LOWELL — Mark Coddaire has operated a business in Downtown Lowell through good times and bad.
He opened Marx Running & Fitness on Merrimack Street in 2003, before temporarily closing it in 2006, after struggling to attract foot traffic. In that year, a Lowell Sun article said that “14 vacant storefronts haunted the stretch of Merrimack between Central and Palmer streets.”
“We kept the space,” he said. “We used it as storage, and the Greater Lowell Road Runners was meeting down there. It didn’t cost me a lot to be there.”
But the former marathoner said he’s built for the distance, and despite the challenging retail landscape, is still hoping to make his Lowell storefront model work.
“I’ve seen a lot of changes,” Coddaire said by phone on Tuesday. “We’ve hung in there waiting for things to turn in a direction that favors retail business downtown.”
That mindset is behind the “Closed for renovations” sign that is posted to the front door of 118 Merrimack St., in the heart of the city’s main commercial business district. Coddaire said he is temporarily moving the retail product — shoes and apparel — over to his Acton location while he conducts a long overdue “20-year cleanup” of the space.
“As it’s often been the case with this location, the dead of winter is not good for retail in downtown,” Coddaire said. “It’s been a horrible winter. It’s been pretty slow in retail in general – not just for me but for everyone.”
But those winter blues and blahs haven’t kept Coddaire from pivoting to other business models to make his Downtown Lowell business work.
“We’ve often used that location for storage and staging for events,” Coddaire said. “It’s kind of become an event-driven location, or at least it’s worked its way into that.”
The biggest event-driven item on the store’s calendar is the Baystate Marathon and Baystate Half Marathon. Every October, more than 2,000 runners race through the streets of Lowell, Chelmsford and Tyngsboro to cross the finish line in front of the Tsongas Center.
The race is hosted by the Greater Lowell Road Runners, and for many years Coddaire was the race director. The public group out of Dracut has more than 1,000 runners.
“I directed Baystate Marathon for a number of years, when I first opened,” Coddaire said. “I want to say it was from 2004 until 2010 or 2011. Now I am the apparel supplier for them.”
In addition to the Baystate Marathon, Marx hosts or sponsors several other road races including the Greater Lowell Road Runners Angry Chicken Race that is held every Tuesday from June 9 through Aug. 11.
The race distance is 2.62 miles — a tenth of a marathon. The race begins and ends at the S-curve entrance to the Riverwalk at the end of River Place, near the Tsongas Center. Each race will have a theme with a small prize for the best costume. Donations benefit Catie’s Closet.
Other races include the John Carson Road Race in Chelmsford on July 4, the Music Fest 5K in Lowell on Sept. 7, and the Run for Nature in Lowell on Sept. 28. After October’s Baystate Marathon, Marx closes out the season with a Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot in Concord.
All that running is possible due to the company’s Shoe Lab at the Lowell location, a space where Coddaire and his team use a band saw to cut shoes in half and evaluate the materials for density, stack height and weight.
“These three things help us determine the stability and the use of each shoe so we can tailor our recommendations so you can remain injury-free,” said the website.
Tucked in the back corner of the store is a mobile data-analysis machine that utilizes Contemplate Software to analyze one’s running technique and determine the best shoe for you.
The storefront also operates a T-shirt printing press, which manufactures shirts for events like the Lowell Folk Festival.
“We’ve always done T-shirts for the Lowell Folk Festival,” Coddaire said. “We’ve got our own press now, so we’re kind of adding to our services and seeing whether or not that can help subsidize that location.”
Like Coddaire, downtown business owner Ken Michienzi is a true believer in Lowell. In fact, he named his store after the city. He owns the Lowell General Store at 53 Market St.
“The thing that attracted me to Lowell was the sense of community, so I constantly look for ways to serve residents and visitors better,” Michienzi said by text Tuesday. “Lowell and the greater area have so many talented makers, and that’s what we try to highlight at the Lowell General Store. We want to be a place where the community comes together around local goods from local makers.”
Spring is 24 days away, at which time Coddaire hopes the snow has melted, the weather is warmer, his cleanup is complete and foot traffic returns to the streets of Lowell’s business district.
“We tried many different things,” he said. “I’m always looking to the future. I always thought there was a place for it. Now here we are 20 years later, I’m still waiting. But we keep pivoting to try and make it work. I’m hoping that people can come in and build around us.”
