Sunday, January 13, 2008
Frank's to open shop in Salem
Jenny Kincaid Boone
Jenny reports on the latest news on the Roanoke Valley retail industry.
Recent stories
A new addition specializing in pizza and subs will heat up restaurant competition on Salem's Main Street.
Frank's Pizza & Subs will move into a now vacant space on 14 W. Main St., which formerly housed Surf-N-Turf, a seafood and steak restaurant.
The pizza restaurant's owners, Joey and John Corigliano, also own the Frank's location at Hunting Hills Plaza in Southwest Roanoke County, near Wal-Mart.
"People have been asking us to go to Salem for a long time," Joey Corigliano said.
The father and son are planning some renovations to the Salem space.
Joey Corigliano said he does not yet know the restaurant's opening date.
Barewood Home Furnishings
Barewood Home Furnishings is moving its Salem store and cutting its retail space in half.
On Monday, the furniture store will open in a new location at 3328 Brambleton Ave. in Roanoke, the former Brambleton Drug store space.
Owner Jerry Helms said the 10,000-square-foot space that housed Barewood for three years on Apperson Drive was too large. Its new location measures 4,500 square feet.
More people are ordering custom-made furnishings, and Helms said he doesn't need as much retail space to display furniture. Barewood's Salem store also housed an upstairs retail area, but not many customers ventured up to it, Helms said.
"We missed a lot of sales," he said.
Barewood has been in business for 22 years locally.
Matthew's Hallmark
Matthew's Hallmark at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke will close at the end of this month, when the store's lease ends.
The store is one of the 480 nationwide that are owned by Hallmark. The majority of Hallmark's stores are privately owned.
"We are closing the store because of financial performance," said Molly Gregory, a spokeswoman for Hallmark, based in Kansas City, Mo. "Retail opportunities and circumstances in respective markets change over time, and this store is no longer profitable for us."
She said Hallmark does not plan to open other stores in the Roanoke Valley. There are three other Hallmark stores in the Roanoke area, Gregory said.
Landmark Designs
A company selling portraits and custom artwork has shifted its office to downtown Roanoke from Starkey Road in Roanoke County.
Landmark Designs creates pictures from photographs and other scenes using charcoal, watercolor, pastel, oils or pen and ink. It moved into a space at 101 Campbell Ave. in mid-December. Freelance artists perform the company's work, and Landmark acts as the broker.
Chris Turley, an owner of Landmark, said the company chose the new downtown space, because it "wanted more exposure."
Framed pictures of families, dogs and outdoors scenes are displayed in its large storefront windows.
News from this week's Storefront blog at blogs.roanoke.com/storefront/
n Retailers are pushing sales of products that can help you keep New Year's resolutions.
n Order pizza a new way. Send a text message.
n A new coffeehouse is planned on Brambleton Avenue.
