17 minute read

INAUGURAL EDUCATION SUMMIT FOR ALL WOMEN

from VIP Clarksville Magazine | Don't Doubt Downtown

by Sixteen Media - VIP Clarksville Magazine, Clarksville Business Journal & VIP Health & Beauty

from VIP Clarksville Magazine | Don't Doubt Downtown, page 82

Article from: VIP Clarksville Magazine | Don't Doubt Downtown

UNITED WE DINE

Andrea Van Aken & O’Neal Wiggins Garth Arneson & Paul Odie

Dana Hunter & Amber Button

Inaugural Education Summit for Women Veterans

Story & Photography by Tony Centonze

Women’s Veterans of America (WVA) and Austin Peay State University (APSU) recently celebrated local “SHEroes” with its Inaugural Education Summit for All Women Veterans at the university’s Newton Family Resource Center.

The event was led by Yolonda Williams, a U.S. Army veteran, APSU alumna and national commander of the WVA.

“The last census found there were more than 6,600 women veterans that are here,” Williams said. “Through my organization, I’ve heard they want to know more about school, about the educational opportunities and the benefits that are applicable to them.”

Grace & Walt Lord Jazmyn Simms & Trina Moss Riley Walsh, Jasmin Linares & Greg Miller

Michelle Lowe Maricza Hinnah & Amber Howard Monica Meeks & Stacey Hopwood

Chelsea Camp & Rikki Williams Shanell McClure, Tammy Meredith & Christina Watson Christina Joslyn

Karissa Powell & Kimberly Wiggins Walt Lord & Sean McCully Monica Meeks & Latisha Proctoer

DON’T DOUBT DOWNTOWN

O

ver the last few years, downtown Clarksville has transformed into a bustling city center complete with a variety of restaurants, shops, and happenings. This has primarily been led by a group of tight-knit business owners not only invested in reinvigorating downtown, but also each other’s success.

That kind of mutual, community-based support can only give way to more growth, and we’re already seeing the positive effects of the camaraderie. Soon, the F&M Bank Arena will be welcoming in thousands of hockey fans, ice skaters, concert goers, and the Austin Peay State University basketball team. Shelby’s Trio from Joe and Cathy Maynard will open at the end of this summer, bringing with it two new restaurants and Clarksville’s first rooftop bar. The Mailroom Restaurant — a new venture from Strawberry Alley Ale Works owner Wes Cunningham — will also open the summer in the historic Federal Building across the street from the Downtown Commons.

Long story short: downtown Clarksville has a lot to look forward to, but also a lot to already love. VIP talked with a few of the current downtown business owners tasked with adapting to the explosive growth. We asked them what they’re excited about, what worries them, and what they wish people knew about the part of town they’re proud to guide into the future.

On downtown’s growth: “I’m so excited to see all the new types of things that are coming in. It’s a lot of food and beverage, but there are some people scouting out for retail and that sort of thing. And there’s some health and wellness that’s coming around as well, and so I think we have a nice variety. And then on Strawberry (Alley) it’s very exciting too, with the plants and coffee.”

On what she wishes people knew about downtown: “I wish that people knew that you can walk a fair distance around downtown — that the scare for the parking per se right in front of where you’re going is not necessary, because you can park even a block away and that would get you to see more. Maybe you’d stop in at the museum, or make some other stops along the way. And I wish people knew that there could be an easy walking flow, and eventually I would love to see this be a walkable downtown.”

LISA FOREST | WEDDING BELLES

On downtown’s growth: “It’s so exciting. It is just wonderful to look out — like when we had the Scavenger Hunt — and people were just all up and down the street. It’s very exciting and I think Clarksville is going in a really good direction.”

On what she wishes people knew about downtown: “They can make a whole day of it. They can come and shop for boutique things, they can eat breakfast at Madeline’s, they can have lunch at Strawberry Alley or at Mickey’s, they can have lunch at the City Market. There’s just a whole day of stuff they can do right down here, and I tell our bridesmaids that all the time — that if you want to party, come here in the morning, pick your gown out, go to Mickey’s and shop the rest of the afternoon. We have people who drive in from Evansville, from all sorts of places and we just tell them to make a day of it.”

