Saturday, October 24, 2009 8:27 PM CDT
Thriving block of businesses spices up street just off the square
By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
rstroud@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON
A visitor to the 700 block of Jackson Avenue could find baby supplies, gift items, specialty coffee, a new hair style, Chinese food, seamstress services, art lessons, and vintage clothing.
What this visitor could not find is a vacant building. For the first time in more than a decade, all 10 storefronts are filled in this block off of the courthouse square. This may be the best occupancy rate for any block uptown, particularly one with so many storefronts.
In addition, the 10 storefronts in the 700 block of Jackson are evenly divided between retail and service businesses. This also is a rarity among the various blocks uptown, where many of the storefronts are used by law firms and other courthouse-related service businesses.
“You can find something for everyone along that block,” said Ryan Dawson, co-owner of the Jackson Avenue Coffee shop that opened in 2002 in this stretch of street.
The variety of goods and services available in the 700 block of Jackson has increased in recent months with the opening of Art Smart and Baby’s Market, which filled the last two vacant storefronts.
Art Smart, a studio that offers art lessons for all ages, opened in a long-vacant storefront that was renovated from top to bottom this year by Ed Carter Construction. Baby’s Market, which offers baby supplies such as cloth diapers and outfits, opened in a former dry cleaning space that had been vacant since 2006.
Baby’s Market owner Sarah Knierim said retail space along Lincoln Avenue was too expensive for her, but the price was right for the vacant storefront off the square.
Knierim said she figured Jackson Avenue Coffee would bring a lot of customers by her front door, but she has seen Art Smart, Stephen’s Salon & Floral, and her other neighbors also have drawing power. She said the block is visited by Eastern Illinois University students, young mothers with children in tow, seniors, and many others.
“It really seems to draw a wide range of people because of the different types of businesses,” Knierim said.
Owner Diane Knoop of the Calliope Court gift shop, which opened in 1995, said she and her neighboring merchants refer customers to other businesses in the 700 block of Jackson and the rest of the courthouses square area. She said cooperation like this is common in the close-knit block.
A visible sign of cooperation can be found in the walkway between Calliope Court and Jackson Avenue Coffee. Calliope Court, which sells 400 types of cookie cutters on-site and on eBay, shares space within its sales floor with Yarbrough Fair, a purveyor of vintage clothing and jewelry.
Dawson of Jackson Avenue Coffee said the retailers also get customers and other help from the service businesses in the 700 block of Jackson. For example, he said Charleston Transitional Facility has opened its Jackson Avenue parking lot to shows hosted by the coffee shop.
“That allowed us to have a little bigger crowds, and it has been nice to be outside,” Dawson said.
Executive Director Cindy Titus of the Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce said the 700 block of Jackson benefits from having a combination of new and long-standing businesses, noting that the history of the Sewing Salon goes back more than 40 years.
TItus said these individual businesses have been successful finding niches to fill and together they have made their block a destination for customers.
“There are vibrant little pockets of commerce around the square,” Titus said.
Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 238-6861.
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The Question wrote on Oct 25, 2009 1:40 PM: