GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Dime and Regal jewelry shop is set to reopen this weekend after a spring fire caused the Wealthy Street business to relocate.
“As most of the community knows there was an unfortunate fire at Tatum Bookbinding,” said co-owner Samantha McIntosh. “The fire itself did not damage us but the demolish of the building did.”
While the fire that destroyed Tatum Bookbinding is currently being investigated as arson, Grand Rapids police say they have exhausted their leads. Courtney Jones, who is the other co-owner of the popular jewelry shop, offered the store a temporary solution by sharing space at her candle company down the street.
Sable Candle Company split its retail space and ran both businesses out of its shop for more than seven months.
“We didn’t have a lot of time to adjust even,” McIntosh said. “The fire department was telling us get in, get your stuff and get out as soon as possible before this building collapses.”
The jewelry store owners were initially told the reconstruction of their shop would take three months. But permitting with the city extended the shop’s reconstruction timeline. Both businesses’ bottom lines have taken a hit by sharing the space, with McIntosh estimating Dime and Regal being down nearly 20% in sales.
“It presented some difficulties, but I think we made it work quite well with the hand we were given,” Jones said.
“We saw a little bit of a downturn simply because the foot traffic and visibility being two stores in one,” she said. “People were still a little confused even with the signage.”
The grand reopening on Saturday will include goodie bags for the first twelve customers and champagne to thank the community and loyal customers from the past seven months.