Editor's note: This article went to press before Gov. Ralph Northam's stay-at-home order and other social distancing measures associated with the coronavirus pandemic went into effect. Check out this recent story for an update on how Carytown businesses are faring.
Photo by Jay Paul
Don’t mess with the merchants of Carytown. Just ask the owners of the porn palace who tried, in the mid-’70s, to disguise their shop as a candle store and were promptly run out of town.
And then there was the fast food franchise that wanted to open a drive-thru on the easternmost, most countercultural edge of Richmond’s popular nine-block shopping district. “Everyone got up in arms over the thought we’d have a drive-thru across from the historic Byrd Theatre,” says May Cayton, owner of Bygones vintage clothing boutique, a Carytown staple since 1985.
“It made us all sick. But it was just a matter of talking the landlords into being good stewards of what Carytown is.”
Carytown is where you’ll find some of Richmond’s longest-running — and iconic — local businesses, starting with the historic Byrd Theatre, a restored grand movie palace built in 1928. The centerpiece of the district is Cary Court Shopping Center, the first strip mall in Richmond, which officially opened in 1938 as Cary Street Park and Shop Center. (Construction slowed due to the wartime economy, but many stores were open by 1933.) Bordered by Thompson Street to the west and Arthur Ashe Boulevard to the east, Carytown is, on most days, buzzing with activity and populated with shoppers, diners, buskers and people watchers.
Ten years ago, a Ben & Jerry’s franchise moved in near longtime local ice cream shop Bev’s — and promptly closed. “It’s the way people think in Carytown,” says Tom Roukous, owner of Coppola’s Deli since 1990. “Many of my customers said they were going to go to Bev’s twice as much to make sure they survived. I think that mentality is awesome. It’s just different here.”
“Keep Carytown weird,” laughs Richmond City Council member Stephanie Lynch, who represents the historic shopping area in Richmond’s 5th District. “I relate to the desire to preserve the character of Carytown and the types of businesses that thrive there. It’s the prime example of an inclusive business community that has all cultures, creeds and backgrounds ... a community space for small business.”
“We used to call it ‘a mile of style,’ ” says L.A. Phipps, manager of Cary Court’s Crème de la Crème gift shop, and the public liaison for the Carytown Merchants Association, a group of affiliated local businesses that advocate, coordinate cleanup efforts and throw special events like the annual Watermelon Festival. Approximately one-third of the businesses here are dues-paying members. “Carytown is very important to the economy of Richmond,” she says. “People know it. People love it. People complain about parking, but they still come.”
New and longtime merchants agree that Richmond’s most prominent shopping destination is changing — in all kinds of ways. Whether these changes are all positive is a question up for debate. For right now, business is brisk.
“I think Carytown is booming,” says Bygones’ owner Cayton. “That’s because there’s a movement, nationally, where people want to live where they can walk. Where there are things to do. People are really tired of being cut off in the suburbs and being dependent on internal combustion engines and polluting and not getting exercise.” This walkable district, with all of its many experiences, finds itself in a “sweet spot,” she says. The world is finally catching up to Carytown.
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Tom Roukous, owner of Coppola’s Deli (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Street performers are common in Carytown, including this drummer who set up next to candy shop Rocket Fizz’s pirate statue. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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May Cayton, owner of Bygones (Photo by Jay Paul)
What’s the Exchange?
It probably won’t offer adult magazines, and there are no plans for a drive-thru, but the $40 million Carytown Exchange development on Carytown’s western edge has caused more than a few pearls to be clutched. Anchored by a Publix grocery store, with the neighboring Virginia ABC outlet planning a relocation to the development, when completed it will provide 120,000 square feet of retail space — an entire block of Carytown.
“My biggest issue is that they are pushing away small businesses and only making room for the national franchises,” says Lisa McSherry, owner of the dress shop Lex’s of Carytown, an area mainstay for 24 years (McSherry also owns Mamie’s Apothecary next door). “That worries me for Carytown because not everyone can pay what they’re trying to charge. Unless you’re a national franchise, you’re not going to be able to afford it.”
Before she opened her apothecary, McSherry says she contacted Exchange brokers to inquire about renting there. “They wouldn’t entertain talking to me,” she says. “When they told me what they were charging for square footage, I kind of laughed. They didn’t care that I’d been a local retailer for so long, they didn’t even want me in that area.”
On the other hand, James Ashby, senior vice president of Cushman & Wakefield/Thalhimer, the brokers for the Carytown Exchange, says, “We are marketing to, and speaking with, not only national tenants but regional and local tenants as well.”
