BETHEL — Several local businesses have found new homes after a devastating commercial building fire on Greenwood Avenue two months ago.
Bethel Upholstery owner Ana Matias, whose shop at 270 Greenwood Ave. was severely damaged by the Oct. 16 fire, plans to move to Danbury.
Matias said she has signed a one-year lease at 29 Federal Road, but has not yet moved into the new space.
“I’m looking forward to moving to Federal Road, but everything takes a little longer with COVID,” she said this week.
The interior of the Federal Road space is being renovated, said Matias, who is awaiting word on when she can settle into the new storefront. She said she hopes it will happen this month.
Matias was in her upholstery shop on Greenwood Avenue when the Oct. 16 fire broke out.
While working that morning, Matias said she started to smell smoke around 11:30 a.m. A short time later, she said, smoke filled the upholstery shop’s work area and she called the fire department.
Firefighters got to the scene shortly before 11:50 a.m., saw smoke coming from the eaves of the building and quickly discovered an “active fire in the ceiling,” according to dispatch reports.
Tri-Star Graphics, Pretty Little Things and Willows Massage & Wellness Center also were located in the Greenwood Avenue commercial building.
Bethel Volunteer Fire Chief Scott Murphy said the upholstery shop sustained fire and water damage, and the other businesses had water damage. The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation, but “it appears to more than likely have originated from an electrical malfunction in the ceiling of the second-floor upholstery shop” Fire Marshal Thomas Galliford said .
Matias wasn’t the building’s only tenant in search of a new place to reopen.
After losing about $150,000 worth of equipment and material to water damage, Tri-Star Graphics owner Jim Hansen consolidated his storefront into his nearby screen print shop at 264 Greenwood Ave.
He said packing everything into the print shop has been an “inconvenience” since the space is “pretty tight.”
“We had the storefront and the shop for a reason,” said Hansen, who plans to return to his former space once the building is repaired — although he does not know when that will be.
“Nothing’s really happening with the building,” he said. “When we were clearing out (after the fire), they had a contractor coming in and he thought it would be eight months to a year depending on when they were able to start.”
Hansen said he doesn’t think he’ll be moving back until “well into [2021] sometime.”
When asked what he lost in the Oct. 16 fire, Hansen said “Everything.”
“The fire was pretty much contained to the upholstery shop upstairs, but the bulk of the fire was right above our store so there was like a river of water running out the front door,” he said. “Anything that was electronic was destroyed. We had embroidery machines, a laser engraver, all of our computers, our vinyl-cutting system — we pretty much lost everything in the store.”
The fire added to an already rough year for Tri-Star Graphics, which had seen a slight decline in business due to COVID-19.
“A lot of our clients were schools, events, sports — things that just weren’t happening in 2020. It wasn’t a great year, but we were getting by. The fire on top of it was tough,” said Hansen.
In addition to working in tight quarters, Hansen said he’s been wrestling with insurance — something he’s never had to deal with in his 30-plus years in business.
“It’s hard to explain to people, and I don’t think I ever had enough empathy for people who were dealing with this, because the amount of stuff you have to deal with — let alone trying to get work done or anything else — it’s staggering,” he said.
Hansen said he plans to move back into his storefront and hopes things will “go back to the way (they) were prior to the fire.”
Pretty Little Things owner Shannon Anderson has found a temporary space for her consignment shop at 269 Greenwood Ave. — across the street from her former storefront.
Nearly all of the shop’s inventory was damaged in the fire, and Anderson’s sister started a GoFundMe shortly after the incident. More than $2,000 was raised to help Anderson get her business back up and running.
Pretty Little Things will open with an outdoor ribbon-cutting on Jan. 5.
Willows Massage & Wellness Center, owned by Lori Mikell, has moved to 251 Greenwood Ave., according to the business’ website.
Matias said she hasn’t decided whether Bethel Upholstery’s move to Federal Road will be permanent or temporary.
“It’s a new location for a business that’s been (on Greenwood Avenue) for a long time — I think more than 40 years — so we’ll see how the first six months go,” she said. “I think it’s going to be good, and I think my clients will follow me no matter where I am. I’m hopeful. All of that is positive thinking.”
Since the fire, Matias said she’s been working on the orders she had before the fire.
“I haven’t picked up any new orders or anything because people want to buy fabrics but I don’t have a place to sell fabrics or anything. What I’m doing is working on the work that I had there at the shop,” she said. “I had orders for Christmas that were not at the shop yet, and those I have picked up.”
Matias said she and her clients are ready for Bethel Upholstery to be back up and running.
“I have so many people calling me, asking me when I’ll be open and when they can come in,” she said. “Maybe it will be the middle of January. I don’t know — but I’m ready.”
Once she gets the keys to her new space, Matias said she expects it to take her about two weeks to settle in and put up the showroom.
“For things to be back to normal — my showroom done and everything settled in — I think beginning of February, if we’re lucky,” she said.
January 01, 2021 at 02:07AM
https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Bethel-business-owners-look-for-fresh-start-in-15838706.php
Bethel business owners look for fresh start in new locations after fire - Danbury News Times
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