The Madison Valley business district is seeing better days.
Once a haven for drug dealers and prostitutes, this strip of East Madison Street just south of the arboretum is now the home of a full-scale retail renaissance.
In the last two years alone more than a dozen new storefront businesses have opened, joining nearly 40 other gift shops, restaurants and professional services to make this one of the city's fastest-growing business districts.
The transformation, however, has not come without problems - like not enough parking, too much shoplifting and traffic that rushes through the area like whitewater rapids.
But compared to the past, when criminals often outnumbered shoppers in the district, these kinds of problems seem tame.
"This was the kind of neighborhood where you hoped you didn't run out of gas on your way home," said Molly Baird Van Nostrand, who grew up in the area in the '60s and '70s. "Now it's a great neighborhood."
So great, in fact, that she and her husband, Jon, moved back to the area from Southern California and opened their store Fast Frame in Madison Valley last March.
Running this small picture-framing and art shop is quite a change from owning a fast-paced Kinko's copy center and being responsible for 30 employees, as Baird Van Nostrand and her husband did for nine years.
"It was like being a parent to 30 children," she said. "You get phone calls all 24 hours a day, all night. And you have to take on their 'stuff.'"
So moving back home with their own two children made perfect sense and has paid off. "It's really important to like what you are doing, and we like what we're doing," she said. "It's a simpler lifestyle now, which is nice."
This is a common theme running throughout the district today: Shopkeepers, mostly professional women, seeking independence and a less hectic, more fulfilling life. The result is an eclectic collection of shops, each distinguished by the owner's individual flare.
Like the kid-friendly My Coffeehouse, designed like a child-care center on one side and a traditional coffee shop on the other.
Or Izilla Toys, located in a former house, complete with sandbox in the yard and interactive toys strewn on the front porch for visiting children to enjoy.
And Bella Rose Fine Gifts & Furnishings, where customers are greeted at the front door by the friendly lick of the owner's Bichon Frise (a white fluff ball of a dog) and the offer of a glass of fresh, bottled water.
Put all of this in a European-style marketplace with street cafés and exotic foods, and the scope of the district's startling transformation is clear.
What isn't so clear, however, is whether this retail renaissance has staying power. Or even if it does, how will it continue to evolve?
The rapid turnover of the last two years, where nearly one-third of all storefront shops are either completely new businesses or existing businesses being run by new owners, makes the situation far too fluid to answer this question with much certainty. The fact that many of these shopkeepers are engaged in first-ever retail ventures only adds to the mystery.
A recent U.S. Census Bureau report might shed some light on what to expect, at least statistically. For example, the Census report shows that half of all businesses with employees and two-thirds of all businesses without employees close within four years of opening.
The numbers become even more ominous, especially as they relate to the Madison Valley business district, with the revelation that the study's single leading indicator for business failure is involvement in retail.
As dark a picture as this statistical analysis paints, there is an equal amount of light to be found in the same study. For instance, two of the study's top four indicators for business success, meaning businesses that remain open beyond the threshold of four years, are owners "having a good education" and "starting a business for personal reasons," most notably "freedom for family life or wanting to become one's own boss." This string of characteristics is a precise description of the vast majority of business owners, new and established, now operating in the Madison Valley.
There is reason to believe, at least anecdotally, that even statistically the Madison Valley business district might already have outperformed the Census model and might continue to do so with its new members.
The district already has a solid core of statistical overachievers. For example, Fury Extraordinary Wo-men's Consignment (20 years in the district), City People's Garden Store (16 years), Gentlemen's Consignment (16 years), Real Card Co. (15 years), Veritables (12 years) and Lavender Heart Botanicals (six years).
Even in the extremely volatile restaurant business, the Madison Valley district has done well. For example, Rover's (17 years), Cafe Flora (14 years), The Harvest Vine (six years) and Chinoise Café on Madison (five years).
What is significant about these shops and restaurants is that they serve as models for much of the current new crop of businesses in the area: upscale, eclectic and solidly owned.
One of the reasons these established shops have been so successful is that they evolved in tandem with the economic development of Madison Valley in general. As the Valley became more well-healed, their chance for survival improved.
Also important is the fact that none of these new shops represent cases where the new owners were trying to turn around a failing business.
The new shops could - and should - benefit from this same economic model. There are indications, however, that some tension is already present and merchants will need to respond in some meaningful way.
For example, last July, shortly after Kari Ambrose opened her spray-tanning business, Miss Madison's, she began receiving nasty notes on her car and angry phone messages, and even her business was egged.
She said she confronted the man whom she believed was responsible for the activity, and after the encounter, the activity ceased.
Since then, she has taken every opportunity to talk to neighbors, hoping to head off any future trouble.
"They're just getting frustrated with the lack of parking," Ambrose said. "As long as you just understand their frustration and where they're coming from, and remind them of what you can bring to the community, more than 95 percent of them are very respectful."
John Coldewey, co-secretary of the Greater Madison Valley Community Council, agrees: "If both sides are willing to take part in dialogue, issues can be resolved."
And he should know. He's seen it work as vice president of the Neighbors of Bush School Association, a neighborhood group affiliated with the community council that serves as a liaison between The Bush School and surrounding neighborhoods.
"We are able to put down old attitudes that are filled with distrust and [put] poor experiences in the past," Coldewey said.
Coldewey is confident that a similar relationship could be formed between the Madison Valley business district and its residential neighbors. All it would take, he said, is for someone such as the Madison Valley Merchants Association to step forward and start the process.
Although the Merchants Association currently does not have a formal relationship with the council - mostly because it was only formed a year ago and is still evolving - it has established an informal relationship with the council that operates similar to The Bush School model.
Cathy Nunneley, one of the community counci's first co-presidents and current editor of the council newsletter, attends every monthly Merchants Association meeting and discusses with them concerns of the community. In return, she takes back to the community council any concerns the merchants might have.
Nunneley, a 28-year Madison Valley resident, said the relationship is cordial, open and productive: "I think it's working really well. It's all very friendly, and they don't hide anything. They're really trying to be part of the community."
Sally Dietrich, owner of Gentle-men's Consignment and co-founder of the Merchants Association, said it is too early to say whether the young group will forge a more formal relationship with the community council. However, she said, anything is possible.
"Obviously, we can't solve all problems, but we can tackle a few," she said. "But you've got to have some clout to get somebody to listen."
The association's willingness to invite a community-council representative to its meetings, giving transparency to its operations, shows the merchants' awareness of the importance of community concerns.[[In-content Ad]]
