WS Chronicle

Photo by Todd Luck

BY TODD LUCK 

THE CHRONICLE

A UPS Store joined many other new businesses in a downtown building that’s seen new life recently.

The UPS Store, located at 550 N. Liberty St, held its ribbon cutting on Thursday, May 12. The store offers a wide variety of services, including three-by-five-inch mailboxes that act as legal street addresses. It also has a full range of printing services that can make everything from copies to yard signs and banners. In addition, the store offers notary and passport services.

“That’s what we have is business services for small businesses as well as for personal use,” said  Amy-Ruth Hallett, president of 2H investments which owns the store.

This is the third UPS Store owned by Hallett, who said she had wanted the location for years because it’s located downtown with a visible storefront and parking. She said the store fills a need for small business services downtown.

The store is located on the other side of the building that has housed Body and Soul, located at 545 N. Trade St., for 13 years.  Body and Soul, a cultural boutique and gift shop, was one of the only businesses in the building for years. That changed after the building was purchased by Mike Coe in December 2014. He’s developed the building, which he’s dubbed the Trade Street Market, into a place that now holds a variety of stores and businesses.

Coe, who owns several near-by buildings, said he’d been trying to buy the building for ten years.

He said it was a good building for multi-purpose use in the Arts District with a 28-space parking lot, which he said was like “liquid gold” in downtown. He said the building’s been going “straight forward up” since new businesses started moving in and expects to have similar success in the buildings next to it on Liberty Street.

“It’s jumping right now in the Arts District,” said Coe.

Dana Suggs, owner of Body And Soul, said she was glad to have new neighbors. She said the location has been a great one for her shop.

“I just loved what I felt on the Trade Street area,” said Suggs. “The energy, the possibility, the potential, the diversity, the progressiveness.”

When her store first started, there were several different non-retail tenants in the building, which eventually grew out of their spaces and left. She credits her unique items and atmosphere for her success, which has involved expanding the store twice. She said it’ll take dedication from the new shop owners to succeed by reliably maintaining regular business hours and being there for customers.

Rusty Bumper Ice Cream opened up on the Trade Street side of the building last July. The shop, owned by Coe, serves ice cream, coffee and cake in a 1950s-style atmosphere complete with images of Elvis and a checkered floor.

The side of the building that faces Sixth Street has three businesses on it:

*Kleur– owned by Molly Grace, Amanda Vaughn Redmon and Emma Wallace– is a new shop that sells found and handmade goods created by 49 makers from North Carolina and around the world.  The variety of items include clothing, home decor, art, books, jewelry and accessories. The shop also regularly holds arts and crafts workshops. Grace said the owners chose their current spot because the rent is affordable for a beginning business.

*Burke Street Comics, owned and operated by Ryan Lusk and his wife Mary Staley, is a comic shop that opened in 2012 and moved from its former Burke Street location. The store offers new and old comics, along with toys and collectables.  Lusk has also been selling comics at Cooks Flea Market since 2006 and holds the Winston-Salem Comic Con twice a year at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds.

*Old Winston Barber & Style Co, owned by Michael Berrier, moved into the building in November. Berrier, a barber and stylist who has also been a musician, has owned a barber shop off and on since 1988. He was invited to relocate by Coe and said he accepted because he wants to be part of the Arts District.

Mayor Allen Joines’ re-election campaign office is also currently located on the building’s third floor.

Coe said he expects Señor Bravo Mexican Restaurant to open soon next to Body and Soul on Trade Street. There’s also a Pulliam’s Hot Dogs location that he expects to open in early July. He said other tenants in the works include a dentist office and consignment store. He said he even plans to have a small gym in the building for shop owners to use.