Downtown St. Charles Gains One New Store, Loses Three

The coming week will see more changes on the business front in St. Charles as a new sports retailer opens its doors in the downtown. The opening comes after the closing of one longtime downtown retailer, however, and the approaching closure of two more downtown stores on May 31.

While the opening of Sportiva at 113 E. Main St. certainly is welcome news, its arrival will be offset by the departure of three other retailers.

Sportiva’s scheduled opening is Saturday, May 25, 2013, owner Javier Ibarra told the Downtown St. Charles Partnership, which issued a release on the store’s opening on Wednesday.

Sportiva plans to be St. Charles’ source for expert knowledge, apparel, equipment, and shoes in soccer and tennis. Saturday’s will be a “soft-opening.” featuring drawings throughout the day for items in the store as well as tickets to the June 29 Toyota Park soccer match between Morelia (Mexico) and Cruzeiro (Brazil). Sportiva also plans a Friday, June 7 gala and a Monday, June 10 grand opening.

Business hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays.

Downtown Closings, Too

, already has closed, although when it did so was uncertain. A call to the shop on Thursday yielded only a recorded message that the retailer is closed until further notice, although mail to the store will continue to be collected there. The retailer had offered ski gear and patio merchandize since 1977.

Two other downtown retailers will close their doors May 31. While owners of both shops laid much of the blame on the economy, one also credited the changing nature of the downtown area to a destination spot that does not favor retail businesses.

Owner Donna Chipp said May 31 is the last day of business for It is the same day Marge DeLand Pat Bailey have chosen as the last day of operations for the store they co-own, The $assy Fox, 323 Walnut St., a ladies consignment clothing shop.

Contacted by phone late Thursday afternoon, both Chipp and DeLand said the economy was a significant factor in their decisions to close. Chipp hopes to be able to continued producing her own custom jewelery and selling it locally, just not from her own storefront.

But DeLand also said the downtown is not the kind of destination place it was when she opened four years ago, when antiques and other downtown shops attracted people who were interested in what downtown retailers had to offer.

Now, she said, the bar and restaurant business has proliferated to the point that that downtown has become a destination point for drinkers and diners — people not interested in the city’s retail offerings downtown.

The $assy Fox had two very good years despite the economy when it opened just four years ago, DeLand said. But as the number of bars and restaurants increased and other businesses left, DeLand said the daytime foot traffic dropped off; the economy only compounded that.

As the number of bars increased, it created other problems for retailers. DeLand said during the summer months, it was not uncommon for her to spend 15 to 20 minutes in the mornings picking up beer bottles and other debris left over from the prior night’s party crowd.

“The economy has a lot to do with it, too. Our first two years it was great, but last fall was horrible, but we tried to be upbeat about Christmas … but December was the worst,” she said. “The traffic died off.”

Customers she used to see regularly visited less often as they had their work hours pared back or as their families experienced layoffs, DeLand said. Some who would stop by and spend $100 during a visit soon were spending only $20.

Chipp shares similar experiences at her Donna's Jewelry Box, which she opened in September 2009, and which sells one-of-a-kind gemstone and semi-precious jewelry created with high-quality materials and craftsmanship. She designs the jewelry herself.

She had informed St. Charles Patch readers of her plans to close in a comment posted earlier this month on a story about the closure of The Wild Monk Gastropub, 51 S. 1^st St., which first opened as Prasino, a breakfast and lunch restaurant that closed in early 2012 before reopening as a evening restaurant and bar later the same year.

Chipp echoed DeLand’s remarks about the impact of the changing character of the downtown. On 1^st Street, when Prasino, the primarily breakfast and lunch restaurant generated a lot of foot traffic for her downtown store. That changed in 2012, when Prasino closed and reopened as The Wild Monk Gastropub, focused mainly on evening meals and the nighttime bar crowd. When Prasino closed, she saw an immediate drop in foot traffic that never came back after it reopened as The Wild Monk.

She said she set on in her business with modest expectations. “I never intended to become a a millionaire,” she chuckled, referring to herself as the chief cook and bottle washer. She wanted a business that would generate enough revenue to pay the expenses while providing her with a monthly salary, and it did that for the first couple of years.

But the economy wasn’t strong when she opened and continues to struggle today in the aftermath of the Great Recession. She said she was not encouraged by President Barack Obama’s re-election, noting that since then, it seems that every “good sign” about the economy is accompanied by three ore signs that are bad.

Many have lost their jobs in the Great Recession, and while many have found new ones, they’re earnings are lower, and those who were able to hold onto their jobs in the past five years seem to have lost some level of income as well. Couple that with increasing health care costs and higher gas and other prices, she said, and people just have less money to spend today.

She had a very strong Christmas season, but “the bottom fell out” in the new year, with sales from January through March running at half the levels she saw in 2012.

Her plans for the future are not clear, but at age 63 and with a 7-year-old adopted daughter, Chipp said retirement is not an option. She loves designing jewelry and intends to continue doing so, selling on consignment to local retailers, perhaps selling at flea markets and other venues as well, keeping her overhead low..

DeLand said the hardest decision in recent months was the one to close, but since then, she and partner Bailey have been able to enjoy visiting with customers, letting them know they’ll be closing soon.

They plan to take the summer off as they consider their future — they opened the business together after they both lost longtime jobs.

Still, “It’s been a wonderful experience,” DeLand said. “We’ve met a lot of great people.”

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