OLASUBOMI BASHORUN | DBO GALLERY

On what he wishes people knew about downtown: “I wish that people knew that there’s stuff happening. I mean we have like four restaurants, five restaurants and things close early. It’s not your typical downtown. When you think of downtown Nashville, you think of bar hopping and crawls. Everything in our downtown is very local, it’s very mom and pop or young people doing things. That’s another thing too, is there’s a lot of young people owning their own businesses down here where traditionally, everybody thought it was just lawyers and doctors and things like that and two restaurants. But there’s more to do, more to see, and if the sign’s on, walk in. Everybody is pretty friendly for the most part and chill.”

His advice to folks looking to open up shop downtown: “If you have a business and want to do it, just do it. You’ve got to understand that it’s all a process. I use kids learning to walk all the time as a metaphor. First they start crawling, then they learn to stand up, and then they fall on their face. They get back up, and fall on their face again before they take that first step. Then they take their first step, and fall on their face again. It is technically failure, but it’s only failure if you stop — that’s the only way that it is failure. If you keep getting up, and you’re going to run into things constantly. You’re going to run into the city not giving you your liquor license when you want it, so you can’t open on time. There’s going to be all these little hiccups but again, so what? Just keep moving.”

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On what he wishes people knew about downtown: “When they come in here, a lot of people don’t even know we’re here. They’ll be like ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were here, how long have you been here?’ And we’ll be like ‘Oh, three years,’ and it’s just that they haven’t come down here in awhile. I think a lot of people don’t know there is a lot of shopping you can do down here — it’s not just government buildings and a maybe a couple restaurants. There’s literally a whole bunch of stuff on the street to do. Night life isn’t all that big yet down here which would be nice to have, but there’s a whole bunch of retail and food that’s come down here.”

On what worries him as a downtown business owner: “The potential of our rent or cost of something going up could be an issue, but our landlord has been pretty cool so that hasn’t been a problem. Aside from that, maybe the parking issue, which is a common issue down here. And the more people that come down here, especially with the event center and everything, that’s probably going to be difficult and deter people from coming down here but I’m hopeful that will get fixed at some point.”

WES CUNNINGHAM | STRAWBERRY ALLEY ALE WORKS

On downtown’s growth: “It’s super exciting. We’ve been down here for four years now at Strawberry Alley and we decided to open up here because we were excited for the future of downtown and cared a lot about downtown. Since then, it’s just becoming more and more obvious that downtown Clarksville is a great place to dine, shop, hangout, and spend time with your family and friends. In that time, we’ve added the new park down the street, the Downtown Commons, and F&M Bank Arena is opening up here soon. Those two projects along with all the local businesses are making it a really great place to be.”

On what he wishes people knew about downtown: “I think the secret’s out on downtown as far as there being a wonderful mix of local shops and restaurants. But there’s more and more happening every day so the secret might just be that there are brand new restaurants popping up, brand new shops popping up. It’s no longer just a handful of longtime businesses that have been here. Those great businesses have been joined by small businesses that are popping up pretty frequently so just knowing that there’s more and more out there to be discovered, it’s not just what you might expect.”

LLOYD NICELY | MOM AND DAD’S MUSIC

On downtown’s growth: “I like that downtown is starting to be bigger and more businesses are moving in and cooler businesses are moving in, and some younger-owned businesses, which I think is pretty much what downtown needs. Nothing against all the law offices, but it used to only be law offices and a place to drink beer and that’s not really productive. I like having the ArtLink over there, and Tony over at the record store, and my shop’s down here. Not that we’re the coolest but we’re pretty cool. I just think it’s great. I like the growth and the direction that downtown is heading right now.”

On what worries him as a downtown business owner: “I don’t really see a downside to the growth downtown. The only thing I think that would make me a little bit nervous is being priced out of our buildings if it starts to get pretty big. I worked at the world’s largest vintage guitar store in downtown Nashville for about 10 years called Gruhn Guitars, and when the growth starts happening, some people can be priced out of their buildings. And I guess greed is another thing that scares me a little bit.”

On what she wishes people knew about downtown: “I wish they knew more of the history. My husband and I were born and raised here, so we’re one of the few people on the whole street that were probably born and raised here. When we walked these streets when we were young, this is where we bought our clothes, this was everything. I wish they knew more of the history but we’re fixing to put plaques on the buildings which will give a history of each building, which I think is good.”

