Sex Positive Bookstore Owners Still Fighting to Stay in Downtown Iowa City

Opening a new business is always a difficult undertaking.

Opening a new business while your landlord is trying to terminate your lease?

"It's been amazingly challenging," said Julia Schaefer, owner of the sex positive shop, The Tool Box, which held its grand opening on Friday. "I was supposed to be setting all this stuff in here, but instead I was making calls to lawyers."

The last few weeks as they worked to open, Schaefer, and co-owner, Madison Montgomery, have also been in negotiations with their landlords to keep their lease going at a second-floor property at 128½ East Washington St. It should be noted that the business, which can be reached by walking up the stairs next to Jimmy John's and turning left, is not visible from the sidewalk.

The property is owned by the Bremer Trust and administered by MidWestOne Bank. The two women have been fighting to stay in the building ever since a Daily Iowan article previewing the bookshop led to some (or one, it's not quite clear) of the Bremer trustees wanting to terminate their lease, due to being offended at the nature of the bookstore.

The Tool Box sells sex toys and other erotic products in addition to candles, homemade soap, tool boxes, lotions, stickers, books and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) friendly items such as rainbow stickers and stuffed animals.

Part of this struggle is that the leaseholders accuse Schaefer and Montgomery of misrepresenting what their business would be, listing themselves as a retail bookstore and not disclosing all that they planned to sell.

Of that, Schaefer said she couldn't say much due to ongoing legal negotiations.

"I told them we were retail and some of what we intended to sell, but beyond that, they didn't ask many questions," Schaefer said.

Despite this hanging over their heads, Friday was a day of celebration for Montgomery and Schaefer, as they held their grand opening. And even with all the hullabaloo regarding the lease, the Tool Box opened with friends showing up to say hi, new customers coming by to check it out and show their support, smiles, hugs of greeting, and food for guests, including cheese and crackers, cookies, Pepsi, Jell-O and Hy-Vee Ginger Ale.

Besides the nearby sex toys, shrouded from sight by a curtain in a small telephone-booth sized space marked "18 only," it had the same feel of any other business that would open downtown.

Montgomery said that is exactly what the pair intended to bring to the downtown to fill a void for Iowa City. A sex positive shop that purposefully has no porn. A place that caters to Iowa City's LGBTQ community. And above all, a place where sex can be discussed in a healthy and nonshameful way, even as they show by their tag line "Just the Right Amount of Awkward," that they realize customers are not all totally in their comfort zone talking about this part of their lives.

"We wanted to acknowledge that people might not be the most comfortable with this subject," Montgomery said. "So let's talk about it and get it out in the open."

That sentiment was appreciated by customer Rebecca Mancilla, a graduate student at the University of Iowa, who said she would never want to shop at a "shameful and dirty" adult sex shop at the edge of town that features pornography that she feels degrades women. But with the Tool Box, she said she was happy to stop by and buy a book, a Christmas present for her mother.

"I wanted to be supportive, I think it's awesome what they're trying to do here," Mancilla said.

As for community support, Schaefer and Montgomery said they are deeply grateful for the warm welcome they have received from the Iowa City community so far. They have started a petition, both online and in print form, where Iowa Citians can voice their support for the store staying put.

Schaefer and Montgomery said they love the space, and hope they can stay at least until their lease ends next summer and even beyond. If that will happen, though, remains to be seen.

For more information on the Tool Box, visit their Facebook Page.