A new Sprint store is being built on Providence Road, at the former site of Charlotte stalwart Big Ben British Pub & Restaraunt.
Big Ben moved to a new building on South Boulevard, after it burned down in 2010 (Sidenote: I was out there that day, working for the Observer on a story about the fire. The bar staff, though sad, was giving away rescued beer to the crowd that gathered. It was a memorable scene.).
The building at 801 Providence Road, which had originally been constructed in 1905, according to county property records, was a total loss. It was demolished a few months after the fire.
A reader asked me this weekend what is being built on the site, so I looked up the building permit to check. The project "Sprint Eastover" shows a 3,200 square-foot building being constructed on the site, at a contract cost of more than $600,000.
A representative with Lincoln Harris, the site's developer, confirmed that it is in fact a Sprint retail store headed to the neighborhood. The store is set to open sometime in the third quarter.
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14 Ağustos 2012 Salı
Sprint store headed to former Big Ben location
Blend Boutique now open at Ballantyne Village
A new women's boutique is open at Ballantyne Village, selling brands such as Bec & Bridge, Mother Denim, Citizens of Humanity and KAIN Label.
Blend Boutique, which sells clothing, jewelry and accessories, opened for business on Monday. The store is open Monday - Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
“The style of Blend mimics the personality of the south Charlotte community: classy with edge and young yet sophisticated,” said Blend owner Christy Ward said in an emailed statement. Pictures are courtesy Blend.
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Report: H&M headed to Charlotte
According to the Charlotte blog Restaurant Traffic, H&M, one of Charlotte's longest-sought retailers, is heading to town.
According to Restaurant Traffic, H&M will open in SouthPark mall and Northlake Mall. The retailer had reportedly looked at space in SouthPark previously, but couldn't find the right space. And Northlake still has plenty of open space at its shuttered Borders bookstore.
Restaurant Traffic is run by leasing professionals in Charlotte, including David Tschirhart of Legacy Real Estate Advisors. They usually post news about (surprise) new restaurant space being leased, but with the depth of their retail contacts they are usually pretty reliable.
"H&M has locations in Raleigh and Winston Salem but now will have a presence in the largest city in North Carolina. No firm date on when they will enter the market but they are coming," Restaurant Traffic writes.
With The Container Store at SouthPark open and Whole Foods opening soon, adding H&M to the mix would fill one of the last remaining hipness holes in Charlotte's retail scene. It might also assuage the city's chronic complaints about why Raleigh and other N.C. cities seem to get every major retailer before Charlotte.
Salud Beer Shop opening outlet in 7th Street Public Market
Salud Beer Shop, which opened earlier this year in NoDa, is already expanding, with a small express store opening later this month at the 7th Street Public Market.
"This shop will be a smaller express version of Salud in NoDa," said owner Jason Glunt, in an email. "We are going to focus on N.C. beers and seasonals from great breweries such as Dogfish and Founders."
The store is set to open Saturday, Aug. 18. Salud is also working on an e-commerce site to sell their beers over the internet as well.
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Cotswold Marketplace expands after two-year anniversary
Multi-merchant retailer Cotswold Marketplace has expanded its square footage and is continuing to grow after celebrating its second anniversary, owner Melissa Vandiver said.
The store, at 200 North Sharon Amity Road, has doubled its selling space, to 7,000 square feet. "We thought we'd just start small and enjoy it, but demand was strong," said Vandiver, who runs the shop with her daughter.
They opened the interiors store in June 2010, as Vandiver was thinking of getting back into retail and her daughter wanted to use her design degree.
Vandiver said she was "raised in retail." Her mother ran a women's boutique for more than three decades in Little Rock, Arkansas. "That was my tutelage, and eventually my husband and I ended up in Charlotte," Vandiver said. She opened a Myers Park gift store, but chose to leave the business after having kids.
Now that she's back, Vandiver said she's happy with the variety Cotswold Marketplace offers. "There's quite a variety here, first house up to investment pieces," she said. "Quirky, shabby chic, some of what grandmother had, all the way up to and beyond contemporary chrome and glass."
The store is one of several multi-merchant format stores that have started in Charlotte in the past few years, including Slate Interiors and Alexander Scott.
"When you've got a start-up business, every day is a new day, and every quarter's a new quarter, and you don't know how to project," she said. "It's very comfortable at this point to see a growth projection, and be able to see the ebbs and flows of retail and how we can best respond to that."
She hopes to see the store continue to grow, and already has her four-month-old granddaughter attending staff meetings. "Lots of people work hard," Vandiver said. "We just happen to enjoy it."
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