Onward And Upward

Poughkeepsie Journal Reports on some of Main Street's recent and upcoming changes
In Saturday's Poughkeepsie Journal, Craig Wolf reports on some of the changes beginning to take place on Main Street, Including the Iron Fish Trading Company's move to the West End, World's End Book's move to the bend on the East End and thier collaboration with Hudson Valley Outfitters and the arrival of Beacon's first natural foods grocery store this coming July.

Check it all out here.

Comments

[rajesh]

The link to the Journal is broken.

Here it is:

New, old shops shuffling in Beacon

[Mike D]

Thanks Rajesh! Darn frustrating how they don't automagically forward the dead link to the new location...

[wvgl]

Poughkeepsie Journal (New York) April 30, 2005 Saturday

Copyright 2005 Poughkeepsie Journal (Poughkeepsie, NY)
All Rights Reserved
Poughkeepsie Journal (New York)

April 30, 2005 Saturday

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 4B

LENGTH: 450 words

HEADLINE: New, old shops shuffling in Beacon

BYLINE: Craig Wolf

BODY:
BEACON -- Main Street revival, keyed by development of arts as commerce, is running into some bumps as times change and property prices rise.

Collaborative Concepts, a large gallery that helped spur the movement, will move in two weeks. Some businesses have moved to escape rent hikes
or find more lucrative locations. A few have doubled up to share space and cut costs.

But out of this financial ferment comes creative change. Some merchants say that's just what happens when you have success. A positive side
effect is that the churn is helping the long-lagging west side, closer to the big tourist draw, the Dia:Beacon museum.

Mark Roland moved his Iron Fish Trading Co. antiques and art store from Main Street's eastern end to the western when his new landlord sought to
nearly triple his low rent. He doesn't blame owners for recouping higher purchase prices.

"I paid more (rent) overall, but much less per square foot," Roland said, happy with tripling his space.

'The bags don't open'

But rising rents may outpace merchants' receipts, warns Ricardo Diaz, owner of The Framery and vice president of Beacon Arts Community
Association. Tourists come up, "but the bags don't open; they got double locks on them, some of them," he said.

Nonprofit Collaborative Concepts has been an arts anchor on Beacon's mile-long Main Street since March 2001. Owners George and Judy Lowry,
Manhattan business people interested in the arts, offered low rent, said Mary Madden, board president until December. "They were extremely,
extremely generous," she said, but operating expenses kept rising. The group struggled.

Eric Arctander, Collaborative president, said, "We've had a very generous landlord, but in fact he'd like to see more income than we can
provide."

Lowry said Collaborative "was unable to maintain the premises."

So the group is relocating to a gymnasium at the former Beacon High School, now Bulldog Studios, owned by the Beacon Cultural Foundation.

The space, though smaller, will be "bolder and more dramatic than the space we've been in," he said.

Debra Adamsons moved her World's End Books a few doors in the east end to take half of a larger, better site, bringing in Hudson River
Outfitters for the other half.

"It sounded kind of weird, but you know, we thought it might just work," she said. So far, traffic has doubled.

And what about Collaborative's old space? In July, it will become Beacon Natural Market, a natural foods store owned by L.T. and Kitty Sherpa of
New York City.

"We saw the growth that's happening," Kitty Sherpa said. "We need a place like this and Beacon needs a store like this."

(Craig Wolf can be reached at cwolf@poughkeepsiejournal.com)