Sunday, December 30, 2007
New antique shop to open
Jenny Kincaid Boone
Jenny reports on the latest news on the Roanoke Valley retail industry.
Recent stories
Antique Blue will make its downtown Roanoke debut by early next year.
A local family, Mickey and Nancy Nelson, along with their daughter, Hunter Dominick, purchased a two-story building at 12 E. Campbell Ave. in July. Mickey Nelson, who works for a Roanoke interior design firm, said recently that they expect to open an antique shop there in six weeks.
Renovations are ongoing at the building and have taken slightly longer than planned, he said recently. It was built in 1905.
They'll fill it with American and European antiques -- some on consignment -- with a focus on wooden furnishings, Mickey Nelson said.
Nancy Nelson, however, will be in charge of the day-to-day retail operation. Dominick, an interior designer who lives in Montana and runs a retail showroom in Whitefish, Mont., will help her family with furniture purchases, and she'll sell some of the antiques in her own shop as well.
The family plans to start an Internet business for Antique Blue and run it from an upper floor in the building.
Mickey Nelson emphasized that the prices for the furnishings will be "affordable," and "a lot of stuff that young people can buy."
Beside the future home of Antique Blue, Roger Neel, a local restaurateur, purchased the former location of Southern Pawn Shop at 10 E. Campbell Ave. He paid $850,000 for the vacant structure, according to city real estate records.
It's unclear what Neel's plans are for the building. One of his restaurants, Frankie Rowland's Steak House on Jefferson Street in downtown Roanoke, partially adjoins the Campbell Avenue building.
But Neel has not responded to several requests for comment about the purchase.
Retrospect Interiors
Meanwhile, a downtown Roanoke furniture shop has closed.
Dorie Howard, owner of Retrospect Interiors at 17 Church Ave., shut the store's doors on Dec. 21 for good, after a year in business. She said it was difficult to attract walk-by traffic to her store, mainly because it is located outside of the downtown market area.
Also, she said trouble finding available parking discouraged people from coming to her store, which carried contemporary furnishings.
Howard plans to sell some of the leftover furniture on her Web site, www.retrospectinteriors.com.
Retailers combine forces on Buena Vista business
Two different retailers have combined forces to create one store in Buena Vista.
Picture This, a digital photography studio, and Gifts 4 You 2 See opened inside the same location in December at 2474 Magnolia Ave. Kristy Wright, a professional photographer, operates Picture This. April Mazingo runs Gifts 4 You 2 See, selling a variety of gift items, including candles, Longaberger handbags and accessories.
From the Storefront
News from last week's Storefront blog at blogs.roanoke.com/storefront/:
n Get tips for holiday gift returns.
n Claire V. handbags will be sold at the Roanoke Regional Airport.
