Added together, the owners of three former Broughton Street businesses had been operating for more than 30 years and had spent much of the last decade as members of the community that had helped redefine the corridor.
But at the beginning of this year, when developer Ben Carter was poised to begin work on a multi-million dollar project to give the street a facelift, some of the tenants of his newly acquired buildings didn’t jibe with his vision of creating a high-end shopping destination with nationally recognized retailers.
Facing steep rent hikes and one lucrative buyout offer, these shopkeepers saw the writing on the wall and began looking for new spaces.
They’d weathered the ups and downs of starting their own business, the Great Recession and keeping their customers happy, so moving was, in many ways, just another obstacle to overcome.
“It was really a huge blessing in disguise,” said Elizabeth Seeger, who owns Satchel, a custom handbag and accessories boutique.
After her building went under contract, Seeger was not given the option of staying in her space at 311 W. Broughton but was offered another storefront at a higher rate. She said the price tag was beyond what she could afford and, while initially upset, started looking with a Realtor friend at other spaces.
“The challenge was finding something affordable,” said Seeger. “There’s lots of spaces available, but the rents are very, very high.”
When she saw the closing sign go up at the old Home Run Video, aka Savannah Comics, on Liberty Street, she immediately put it on her shortlist, though the rent was still a little more than she wanted to pay.
Come May, she had decided to take the plunge and signed a lease for 4 E. Liberty, nearly doubling the size of her previous location.
“The first weekend after we signed the lease we came in here with some friends, drank Prosecco and took a sledgehammer to some of the walls,” she said, laughing. “The renovation process was really fun.”
Home Run Video’s owner had left a note explaining that the contents of the store were hers now. So Seeger set to work reclaiming and repurposing much of the furniture and fixtures left behind, things such as two large wood counters and a magazine rack, which now displays her custom bags and leather accessories.
“We salvaged a lot of what was in here,” said Seeger. The oddest thing she discovered? A collection of nearly 400 soft porn DVDs stowed away in the backroom that she hopes to sell off.
It took her six weeks to complete renovations, but the space is completely transformed from its low-ceilinged, musty carpeted predecessor. She took out the drop ceiling, exposed the brick walls, tore out the carpeting, painted the door a brilliant orange and the walls white, giving the store a young, fresh glow.
Seeger started Satchel seven and a half years ago after graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design, and although Broughton is where her business was born, she said she’s content with where she is now.
“It’s been amazing,” she said. “Our business usually dies in the summer. … July and August were just death on Broughton Street. At this location, our sales are up and our traffic is up.”
Seeger said she can see herself at her Liberty location for the foreseeable future — adding that she has a five-year lease.
“It feels so much better, the space is great, the location is great, it’s beautiful,” she said. “I really feel like the move and the new location just rounds out the brand.”
Colorboxx Hair Salon
Colorboxx Salon owner Nikki Edwards had a similar hard choice at the beginning of the year.
She’d spent a lot of time and her own money fixing up her second floor location at 18 E. Broughton St. since moving from the Starland District in 2011 and didn’t want to leave.
Even now she speaks of it fondly.
“I miss that beautiful building — that means a lot to me. I loved being on the second floor and looking down and seeing everything going on,” said Edwards.
Yet after a frustrating back-and-forth with the developer’s team trying to renegotiate a lease and facing a steep rent hike, Edwards decided to look elsewhere.
Edwards said she lucked out at her new location, 319 W. Congress St., a new building in the former vacant courtyard between Garibaldi’s Cafe and Anthropologie.
With the help of her husband and staff, they moved out on a Saturday and were ready to open the following Wednesday. Edwards’ friends, the owners of local luxury furnishings company La Bastille, made her a custom counter desk.
“It’s great, the neighbors have been amazing, the landlord’s been amazing, my husband and salon manager are saints — I’ve just had so much support,” she said. “It’s more money, but it’s still a fraction of what they wanted to charge us (on Broughton).”
She said she also doesn’t have to deal with older building issues such as air conditioning costs and gets more volume from people walking by.
