to serious new requests for rezoning as they arise rather than building it first in the hopes that they will come.

Meanwhile, I will miss The Cocoa Tree, and I wish the owner the best of luck.