January 26, 2006

A Street for a cool few million

By Alan Panebaker
Ashland Daily Tidings

The A Street Marketplace is for sale for $3.395 million. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings

The A Street Marketplace building is for sale, because according to real estate broker Pattie Millen, the owners are ready to move on.

“They’re ready to go in different directions, and they have other projects,” Millen said. “They create things, then they’re ready to move on.”

Millen said commercial properties like the A Street Marketplace usually sell relatively quickly. Thus, her company, John L. Scott Real Estate, has not listed the building in Multiple Listing Services. However, an advertisement in the real estate inset of Sneak Preview advertises the $3,395,000 building as a “State of the art commercial building with over 20,000 square feet of prime retail space.” It calls the building a “thriving location” with an “abundance of parking” and “potential for construction expansion.”

Millen said if the building sells, all of its existing businesses will remain in their current leases.

While the three partners are not speaking about what they would definitely like to do with the building, Ownership partner Ed Bemis of Bemis Developments Inc. — for one — said he has other prospects of which he cannot speak at this point.

“That one’s already done,” Bemis said. “There are other sites in town. Our business has been to re-develop. I’m working for development money. That’s what we do.”

The next downtown?

The appeal for a buyer, Millen said, is the potential of the A Street Marketplace as the Railroad District builds an identity of its own that attracts shoppers, tourists and local customers.

Bemis thinks the railroad district has already come into its own as a shopping district.

“Don’t discount that area as being an offshoot of downtown,” Bemis said.

According to the City of Ashland there have been 19 total businesses (including those still there) in the marketplace since its inception in early 2002. The Music Coop, Enchanted Florist, Cozmic Pizza and Leon Danielle are the only originals left according to retailers in the building.

The high rate of turnover has made it tougher for some businesses to build a steady clientele according to some of the business owners who have leased space in the A Street Marketplace.

“I feel like sometimes the people who own this place do not really understand how retail works,” John Brenes, co-owner of the Music Coop said.

Lost vision

In the four years that the marketplace has been developing, Brenes and his wife, Trina, have owned the Music Coop in the building. While the couple has a strong lease and does not plan on going anywhere, John Brenes said he wishes more like retail shops would move into the building to boost his business.

“I think some new blood could do this building some good,” John Brenes said.

Brenes shares his corner of the building with a flower shop and title company, and he said new ownership of the entire building could help bring in similar retailers. He would prefer something like a book store, but he cannot pick his neighbors. Brenes said the largest problem in recent years has been with neighbors who do not keep regular business hours

“This is the only retail left here,” Brenes said. “If we had strong neighbors, we could increase our revenue 10 to 20 percent.”

He said the marketplace has lost its original vision of a bustling, unique market with a variety of retail shops and restaurants.

Brandon Kirkland owns the Enchanted Florist flower shop with his wife. The two have grown a successful new business and done it all in the A Street Marketplace. When the early-1900s building was renovated in 2001, Kirkland was one of the first to open a business.

“We’re the only business her that’s made it as a new business,” Kirkland said.

While Kirkland agrees that more similar shops with regular hours might help his situation, he said he is happy where he is and cannot complain.

“If we had more retail, we’d probably do better,” Kirkland said, “but the reality is that this is a small town, and you don’t have people wanting to open up a new retail business every day.”

Neil Buettner, owner of Cozmic Pizza, said that the closed La Familia Fresh Mexican Restaurant next door does not necessarily help his business, but his clientele is so broad that he is not so dependent on similar businesses to bring in potential customers.

“I’ve seen enough businesses come and go here I honestly don’t care what comes in as long as they stay open,” Buettner said.

Like Brenes, Buettner has a strong lease and said he is not worried about what new ownership might bring his business.

“It has a little bit of an effect,” Buettner said.