Mostly Cloudy / 77° F
Vacant storefronts spur Tryon community brainstorming session on Monday, July 9
Published 5:47pm Tuesday, July 3, 2012On Saturday, June 30, two businesses, Café at My Place and Kathleen’s Gallery, packed up their storefronts on N. Trade Street in Tryon.
Kathleen’s Gallery relocated to Saluda, and Café at My Place is looking for a new location.
These moves and the loss of other downtown businesses have prompted interested parties to schedule a brainstorming session Monday, July 9 at 5 p.m. at the Tryon Depot.
Andy Millard of Millard and Company will facilitate the meeting. He said business owners of Tryon decided to organize the meeting in an effort to generate positive ideas and facilitate the connection of property owners with prospective tenants and/or buyers.
“Leave your complaints at home,” Millard said. “We’re looking for ideas that work.”
Concerns over the state of Tryon’s downtown area were vocalized in two public Tryon meetings in June – the unveiling of the Depot Plaza Streetscape plans and the June 19 Tryon Town Council meeting.
Since those meetings, three businesses have left their Trade Street locations.
Artist Richard Baker, who has also moved to a spot in Saluda, was the third.
“I need to say… the community in Tryon has humbled me – it’s been a gracious community and has supported me. For an artist to be successful in these times, I’ve been blessed, but I’ve maxed out of my space,” Baker said. “[Moving] is bittersweet for me.”
Baker said finding a larger space in Tryon was not affordable for him. He said he couldn’t find much for less than $1 per square foot.
Connecting prospective renters with owners of vacant commercial properties is a main focus of Monday’s meeting. Property owners are in fact encouraged to bring floor plans and other rental information with them to the meeting. If desired by property owners, the information could be kept in a central registry, perhaps at town hall, so prospective tenants can easily obtain information on properties that might interest them, organizers suggested.
Baker said he believes Tryon needs a different type of business to attract more visitors.
“I’m an artist – I’m not an anchor business or a draw for the community,” Baker said. “It seems that is what this town is missing.”
Local residents are asked to attend Monday’s meeting too and share their own thoughts about the types of businesses they would patronize. Tryonites, both natives and newcomers, have already expressed on www.tryondailybulletin.com interests in seeing businesses from an old-fashioned soda shop to children’s clothing stores and a massage business. This meeting aims to continue such community discussions.
The meeting is not sponsored by any official organization; instead, it arose out of discussions between property owners and customers. While other groups have explored this topic before, organizers said this session is different in its goal of bringing the three groups together to seek solutions that meet the needs of all concerned.
Until local government either ends the large tax burden on township residents outside the town in the township OUTSIDE………or else the town allows township residents outside town in the community to vote for the officials of the town who control how our tax money is spent…….all the talking on earth will not facilitate and end to the boycott of main street tryon by the people like me………who are the shoppers main street depends on for survival. The boycott continues and will continue as long as tryon fire, high water rates, and Harmon field are imposed on tryon voters outside without representation. Those are the words… taxation without Representation. Mr. Millard is part of the problem. Can he be part of the solution? It was his efforts which imposed on us the satellite annexation of Harmon Field in order to impose the blue ridge barbecue enormous alcohol event on the township outside as an alcohol event at Harmon Field without benefit of a county wide alcohol referendum. Mr. Millard is the expert on reading the fine print and using it to his advantage. His every effort always goes not to solutions but to furthering his personal agenda which always seems to end up as the plan for main street. And it never has worked and it never will. Until……..until the political taxation without representation imposed on township outside town ends. The town depends on the business of its township outside and it is that simple. Until that is fixed the town withers.
“Boycott of main street Tryon”??? Seriously? So you are leading a boycott against simple ‘mom & pop’ businesses who are trying to make ends meet, provide goods in a competitive market, and contribute to their town? Gee, what a stand up American thing to do. I am sure there are better and more effective ways to get your point across than to punish shopkeepers.