2017 Downtown Northampton Economic Indicators Report

Hotel Occupancy Tax Revenues 

Note:  Analyzing Hotel and Meals tax revenues can be a good barometer of consumer spending and offer a view of spending food and beverages year to year.

Hotel Tax Definition: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts imposes a room occupancy excise tax of 5.7%. The law allows cities and towns the option to levy an additional 6%, which Northampton does. For example, a hotel room rate of $100.00 per night would yield $6.00 to the City and $5.70 to the State.

Hotel Revenue Analysis: Tax revenue collections show that hotel revenues have been consistent since 2012 averaging $530,000. Since 2015, revenues have averaged $660,000, an increase of nearly 26%. The 2015 increase may be attributable to the Autumn 2014 opening of the new Fairfield Inn. Alternatively, in November of 2015, the Clarion Inn closed but despite this decline in 122 hotel rooms, revenues for 2016 decreased slightly.

Hotels Generate Visitorship and Consumer Spending

At 50% occupancy with 1.5 persons per room, Northampton's 340 hotel rooms will generate at least 93,000 visitors who at 50.00 per day could generate $4.8 million in consumer spending. Although the closing of the Clarion reduced Northampton's hotel inventory by 122 rooms, the new construction of the Fairfield Inn added 108 rooms closer to the Downtown. Since its opening in 2014, the Fairfield Inn has been operating with positive occupancy rates and revenues.

Hotel Room Inventory - 340 Rooms
Northampton possesses (3) hotels and (1) Inn with 32 rooms including (2) smaller Inns with under 5 rooms. These are:

• Hotel Northampton - 106 Rooms
• Quality Inn and Suites - 88 Rooms
• Autumn Inn - 32 Rooms
• Fairfield Inn - 108 Rooms
• Sugar Maple Trailside Inn - 2 Rooms
• Historic College Inn of Northampton - 4 Rooms

The Clarion Hotel Conference Center with 122 rooms closed in December, 2015.

Meals Tax Revenues

Meals Tax Definitions: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts imposes a sales tax on meals (6.25%)

purchased from restaurants. Locals towns and cities have the option to add an additional 0.75% to the Meals Tax (Total 7.0%) with the revenues from the 0.75% remitted back to the city. Northampton exercised this "local option" in 2009. Please note that the meals tax revenues represent city wide revenues although the downtown would contribute a major share to these figures.

Meals Tax Analysis:

Meals tax revenues for Northampton yield the largest totals in Hampshire but have trended on a consistent plateau level. Since 2015 revenues have averaged $715,000 annually and $653,000 annually from 2011 to 2014.

Parking Revenues

Parking Revenue Defintion:City of Northampton revenue for garage, parking lot, and on-street parking

Analysis: Parking revenues have trended on a stable plateau level since 2013.

Retail Rents

Sources for Retail Rents and Vacancies 

The table below provides a sample of retail rents for Northampton and other communities taken in 2016. The sources used to gather this information are:

• Loop Net: www.loopnet.com Loop Net offers listings for retail and office availabilities with asking rents listed for some vacancies. Asking rents are not listed for every vacancy.
• Commercial and Investment Properties: www.commremagazine.com -- Commre is a seasonal print magazine as well as a web site with retail, office and commercial listings.

Retail Rent Analysis:

Northampton's retail rents lead the market locally, regionally and even compare to major retail markets in Connecticut and New York. All rental amounts are per square foot.