Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

 

SALISBURY— South Main Book Company, 110 S. Main St., Salisbury, has a new space for the community to either use as a place to relax or a place to rent.

The remodeling of the space, which is located in the downstairs area of the bookstore, was completed around May 13, said Alissa Redmond, owner of the store.

She noted that she had received a grant two years ago.

“So it’s been a work in progress for a while,” she said, adding that they took care of a few things upstairs and then “kind of migrated down as we could.”

The area is “a concept, there’s nothing for sale down there,” she said, adding that people can go downstairs when the business is open and sit and read or work if they want to.

Now, it’s just an extra space, she said; however, “eventually it will have more of a lounge feel to it so that people can go down there with coffee or something and just hang out and read.”

The space can also be used for events such as a birthday party or some kind of reception, and for those wanting to use it for those types of events, Redmond said they have everything that they would need and they are open for bookings.

Those wishing to learn more information or to book the area, can call the book store at 704-630-9788.

Another area downstairs is available for rent, Redmond said for anyone who is a massage therapist or someone in the self-care field of some sort.

Downstairs has been used for several events already, Redmond said, including a joint book signing for Joy Calloway and Katherine Scott Crawford and an upcoming book signing for Kristy Woodson Harvey’s newest release, “Beach House Rules” will take place May 27 at 5:30 p.m. She said that for those unable to go downstairs for this event, there would be accommodations on the ground floor as well.

And the area was put to use during the Cheerwine Festival providing space for people to “run around because we were quite busy.”  

Redmond said she had quite a few goals for the downstairs area.

As of right now, she said “it’s just a clean, functional, usable space. We’ve had some weddings and birthday parties and different kinds of events already. That gives us another level to use.”

In time, she noted she would like to have retail down there, “but we want to have an elevator first because I want it to be accessible for everyone.”

Anticipating that there will be slower foot traffic when the streetscape project is taking place, Redmond said she thinks “that’s the time when I would like to put in an elevator that goes to every floor in the building so then we can really use that downstairs for sales.”

She doesn’t anticipate that the area will be “an extension of the bookstore as much as bringing in some new concepts,” she said.

Having a pop up Dewey’s bakery at Christmas several years ago in the space was successful, Redmond said. 

While it was a nonprofit and they didn’t charge anything for the space, she said it was nice to have extra foot traffic and it was “one of the things that kind of planted the idea in my head that I really wanted to work on that space and make it usable.”

Redmond expressed thanks to those who have supported her, noting that she has had the store for five years and it keeps growing and is more successful each year.

So she said, thanks to “everyone for their support and hopefully this will just be more of a continuation of us being a successful business in downtown Salisbury.”