Downtown Johnson City surges as 4 new businesses open, three more scheduled

It wasn't long ago that downtown Johnson City was widely considered an eyesore, with numerous blighted buildings.That's no longer the case.In just the past month, four new businesses have staked a spot downtown, with three more nearing that goal.And the business owners have one thing in common: optimism.Victoria Cooley, owner of West Main Antiques, could not hold back a smile while talking about the future of her business, which officially opened on Oct. 29."We're so excited to be here (in downtown)," Cooley said."Every downtown needs an antique store. With all the revitalization that's going on down here, there's no antique malls anymore. So as far as I know in the downtown area, we're the only one."Cooley's antiques store at 126 W. Main St. is filled with a vast selection of antiques, including mid-century memorabilia, Victorian-era collectables and plenty of Christmas decorations ahead of the holiday season.Not far from West Main Antiques are two adjacent businesses that recently moved into a remodeled former tobacco warehouse on Cherry Street.The Owl's Nest at 113 Cherry St. is a clothing and consignment store that opened on Nov. 5; beside it is Olson's Martial Arts, which opened during the second week of October."We really like being downtown," said Amanda Olson, owner of Olson's Martial Arts."The feedback we've got from our customers is that they really like being so close to a lot of neat restaurants, places to shop and things to walk around and do while their family is taking classes here."Olson said the new location has already garnered 35 new students, in a building about three times bigger than the business' previous location.Slated to open next week, Urban Collectives, a women's clothing store, will be the third business in the Cherry Street shopping strip.GymDog, a dog obedience training business, is also settling into a new location at 257 W. Main St.Opening in early October, GymDog owner James Manning said the business is enjoying a considerable boost in clientele."It's been really nice. We actually came out here and started with about 10 clients. Our client list right now is at about 50 or a little bit over now. So we've been picking up clients pretty well," Manning said.GymDog offers puppy classes for $20 a class, while basic obedience classes start at $25 a class."We wanted to be affordable. This area just does not have really many options as far as dog training goes and we just really wanted to be something different, something unique and something affordable for the area," Manning said.Two highly-anticipated restaurants are also inching towards a grand opening date: Wild Wings Cafe and Sabores.Plenty of activity has occurred in recent weeks at the Wild Wings Cafe location as the remodeling process finishes up and new signage goes into place.Dianna Cantler, downtown development manager for the Washington County Economic Development Council, said the regional restaurant chain should open at 71 Wilson Ave. on Dec. 2. Meanwhile, The Dining Room is still in the process of shifting its restaurant from Jonesborough to Johnson City, where it will keep the same menu but change its name to Sabores.An employee of The Dining Room said the restaurant didn't have an exact date on when it would move to 202 E. Main St., but it would stay in Jonesborough through the holiday season.Along with a slew of new businesses, developer Grant Summers will be increasing the number of people living in downtown by creating an apartment complex out of the three-story former Tennessee National Bank.Located at the corner of Spring and Main streets, Summers said the first floor will likely be leased out as office space with a financial planner already on board, but the second and third floors will contain 11 apartments, eight one-bedrooms and three two-bedrooms. One of the bedrooms was a former bank vault."The more people down here, the more businesses and more apartments, the better," Summers said.Each apartment is unique with original brick lining many of the walls and original wooden trusses crossing the ceiling.A downtown apartment tour will take place Dec. 6 where potential occupants can stroll through the unique living quarters. Summers said the apartments will be completed by January.Email Zach Vance at zvance@johnsoncitypress.com. Follow Zach Vance on Twitter at @ZachVanceJCP. Like him on Facebook.com/ZachVanceJCP