Some of those include existing Carytown retailers, Ashby says, “and there are some who have been looking for space in Carytown for years. If you look at the Carytown market, there’s very little vacancy. And a lot of the buildings are old row houses, with layouts that don’t work well for some.”
He says that he and his fellow brokers have been talking to restaurant, fitness, boutique, and apparel interests — “all across the board.” Of the asking price, he says that “our rental rate is in line with new construction for major retail development projects for the Richmond market.” The only big-box retailer involved in the project is Publix, he stresses, and that chain is replacing Ukrop’s and Martin’s, also large grocery chains.
“People know it. People love it. People complain about parking, but they still come.” —May Cayton, owner of Bygones
Still, this project — as well as a five-story Residence Inn by Marriott hotel planned near the district — is something long expected, and widely feared. “It’s been a concern of some of us here for years now,” says Jim Bland, owner of Plan 9 Records, in Carytown since 1981, “that we’d end up like places in other towns where the cool spot has corporate entities come in and change the nature of it.”
Andreas Waltenburg can speak to that. He owns a bar and gastropub in New York City’s West Village, The Folly, and says that funky local retailers have largely been priced out of the Big Apple. “The diversity of New York has pretty much disappeared. You don’t get as much variety now.”
Four years ago, Waltenburg and his wife, Mary Dail, moved to Richmond with their son, Loki, while he continued to maintain The Folly. The couple opened Fuel Pump last year, a Carytown coffee shop.
It’s a changing neighborhood, he says. “In the way Richmond itself is changing. It’s moving very quickly and upward, so to speak. But even though the selection of stores might change … people here are very loyal to their mom-and-pop organizations.”
James Ashby, a broker with the Carytown Exchange, maintains that the development will fit in well with the character and makeup of the neighborhood. (Image courtesy Regency Centers)
Though she is not happy with the project, Cayton credits the Exchange developers for at least emulating the look and feel of the district. “I like the fact that there will be stores lining Cary Street so it echoes the older section,” she says. “When the property was Ukrop’s or Martin’s, there was just a parking lot facing Carytown. From the drawings I’ve seen, they’re at least trying to make the Cary Street side reminiscent of the older part of Carytown.”
The ship of purity sailed long ago, some would argue. With West Elm, Kroger, two 7-Elevens, Wells Fargo Bank, Walgreens, Fresh Market, Chipotle, Panera and McDonald’s — with drive-thru — Carytown’s locals-only vibe has long been compromised.
“This is what happens when our city grows,” Chop Suey Books owner Ward Tefft says. “It’s always the small businesses that build it up and clean it up, and then the big businesses come in and raise the rent. That’s just the nature of things.”
Tefft’s independent bookstore has been in Carytown for 14 years. He’s not stoked at the prospect of chains potentially moving into the neighborhood, “but it will bring people into the city, and that’s good for the tax revenue,” he says. “There’s not much you can do when someone buys a piece of property and wants to do something like that. I guess we’ll wait and see what it’s going to be. I assume it will be chains.”
“There’s going to be pros and cons to the Exchange, and, no, people aren’t happy about it,” Phipps admits. One positive is a new 525-space parking deck. “We’ve been to all the meetings,” she says of the merchant association’s dealings with the Florida-based Regency Centers, which is spearheading the Exchange. “They’re consulting us. They’ve given us plans, mockups, that show us that the new buildings will look like the little row homes of Cary Street. ... I think they respect what Carytown is.”
The first part of Carytown Exchange’s construction will be finished in August, Ashby says, the rest in early 2021. “We have four individual buildings, one on Ellwood and three on Cary, and the largest space we can do is 4,500 square feet. The rest will range in size from 1,200 to 3,600 square feet. So, let me be clear: There’s not going to be any big-boxing of Carytown.”
Sometimes corporate encroachment isn’t so bad. Tefft says, “When Capital One came in and displaced a bunch of local businesses and signed a 20-year lease for their Capital One Café, and then did $1 million in improvements, what can you say? They are definitely involved in Carytown cleanup and are friendly neighbors. I don’t like that they opened up across the street from Sugar & Twine [an established, independent coffee shop], but I think the two offer different experiences.”
“Capital One is a big company, but they understand marketing,” Roukous adds. “That group came in and hit the streets, and they pulled weeds and put down mulch and scrubbed graffiti, and they did it three or four times.” That, he says, is how you win over longtime Carytown merchants and clientele.