“We’ve been really lucky. I think our stylists seem a little happier — they’re getting a lot more walk-in business,” said Edwards. “And our regular clients love it because the parking is better.”
She said she wants her clients to know how much she puts into replenishing her business and educating her employees, whom she pays instead of using independent stylists.
“I’m making a real effort now for people to know that this is something I built with my own two hands,” she said. “Nobody’s given me anything, and I’ve worked so hard for this. It’s part of my heart.”
Atwell’s Art & Frame
Lisa Atwell faced a different prospect last year when Carter approached her about buying her building at 226-228 W. Broughton, where she’d operated her framing store since 1999.
She started looking around September of 2013, but as the closing date got moved, she lost a space she wanted on Barnard Street and had second thoughts about selling without a new location in hand. Eventually, she found one, the old Warno-Cam Paint Co. on Drayton Street.
“It was getting to the point in my business where I didn’t have to be on Broughton and my customers were coming from all over Savannah, and I guess it was not as convenient for them as I thought it was,” she said.
She also felt the move was inevitable given Carter’s pursuit of other buildings — up to 37 properties now.
“For me, it was like you couldn’t stop him — you’re not going to stop Ben Carter. He’s going to do it,” she said. “It felt like beyond my control.”
On April 1, she moved into her new location at 2310 Drayton St., between 38th and 39th streets, into a space nearly double the size of her previous one.
The building, constructed around 1961, is a testament to its time, with original globe light fixtures, a geometric zig-zag roof and, as Atwell pointed out happily, the old A/C system still works.
“The space is such a luxury,” she said. “It’s such a pleasure, especially when I’m doing a 6-foot by 8-foot frame and I can actually do it in here and not have to finish it out in the lane.”
As soon as she moved, she said, she found out how severe the parking problem had become for locals trying to get to Broughton Street.
“My customers, almost every last one of them are like, ‘Thank God, we don’t have to deal with the parking situation.’ I had no idea they were not happy; they never mentioned it in the 20-something years they’d been coming,” said Atwell.
Atwell, who’s operated her business for 25 years since moving here from New Orleans, said she was able to use the money earned from the sale to re-invest in about two other properties downtown and a private vacation home for her and her husband.
“I swore when we bought that building on Broughton Street — that nobody else wanted at that time — that we would never move again, so there I’ve already broken my own promise,” she said. “But you can put this down: I will never move again.”
Beyond Broughton
Of course, not all businesses have made the leap. Serendipity Gift Boutique, at 204 W. Broughton, closed and the space will soon be home to an upscale olive oil store. Owner Ruhan Jewell hopes she’ll eventually be able to open again in Pooler.
Seeger and Atwell said a silver lining to the displacement of small businesses will be that other corners of the Historic District will start to fill in as new stores round out mixed-use neighborhoods.
“One of the byproducts of what’s happening is that the businesses that do have to move are going to go somewhere, so it’s sort of forcing these other little pockets to pop up,” said Seeger.
“It will definitely help these outer areas expand,” said Atwell. “I think other businesses besides myself will relocate in this area and around the park and onto Liberty and Bull and Victory.”
Atwell said she believes Savannah’s entrepreneurial spirit isn’t going anywhere.
“I don’t believe anything will stop people from being self-employed and opening businesses — just that if they open on Broughton Street, they’ll need to have huge volume,” she said.
For Edwards, she hopes other small businesses can land on their feet, but understands how difficult it can be to make a big move.
“I know what it’s like,” Edwards said. “Your business is such a personal thing and nobody understands that unless you own a small business. It’s part of your identity.”
SATCHEL
Opened: 2006 by Elizabeth Seeger
New location: 4 E. Liberty St. (former Home Run Video/Savannah Comics)
Website: shopsatchel.com
COLORBOXX HAIR SALON
Opened: 2006 by Nikki Edwards
New Location: 319 W. Congress St.
Second location: opened in August 2013 at 120 Town Center Drive in Pooler
Website: colorboxx.com
ATWELL’S ART & FRAME
Opened: 1990 by Lisa Atwell