Her advice to folks looking to open up shop downtown: “Come on down. To me, the more the merrier. Everybody keep saying, ‘Well you don’t want all these restaurants coming in.’ I do. People aren’t going to eat at the same place every night so just come on down. Just understand the demographics when you come down here. I don’t have a patio out back, I have a street out back, you know so that your parking is what you’ve got. People want to move in and then complain about it but it was that same way when you moved in.”

ASHLEY HASTINGS | PUPS PLANTS + GOODS

On downtown’s growth: “I’ve been in Clarksville for seven years, and just the growth downtown has been amazing. Like now you can hop around to stores and bars, and actually spend a whole evening or day down here when before, I feel like you really couldn’t.”

On what she wishes people knew about downtown: “The parking is a pain but once you find it, it’s worth it because there’s so much to do down here that people don’t know about. You can even hop around. We did a whole evening one time where we went to The Vine, and then we went to Yada, and then we went to Trazo, and then we went to the Blackhorse, and then we went to Mickey’s. We spent hours down here and you can hop around and do so many things. The walkability I feel like is getting a lot better.”

COURTNEY GATEWOOD | COURTNEY’S CREATIVE PALETTE

On downtown’s growth: “Yes, it’s very exciting. It’s nice to see more people find out about downtown Clarksville instead of venturing out in other places. Small businesses need more growth and the more people that are down here, it’s more exciting to see.”

On what she wishes people knew about downtown: “Downtown Clarksville, they think it’s more of an adult space because of the Blackhorse and Strawberry Alley (Ale Works) and other breweries down here, but there’s more stuff to do for kids and families than they think. The Custom’s House Museum has that whole play area downstairs, I mean my kids love going in there. I just sit there and work on my computer while they play. It’s awesome.”

On downtown’s growth: “I’ve only been here a year and I’ve already seen so much growth, especially with the Blackhorse now reopened, that’s been amazing. A lot of people are just discovering this whole building, the City Market. On a daily basis, I get people that say, ‘I didn’t even know you were here. I didn’t even know this building existed.’ So, word’s getting out and that’s a great thing. People like new things. We’re not just a regular restaurant, we’ve got a deli, we’ve got Jody over here, we’ve got a ton of shops in here so people are discovering it and I think that’s great. For the first year that I’ve been open, I thought everybody knew this was here, and that’s not the case.”

On what she wishes people knew about downtown: “I like the feeling of it. It’s a small, quaint little historic town like in a Hallmark movie, and I like the vibe of that. I just wish I could explore it more, but by the time I’m done here I am on the way home.”

ANDREA HERRERA | MILDRED & MABLE’S

On what she wishes people knew about downtown: “I wish people knew about the history. I mean I’m fascinated with going into the archives and looking at old buildings and finding out what all of them used to be. I like to try and keep the integrity of this building as much as I can, front and back and inside. I want the history to stay. I want it to look like an old, historic downtown but with modern amenities. That’s my dream.”

Her advice to folks looking to open up shop downtown: “My best advice would be to start small. Maybe do a booth somewhere like a rental, and see if it’s your passion and if you really like it. I kind of jumped off the cliff fast. I bought the building and then I had 2500 square feet to fill and it was a lot. So looking back, I wish I had taken maybe more baby steps but it’s all worked out so I can’t say it doesn’t work. But if it’s something you love and are passionate about, whether it’s ice cream, snow cones, paintings, or pottery – do it and it’ll work.”

NICHOLAS AND VIRGINIA NICOLETTA | NICOLETTA’S CATERING On downtown’s growth: “I’m super excited about the growth. I’m looking forward to the additional parking that we’re going to have. It’s been nice to watch the new stores pop up downtown because there’s been some options for everyone. Like The Vine here, with the wine and appetizers, which is great. Then you have Trazo with the mead, which you don’t find that everywhere. So, I like the fact that we’re getting news things, not just new attorney’s offices and more trinket shops but businesses that will pull you downtown.”

On what they wish people knew about downtown: “I wish people knew that the downtown footprint actually extends all the way to James Corlew (dealership), and downtown is not just Franklin Street. That is the conception. There’s even a few business owners on Franklin that have a little bit of tunnel vision. My Eat Good building is just outside, it’s literally 500 yards outside of the downtown business district, so Corlew is in it. I want to dispel that misconception. When people think of downtown, they immediately think of Franklin Street, and just from Hot Pita to the Roxy. So I want to impress upon them that downtown really goes from the Dog Hill area to Corlew.”