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19 Jan 2016 10:20 |
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Business on Broad Street
Broad Street is again filling up with businesses, though many storefronts still remain vacant. Business owners said they are drawn to this stretch of Broad by affordable rents, the growing arts community and an influx of new residents, including many students from nearby Virginia Commonwealth University.
The area is now home to a growing mix of restaurants, art galleries, thrift stores and music studios.
I was a teenager, Broad Street was booming in the fashion design industry, Taylor said. was the place to be. 49, was born and raised in Church Hill. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, he held multiple jobs in the downtown area, all in the fashion industry. From 1977 to 1982, he worked at Cavalier Men's Shop at Seventh and Broad, doing alterations.
He left Richmond to pursue a degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He went on to run a design business in New York City before returning to his hometown in the early 2000s.
I moved away in the [downtown] completely dried up, Taylor said. Broad St. on Oct. 24, 2012.
think this area is on the rise, said Luke Fracher, who moved his consignment shop, Round Two, to Broad and Adams streets in June. "There is time and money being put Pandora Jewelry 70% Off Clearance into it. with partners Chris Russow and Sean Wotherspoon,had previously operated Round Two as a largely online business, selling clothing and apparel on eBay and operating out of a storage unit. When they decided to open a retail location, downtown was their top choice.
The store opened June 7, and the owners said sales have far surpassed their expectations. The store is full throughout the day, they said, and customers sometimes are lined up before the business opens in the morning.
area has so much access. It close to Jackson Ward, downtown and the Fan, Fracher said. I think that being between the two VCU campuses is crucial. door is Joanna Oremland business, Turnstyle, which opened in 2003 selling turn tables and other electronic music equipment, along with clothing popular among fans of electronic dance music.
Several simple calculations led her to start the business along what was then a mostly empty stretch of Broad.
Photo: P. Kevin Morely
Jesse Oremland (left) and his then fiancee, Joanna Oremland, in their store, Turnstyle, at 102 West Broad Street. The store specializes in records and clothes for DJ's.
started the store when I was 23 and a student at VCU. I already lived here in the neighborhood, and the rent was nice, she said.
The business has stayed and thrived.
Before a recent First Fridays Art Walk, Oremland was setting up a tent outside the store. Turnstyle stays open late on art walk nights and hosts DJs who play vinyl records on the turn tables. The goal, she said, is to show the roots of electronic music and help DJs who primarily work on laptops or iPads how the style of music developed.
The neighborhood recently got a physical facelift from Venture Richmond, with the city blessing. About 250 volunteers from Capital One planted bushes and flowers along Broad Street between Belvidere and 11th streets. Venture Richmond is spending nearly $100,000 to beautify the area. Mayor Dwight C. Jones has said it's essential that Broad look inviting.
is our front door, and many people who come to Richmond don see anything but Broad Street, Jones said last month.
Rob Williamson and Andrew Pack were standing outside during a recent art walk. Williamson said he lived above an art gallery on Broad Street for two years. He likes being halfway between the Fan and Shockoe Bottom and said it hard to top being able to walk down his steps and into the middle of First Fridays.
came here after leaving the military and fell in love with Richmond, Williamson said. Fridays have definitely grown since last year. There an older crowd, and more people from the suburbs. More families, too. of those suburbanites were Rick Smith and Pamela Bradley, friends from western Henrico County who had come downtown to see People, a play being put on by Cadence Theatre Company. Cadence is producing the show in partnership with Virginia Repertory Theatre at the Theatre Gym, a smaller stage inside the November Theatre, which is on Broad Street.
Smith and Bradley said they usually come downtown for shows or concerts, and that they usually eat dinner at a pandora valentine's day 2016 downtown restaurant. This time they were stopping in at Tarrant Caf.
an underdeveloped, untapped and unused gem that this city has to Pandora Jewelry 70% Off Clearance offer.
Ted Santarella owner of Tarrant'srestaurant
also eat at Comfort and Pasture, Smith said. street seems to get better each time we visit. owner Ted Santarella just opened his second restaurant Max on Broad on Oct. 29. The Belgian restaurant at the corner of Broad Street and Brook Road was 20 months in the making and features food like mussels, fish, steak and several varieties of crepes.
When Santarella opened Tarrant in 2006, cheap rent was a key factor in his decision to locate on Broad Street. Over the past seven years he said the street has been through a series of organic improvements, one business at a time. And though an Pandora 2016 Charms increasing number of Tarrant customers live within walking distance of the restaurant, customers who regularly drive down for a meal are critical to the company survival.
And though building a business in this neighborhood has been difficult, Santarella said it reminds him of working in New York SoHo neighborhood thirty years ago.
think it is the Pandora Valentine's Day 2016 prettiest part of Richmond, with the trees and grand buildings and wide street, he said. an underdeveloped, untapped and unused gem that this city has to offer. Silva, the chef and owner of Bistro 27, opened his restaurant in 2005 and has consistently won high reviews from the region dining critics. He said he came to Broad Street because he wanted to restore the area to its former glory.
move to Broad and make it what it used to be for 100 years, he said. We wanted to go to long abandoned areas.
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