BY KENDYL HOLLINGSWORTH
KENDYLH@
OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
OPELIKA —
The new Opelika Main Street office is officially up and running.
The hybrid Main Street office and business incubator, located at 108 S. 8th St. in downtown Opelika, has been in the works for about a year. It’s “still a little bit of an ongoing work in progress,” according to Opelika Main Street Executive Director Ken Ward, but it is already seeing plenty of foot traffic in its first few days.
The front of the new office is reserved for retail incubator space and is now housing Southern Crossing, which closed temporarily in July after the fire at Maffia’s destroyed its inventory and heavily damaged the store space.
“It’s been great to have our space right in the center of downtown, where we serve, and it’s been amazing to be able to offer Southern Crossing a retail space for them to use after the tragic fire this summer,” Ward said.
Southern Crossing’s first day of business in the new space was Oct. 31. Owner Valerie Smith said that although the store has downsized — from about 4,000 square feet to about 1,200 square feet — it still offers a little bit of everything.
“It’s going great,” Smith said during the first week of reopening. “We’ve had really great sales and a lot of positive feedback. We really like the look. I feel like it still looks like Southern Crossing … but we love the size.”
Because the store is smaller and more manageable, Smith said she and her husband Mike are able to dedicate a little more of their time to family — something that had largely been lost as they grew their business at its previous location.
“As much as we appreciated the growth, there was also growing pains,” she said. And while the Smiths don’t know yet whether they will end up back in the same space, they are taking things one day at a time. The best they can do now, she said, is to be more intentional about exploring that as they work to meet their own needs, as well as the needs of the community.
“The main thing that I want to let everybody know is that financially, and mentally, and emotionally and even physically, we are not prepared to come back just like we were, and that that happens when you lose everything overnight,” Smith said.
Following the fire, Smith said the Opelika Main Street team jumped to help. They offered her the incubator space that morning, but at the time, Smith was still working to process what had just happened and what she and her husband wanted their next steps to be.
“After a lot of thought, prayer and a lot of encouragement from our customers and the community, we decided that we did want to try to come back,” Smith said. “Then we had to kind of sit down and figure out what that looked like.
“… As we decided what we were going to do, this was the logical answer because it allowed us to be right back down here in this community that we love and loves us.”
While the new retail space can’t hold as much inventory as Southern Crossing’s previous location, Smith said customers can still expect to find most of their favorite merchandise. Free gift wrap is still available as well.
“We’re buying back our bestselling, favorite brands,” Smith said. “… What I’m most proud about with this location is that we have still been able to keep some baby [items], some kids’ [items], some clothing, some home décor, food — the best of our best.”
Southern Crossing will be open in the Main Street office Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the month of November, with plans to start opening on Saturdays in December. Southern Crossing will also be open during downtown’s Holiday Open House, slated for Nov. 13 from noon to 5 p.m. For updates, check Southern Crossing’s social media pages: @southerncrossingal on Instagram and “Southern Crossing” on Facebook.
Behind the retail area, the Downtown Resource Center will serve to keep downtown businesses, residents and community organizations connected. The center now houses Ward’s office, but it also touts intern workspace, a meeting room and a communal area.
Ward said the meeting room will be open to small downtown businesses in the coming weeks.
“We’ll also be utilizing it for things such as merchant meetings, professional development sessions for businesses and various different things that can help downtown as a whole,” he added.
Some windows and doors in the back will soon be replaced as well, and a new awning will be installed out front in the next week or so.
The public will also be able to utilize three restrooms in the back, something Ward said downtown has needed for a while. They will be open during normal retail hours, as well as during events downtown. During those after-hours events, the restrooms can be closed off from the rest of the building.
Overall, Ward said he is looking forward to seeing downtown Opelika continue to grow and progress.
“We see this as a long-term investment in downtown and in the businesses of downtown and Main Street, ensuring that our downtown continues to be successful going forward,” he said.