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Chop Suey Books on the eastern edge of Carytown has been a neighborhood fixture for 14 years. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Lisa McSherry, owner of Lex’s of Carytown and Mamie’s Apothecary (Photo by Jay Paul)
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The Byrd Theatre, Richmond’s grand movie palace, has been in operation for 90 years. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Shoppers near the corner of Sheppard and Cary streets (Photo by Jay Paul)
The View From Here
Cayton has seen big changes since she moved Bygones to Carytown from Grace Street, near Virginia Commonwealth University, in the mid-’80s.
Back then, there were only three restaurants in Carytown, she recalls. “And the sidewalks basically rolled up at 8:30. Except for going to the movies, there wasn’t much to do. There was a gay bar for a while [preceding Babe’s of Carytown], and a few evening places, but the biggest change I’ve seen is in the number of restaurants, good restaurants. It’s a much more happening place for a much longer day.”
Roukous says, “It used to be a more functional street, with a hardware store, vacuum repair shop and so on.” Carytown still houses a shoe repair shop and a dry cleaner.
Carytown needs a variety of businesses, he says. “You can’t have too much of anything. You need clothing, restaurants, outdoors store, bookstores, record stores. You need diversity. I would say, yes, it’s become a dining area. And, yes, it’s probably a little much because you now see them closing.”
Xtra’s Cafe, a 10-year Carytown veteran, and Zzaam Fresh Korean Grill, which opened in 2015, have both shut down in recent months. But turnover like that is not unusual, Lehrer says. “Restaurants are difficult anywhere.”
“Let me be clear: There’s not going to be any big-boxing of Carytown.” —James Ashby, a broker for the Carytown Exchange
Cayton adds that the district has also found its niche as a secondary market. “We have not just vintage clothing stores, but we have consignment stores, we have Chop Suey Used Books, we have [Bits and Pixels], and Buffalo Exchange opened [in 2018]. Block by block, you can see that in order to remain unique, which Carytown has always been, it’s differentiated itself from Stony Point or Short Pump. It has now really embraced nightlife and the secondary market.”
McSherry acknowledges the trend toward buying secondhand. “The wave of consignment and thrift stores [has] really taken over, in my opinion,” she says. “If I didn’t have such a niche with the formal market, I would’ve closed down completely.” She isn’t bitter about it, though. “People are into recycled and refurbished clothing now because they are more environmentally conscious. I totally respect that.”
It’s more about experiences these days, not product, she adds. “As you saw clothing stores going out, you saw more restaurants coming in. If I was in the restaurant industry, I’d say it’s for the better. But I can’t say it’s good for retailers. When there’s a good mix of restaurants and retailers, we all benefit one another, but as the restaurants take over and retailers move out, it’s harmful because now you just have an area of people coming to eat and not shopping.”
“There are more restaurants here, sure,” Tefft says. “But that’s just kind of Richmond. We’ve got more restaurants everywhere.”
Entering the ’20s
To keep up with everything from shoplifter alerts to cleanup efforts, Carytown merchants interact through a private Facebook page set up by the association. “The biggest debate lately has been about parking, or specifically the new $1 charge on the parking deck,” Cayton says. Historically free to use, the city-owned parking decks on Colonial and Crenshaw avenues implemented a new $1 to $2 fee to park in August 2019.
But a long-burning complaint is about city government. “They don’t do much for Carytown. You could sometimes say that’s a plus,” Roukous says with a laugh. “Considering that Carytown’s always been where the money came from, I don’t think the city really helps.”
“For years, when I was on the board of the association, we were promised money toward beautification and a new entrance sign,” McSherry says. “That’s not too much to ask considering that we pay a huge chunk of taxes to the city. But they don’t put money back into Carytown at all. They’ll plant a few trees here and there. But in the years I’ve been [here], they have continually promised us funding, and it never comes.”
McSherry and a handful of other business owners paid for the last entrance sign more than 20 years ago. It has since deteriorated, and there has been no replacement.
“It’s not fair,” Lynch says. “We shouldn’t penalize our small-business community and make them pay for the things that the city services should be responsible for delivering.” She’s looking for funding options to help with beautification and signage.
“I don’t try to think about the negatives,” Roukous says, sitting in his deli. “I love Carytown. I’m so glad that I’m here. I couldn’t have picked a better spot.”
“I truly love the old-school, little-bit-kooky feel of Carytown,” echoes Waltenburg. “It’s a really open-minded, culturally and politically diverse small town. As long as it remains a place where everyone feels welcome, I don’t think it’s going to go wrong.”
