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Downtown seeks risk-takers
Two men walk past an empty store Thursday, June 25, 2009, on 4th Avenue.
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HUNTINGTON -- Shawn Bresnahan tried. He gave it 3 1/2 years. But Le Cook Store on 3rd Avenue just couldn't find the right product mix to maintain its spot across 3rd Avenue from Pullman Square.
"Being on the south side of 3rd Avenue, it's tough to get people to cross the street," he said. "I had one lady who came in maybe two weeks before we closed and say she'd always meant to come to this store, but never got around to crossing the street. The street is half empty -- or half full, however you want to look at it -- and most people want a lot of stores."
As the owner of a new ribs restaurant in the Visitors Center, located in the old Heritage Station at 11th Street and Veterans Memorial Boulevard, Bresnahan is optimistic about starting a new business venture. It's probably a combination of the recession and the sluggish rate of downtown development that hurt his former business, he said.
The recession may not be doing any favors for downtown revitalization, but he, other business owners and local residents remain hopeful. Business owners want the empty storefronts to fill up to increase foot traffic, and residents say they'd still like to see a more diverse retail mix. It's just a matter of finding entrepreneurs who will take a risk, maybe even take a hit, until things get off the ground, some say.
"I believe everything is going to come together," downtown property developer Dr. Joseph Touma said. "There's no question in my mind. It's a natural progression. After this recession ... there will be a lot of good things happening."
No question it's a risk to start a new business, but Huntington could really use more of those risk-takers, he said.
Touma, who has developed a handful of properties along 3rd Avenue across from Pullman Square, is excited about what's happened so far downtown, but wishes more entrepreneurs would take that leap.
"We need (local entrepreneurs) to step in," Touma added. "Somebody has to take a chance."
Kim Sarka Lake, owner of MUG and PIA on 3rd Avenue, is one of those risk-takers.
Her business, which offers gifts and customized stationery, opened in April 2008 and is growing, she said. She still hasn't paid herself yet -- putting any profit back into the business instead of her pockets. But she thinks she might be able to pay herself by the end of the year.
She's fortunate to have a husband to put food on the table for this tough, early stage, Lake said.
And if you stay positive, positive things will happen, she said. But starting a business downtown does require a certain amount of fear, just so you keep improving your business, she said.
"You have to have that fear every day," Lake said. "The day you become complacent is the day things start to turn the other way."
Bresnahan said he was constantly switching things up to find the right product mix to please the Huntington crowd. He found that Le Cook Store's most popular offerings were its sauces, gadgets and cooking classes, but those didn't make enough money for the business to stay afloat.
What he learned, he said, is that people in the Huntington area like to eat, so he's pushing on and taking another risk -- opening West Virginia Rib Station, which will have an outdoor smoker to smoke all the meat. It will have a revolving menu, offering a different mix all the time: pulled pork, buffalo burger, and smoked and stuffed West Virginia trout, for example, Bresnahan said.
"I've been cooking so long, there isn't anything I can't cook, except I don't do sushi," he said. "The location here, I think will be great. I think they're going to move the trains around (to open up the patio)."
With a new director of the Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau, Tyson Compton, and a new direction for marketing the city, he's optimistic.
Compton said the bureau will do whatever it can to show potential entrepreneurs what the Huntington area has to offer.
"Our charge is to promote Huntington and Cabell County outside the area. We can offer that service to Realtors, Marshall University, anybody recruiting students, employees and potential businesses," Compton said. "If we can help show them why they'd want to locate here, that's a service we'd want to offer."
Huntington offers some incentives, such as temporary tax breaks for businesses that locate in the city.
There also is the possibility of getting federal tax breaks for developers working within the historic district. That was incentive for Philip Nelson and Jim Weiler, who are renovating the former Dickinson Furniture property at 4th Avenue and 8th Street, as well as the Love's Hardware building at 3rd Avenue and 10th Street.
They're planning commercial space for the Dickinson property, which is up for lease, and turning the upper floors of the Love Hardware building into loft apartments.
Joe Chapman, owner of C.F. Reuschlein Jewelers on 3rd Avenue, praised them for taking a risk on developing property.
"They're doing a super job with that," he said. "These guys are taking a risk. Instead of just talking about it, they're doing something. Anytime you see building, that energizes people."
Touma has developed a number of properties on 3rd Avenue and has "For Lease" signs up in the windows. One entrepreneur has discussed a possible grocery store for one of the properties, but it's too early in the planning stages to report anything definite.
A grocery store has long been awaited as a key part of the downtown's revitalization effort.
A better mix of offerings would help all the stores, business owners said.
Vicky Cooper of Old Village Roaster on 4th Avenue said she's still waiting for the success of Pullman Square to spill over onto 4th Avenue.
"I think they need to encourage property owners to do everything they can to fill vacant storefronts -- lower the rent or whatever it takes," she said. More store offerings would draw more foot traffic to benefit everyone, she said.
In the 900 block alone -- the block including Pullman Square -- a passerby can count six empty storefronts on 3rd Avenue and four on 4th Avenue.
The Old Village Roaster, a coffee shop which Cooper co-owns with her husband, Pete, has been in business 15 years, she said, and its most loyal following is made up of downtown workers. It's like a number of downtown businesses along 3rd and 4th avenues in that it closes about 5:30 p.m. throughout the week, except when there are special events, and it doesn't open on Sundays.
Cooper said when they first opened shop, they would stay open late for movie-goers at the Keith-Albee, but it didn't really pay off.
If all downtown businesses stayed open later, even on just one night a week, that might change things, she said.
But Huntington is on the right track, she and others said.
"What we have done so far is incredible," Touma said. "This is just the beginning. We laid the foundation of something really big that will continue to mushroom and pay dividends for years to come. You can see it -- it's so obvious."
Downtown has a number of things going for it, such as its natural scenic beauty, Compton said. He's even started a fact-finding mission to see if it would be possible to widen the openings in the floodwall so that the Ohio River can be seen.
"Is it possible, that's the first question," he said. "Beyond that, we're looking at what would it cost and what's involved. It's not removing the floodwall, it's widening the openings, even just a few feet ... so that you can see the river. That's my dream."
Huntington has such a strong heritage with the river, it should link that rich past to its future, he said.
Aside from that, downtown Huntington is "so intimate and quaint and even idyllic," he said. "I just think it's warm and inviting in so many ways. We're not Orlando or New York City, and we don't want to be. ... Those are great places, but we have the other side of the coin to offer."
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