Unable to find a tenant for the former Order from Horder space on the east end of the Downtown Mall, the Masonic Corporation that owns the building is asking the city for permission to partition the space into two roughly equal units that could be rented out to gift shops or other interested businesses.
“The Mall project is scaring people away,” says Andy Keller, building manager for the Masonic Corporation. Keller is referring to the Downtown renovation project, which involves rebricking the original Mall in sand rather than with mortar, as well as other upgrades to the electrical and plumping systems. Though some test work has already been done, the real work will commence January 2. The city says that the project will finish in May—a schedule that many are greeting skeptically, including Keller.
“We talked to two national chains, but we had to tell them what was going on,” he says. “We couldn’t pull the wool over their eyes.”
“A couple of the [possible tenants] said that if they are right, they will come back in the summer,” says Keller, “but we can’t operate between now and June. Our monthly
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Morgan MacKenzie-Perkins, owner of the Sage Moon Gallery, can’t afford to remain in her Downtown Mall space location and is closing shop on December 15. "It’s heartbreaking for us to have this happen, but it’s the economy," she says. |
bills are pretty high. We don’t charge the various Masonic groups that use the building.”
The Board of Architectural Review will consider the Masonic Corporation’s proposal at its December 16 meeting.
Across the street from the former Order from Horder is the empty former A&N building that recently housed an Obama campaign office. A few doors down from there, Morgan MacKenzie-Perkins is about to close shop on the Sage Moon Gallery that she owns with her husband.
“It’s been a hard decision, but it was a decision that we didn’t have a choice about because, financially, we could not afford to maintain this space,” says MacKenzie-Perkins, who will shut it down December 15. “This kind of an economy is not for sissies, and maybe I’ve turned into a sissy,” she says, with a laugh.
Sage Moon leases the space from Chuck Lewis, who also owns York Place and several other commercial spaces around Charlottesville. Lewis did not return calls for comment, but MacKenzie-Perkins says he was a good landlord who made an effort to keep her in the space. However, “in this financial climate, I can’t take the risks that it would require to do those things.”
Instead, she will exhibit some of the gallery art a few blocks down at Siips, a wine restaurant.
MacKenzie-Perkins doesn’t put any blame on the Downtown renovation, which she sees as necessary. “You cannot let something like this deteriorate,” she says. “We love the Mall, so we’re going to love it no matter what, but when people fall down and hurt themselves on the Mall, they don’t love it a whole lot.”
Sage Moon isn’t the only gallery closing shop on the Mall. Migration, an art gallery on Mall sidestreet Fifth Street SE, will shutter in January, according to a press release from owners Laura and Rob Jones. (C-VILLE’s music blog, Feedback, has the full scoop.)
Another art shop on the east end of the Mall, L’Affiche, is also closing, though owner Zulema Weinschenk says, “It’s not because of the economy, and not because of the bricks or anything. I am just retiring. I have been here since 1980 when there were hardly any businesses down here. I truly believed that the Downtown Mall would become something special, and it has.”