Thursday, May 19, 2016

What's next for Fifth and Hampshire, 503 Maine?

NOW THAT THYME Square is moving up the street, the question is - what will go into the Fifth and Hampshire space?

I guarantee the building owners are already hard at work figuring it out. I know some downtown businesses that would benefit from a move to the corner. It has great traffic and the space isn't huge, but it's really cool.

Then there's 503 Maine, the far end of our first floor at Second String Music. It contains the original Mercantile Bank vault and has been remodeled several times since we bought the building. Our latest tenants didn't work out, and the space is open again.

Sheryl and I have different opinions. Since she's the mean old landlady, I can understand not wanting to deal with the hassle of renting it out. The key is to find somebody we know and/or trust. We'll be very careful with our next tenant.

We are thinking of expanding our space and using 505 Maine for a drum room, among other things.

I'd love to see a small coffee shop in there, one that is open in the afternoons and evenings. We have a couple of nice places already - I love the Mitchells and Bittersweet Confections, but I'm not sure we have the true coffee shop place down here. Plus they could use the sidewalk on nice days, or parachute baked good from the roof to promote the business. Sheryl is shuddering right now reading this.

Sheryl would probably drop everything and sell the building if it meant getting a Sonic at Fifth and Maine. A Subway or Jimmy John's would be cool, or something similar.

A nice cigar shop is a pipe dream of mine. What about a vinyl record store, could that fly downtown? We still have lots of cheap and interesting records in our two rooms here, but I'm not sure if it would work on its own, unless you sold record players and other accessories.

Any other ideas out there? I think downtown is the place to be, and we look forward to further growth and development.

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