The Calhoun Street Promenade is allowing residents to enjoy a more downtown flavor, they do not have to drive to restaurants and specialty shops as much. This will bring in more interest into this area of downtown Bluffton. These new businesses will compliment the existing ones, especially the galleries and antique shops.
Businesses seeing more walk-in traffic in old town's Promenade
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Pati Arseneau has a corner seat when it comes to watching the goings-on in the Calhoun Street Promenade.
Her business is on the main entrance to the promenade off of May River Road, so she can see all the cars that wind through, their drivers checking out the new, 82,000-square-foot retail, office, entertainment and residential center in old town Bluffton.
Arseneau was also the first person to open a consumer-oriented business in the center. Businesses that opened before hers were either professional or medical offices. She opened Pottery In Paradise, a self-paint pottery studio, in December.
So far, Arseneau loves the promenade. She looks forward to working with her neighboring businesses, such as the newly opened InnerSphere Yoga & Lifestyle Center, to bring in customers.
For Arseneau, who once ran a business at Coligny Plaza in the heart of Hilton Head Island's tourist area, the possibilities for the Calhoun Street Promenade seem boundless.
"I believe in my heart it will be the center of everything here," she said.
Like Arseneau's Pottery In Paradise, Josh Luman has made the promenade a home for his new business, Corks Wine Company.
Luman, who runs the wine bar with girlfriend Gabby Ferrell, also lives in one of the upstairs lofts at the development.
"We just really believe in the promenade," Luman said. "It was an instant feeling."
Luman acknowledges the idea of a wine bar may be new to Bluffton, but in the bar's first three weeks, crowds have been heavy.
Those three consumer-oriented businesses join Gateway Realty, Mattis Chiropractic and Wellness Center, developer Bill Herbkersman's offices, home builder Yestermorrow and other professional offices.
And there's plenty more to come, said center developer Herbkersman, also a state representative from Bluffton.
Construction on a building for an additional location of Captain Woody's Seafood Bar & Grill, which now has a restaurant on Hilton Head, should begin within a week, Herbkersman said.
A similar plan for a building for Bluffton Bar-B-Que has been submitted to Bluffton planners, he said.
Although he wasn't free to identify it, Herbkersman said the promenade is "very, very close to (getting) a big, regional art gallery," and said a second gallery should soon follow.
The developers are also considering a couple of coffee shops, two very different ice cream stores and a doughnut shop, Herbkersman said.
Other future promenade tenants include an upscale garden and housewares store, a women's shoe store and a dress store, among others.
"We're actually a little bit ahead of schedule in leasing and getting businesses in," he said. "We've had just an unbelievable request for office space, and we are trying to figure out how to incorporate more office space in there, although I think we're going to be short of retail space as well."
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