Home improvement store opens in renovated downtown building
By Tim Krakowiak, Managing Editor
The demolition of a closed-down hotel and a home overtaken by floodwaters has benefitted at least one business in Poplar Bluff.
Darrell and Kay Trout of Fisk, pictured looking at a light fixture Wednesday in Habitat Surplus Sales, said they used to have to travel all the way to Cape Girardeau or Columbia to shop at a ReStore.
Just two weeks after opening at 421 Vine St., Habitat Surplus Sales already has a full inventory of new or gently used home furnishings and building materials.
“People are generous,” stated Gerry Vandervort, Poplar Bluff Habitat for Humanity board secretary.
Habitat Surplus Sales is a not-for-profit fundraising outlet for the local chapter of the international organization, which is currently working on constructing its eighth home in Poplar Bluff.
Through the heavily discounted sales of items such as carpeting, lighting, appliances, furniture and hardware, the Poplar Bluff Habitat has a goal of selling two homes per year —at cost, with no interest—to committed low-income families.
“We decided [Habitat Surplus Sales] was a way for us to get out a little more into the public eye,” Vandervort said.
Vandervort has been involved with the local Habitat for Humanity since she moved from Texas to Poplar Bluff in 2000, four years after the chapter was chartered.
For the past year and a half, the Poplar Bluff Habitat has been storing donations such as furniture from a remodeled bank until officials were able to find a location to sell the products, according to board members.
The Surplus Sales store is modeled after the Habitat’s ReStore operation. The Poplar Bluff business is on a trial basis before it qualifies as a recognized ReStore depending on its success, Vandervort noted.
Habitat Surplus Sales maintains business hours from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays and 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays. A single paid employee, store manager Gary Davis, runs the resale business, and the rest of the manpower is strictly voluntary.
For additional information on the new venture, call 573-686-3043, email poplarbluffhabitat@gmail.com, keep up with them on Facebook or visit www.poplarbluffhabitat.org.
HISTORIC BUILDING
An inexpensive lease agreement was established between the Poplar Bluff Habitat and John and Marysue Beis, owners of the historic Vine Street building, who now reside in Florida, where they were introduced to the ReStore concept.
Son, Casey Beis, owner of Maverick Glass on West Pine Street, is the project manager over the building the family purchased about two years ago.
“I buy ugly things and make them look better,” Casey Beis said half-seriously. After he flips a project in Dexter, he added, he plans to open a couple upper-scale, two-bedroom lofts in the top portion of the Vine Street structure later this year.
Casey Beis applied for a conditional use permit for the apartments through the Poplar Bluff Planning and Zoning Commission to allow for mixed usage of the building.
On Monday, P&Z will vote on new regulations to allow for both commercial and residential use of buildings in Downtown Poplar Bluff, in hopes of attracting more private investors to the historic district, according to City Planner Dennis Avery.
Next month, an ordinance for the mixed use of downtown buildings east of 5th Street, south of Pine Street, and north and west of the railroad tracks will be voted on by City Council, Avery explained.
“We think it will generate more interest in our downtown,” Avery said.
An attempt was made to apply for tax credits on the Vine Street renovation through the Missouri State Historic Preservation, but Casey Beis gave up when the program changed midway in the application process on account of the economic downturn and emergency funds used for a string of weather-related disasters.
“The state portion of the funding evidently had run out and there was no assurance [legislature] would re-fund it,” Casey Beis said.
‘QUALITY DESTINATIONS’
Asked what his interest is in downtown, Casey Beis simply replied: “I live here.”
Maverick Glass was originally located on South 5th Street 20 years ago, until the business moved when the city selected that location for the Black River Coliseum. Along with his brother Andy Beis, Casey Beis operates another Maverick Glass in Sikeston.
Having taken a step toward getting more people to do business downtown, Casey Beis suggested the success of the revitalization will be based on attracting restaurants and businesses that cater to nightlife activities in the area.
A positive step, he added, would be for Downtown Poplar Bluff, Inc. to invest in period style lighting to create a more inviting atmosphere.
“Downtown needs businesses that are quality destinations, contrary to how things were done in the past, say in the 1940s,” Casey Beis said. “In those days, there was a need for specialty shops, but now you can get all those products at Walmart.”
Tim Krakowiak can be contacted by emailing tim@semotimes.com, or follow him on Twitter @TimKrakowiak.
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