Downtown Port storefronts being snatched up

The face of downtown Port Washington is changing, and no where is that more apparent than on Franklin Street.

Locally Inspired owner Kelly Brown is looking to buy the building that once housed Zing Boutique and move her shop there. 

The Purple Turtle Artisan Collective moved into the storefront formerly occupied by One Wag just two weeks ago, and Faith in Waves is in the building that once housed Broadway Popcorn.

“I think what’s happening is so exciting and encouraging,” Port Main Street Inc. Executive Director Kristina Tadeo said. “It shows downtown is a really popular place, a sought-after place to do business.

“For the last four years, there really haven’t been those open storefronts and opportunities for growth.”

And the spaces vacated by the businesses that are moving onto Franklin Street locations are freeing up room on the side streets for other new businesses to start out and test the market, she noted.

Brown, who is still working on the potential purchase of the Zing building, said she’s excited about the potential move and what it offers her business.

“It’s exciting to have this opportunity for ownership in downtown. I’m definitely vested in Port,” she said.

“I’m very excited. I’ve loved this location. There’s just something about being on Franklin Street year-round that keeps you on top of the minds of customers.”

The building would give Locally Inspired, which currently rents space in the Port Harbor Center building on the lakefront, more space and visibility, she said. 

“It would give us roughly an extra 400 square feet” for the shop itself, Brown said, as well as additional space for storage and more room to prepare items for its corporate gift program and curating gift boxes.

“It will allow us to elevate our way of merchandising,” she said, noting the store would have better flow.”

There’s also  room behind the storefront where Brown could rent space for an incubator business that would compliment her offerings.

“That’s my hope,” she said. “It would be great to do that.”

Brown, who also owns and operates Cavelier Wine Bar, and her husband Charles have applied to borrow $60,000 from the city’s revolving loan fund, a loan that was recommended by the Community Development Authority last week and will be considered by the Common Council next week.

If everything works out, Brown said, she hopes to buy the building at the end of August and move by mid to late-September.

Across the street, Purple Turtle owner Amanda Scholz moved her shop from a 450-square-foot space on Pier Street around the corner to the 1,000-square-foot spot formerly occupied by One Wag.

“The space is wonderful. You have the wood floors, the high ceilings, the light — it’s a really charming space,” she said.

Scholz, who has been operating the Purple Turtle at 184 E. Pier St. in Port since November 2022, said getting into a Franklin Street storefront “was always the goal.”

When One Wag closed, she said, “everything lined up — the space, the size, the cost — it was all perfect.”

The new location not only increases the space for the artisan produced and designed products she sells, it also has enough room for Scholz to better host workshops and classes.

Scholz moved her business at the height of the summer season, and she took care to ensure she wasn’t closed for too long.

The shop is normally closed on Tuesdays, so on July 15 she put out a call for friends to help move the business.

“We got the bulk of the shop moved in three hours,” Scholz said. She spent two days setting the store up, and it reopened in record time.

“It was really special to have all their support and help,” she said of the friends, fellow business owners and artists who helped with the move.

Now open in the new space for two weeks, Scholz said she’s noticed a difference.

“It feels like there’s more traffic,” she said, noting added visibility was one of the benefits of the move.

She’s looking to hold a grand opening in late August or early September, after she’s adjusted to the new space, and said she’s excited about all the changes she’s seeing on Franklin Street.

“Hopefully it imbued new energy into Franklin Street and reinforces the foundation we have here,” she said.

That is something Tadeo is counting on as well.

While it’s sad to see businesses closing, she noted that those shops that closed on Franklin Street did so for many reasons, including retirement, health issues and others. 

And the closings create space for new ventures that offer a dynamic element to downtown, Tadeo said.

“When we have a vacant space, there seems to be interest,” she said. “I would be worried if stores were going out and nothing was happening.”

It may seem to the general public that some of the vacancies are taking a long time to fill, Tadeo said, adding, “There are things happening behind the scenes.”

She noted that there are “wheels spinning in the background” about the former Yummy Bones space at the corner of Franklin and Main streets, and the Singing Salmon building is being renovated while vacant.