After nearly 60 years selling high-end men’s clothing, property and business owner Dennis Johnson has decided to close Stuart’s of Durango and place the building at 713 Main Ave. for lease at $5,500 a month starting in mid-September.
The building is the latest to join a healthy number of vacant properties, either for lease or sale, on Main Avenue, some of which have been available for months.
Vacancies on Durango’s main strip tend to spring up in rough economic times; at one point during the recession in the early 1980s, 17 Main Avenue buildings were vacant between fifth and 14th streets, according to The Wells Group broker John Wells.
Vacant inventory on Main is not unusual, but the sweep of closed businesses in recent years, from the former Francisco’s restaurant – which has recently been reconfigured and leased to three new tenants – to the Lost Dog Bar & Grill, emphasizes several points to local real estate agents who know the Main Avenue market.
“I think that one of the biggest reasons that you are seeing vacancies on Main is the ‘end of an era’ in the case of businesses like Francisco’s and Stuart’s, to name a few,” said Jerome Bleger, president of the Durango Area Association of Realtors. “Both of those were institutions of Main Street Durango, but because no one in the family was able to, or had the desire, to continue on the business in the stead of the particular business (they closed.)”
Stuart’s, an upscale men’s clothing retailer, is coming up on its 57th anniversary, and Johnson, now 81, has decided to move on to other things.
“We wanted to have a retirement – what a concept,” Anna, Johnson’s wife, said. “My husband is in his 80s. I’m in my 70s, and there is no way to pass (the business) down. It’s just a little too much for us to continue.”
A sale of Stuart’s merchandise began Thursday and will continue for about four or five weeks, Anna Johnson estimated.
She said she hopes future tenants are “responsible to the community” and want to serve it in the same way Stuart’s did.
Wells, who is managing the property, said the building was listed for lease just days ago.
The 2,875-square-foot space has a rear entrance and curved front entryway. Because of the apartment units on the second floor and low ceiling height at the rear of the building, the space would not be conducive for restaurant use.
Like many existing structures on Main Avenue, the building has historic merit.
According to survey books at the Animas Museum, the building was built in or around 1885 and was one of the earliest permanent brick structures on Main Avenue. The first floor was originally a saloon, and the second floor a boarding house.
Duane Smith, a local historian, said that in the late 1800s, the Stuart’s building shared a block with a grocery store, office space, an undertaker and an assay office – facilities to identify and assess minerals brought in by local miners.
The building’s original brick facade was dramatically changed in the 1930s with stucco and glazed tile. Since the early 1900s, multiple clothing retailers have occupied it, including Nate Stein’s.
Dennis Johnson’s father, Stuart, purchased the building from Bob Pennington in 1959, changing the name from Pennington’s to Stuart’s of Durango.
After years of employment there, Johnson purchased the building from his father in 1978 and retained the business name.
When the store celebrated its golden anniversary in 2009, Johnson told The Durango Herald sales had hit the brakes in the midst of the Great Recession, and his two daughters, who live out of state, seemed unlikely to continue the family business with careers of their own, which follows the “end of an era” trend brokers say is typical of Main Avenue.
In 2010, the Hogan’s Store in the 800 block closed, owner Mickey Hogan having reached his 80s, facing competition from Internet and chain stores, and with no one who could or would continue business operations.
“There are two things that happen: People don’t have an exit plan for their business or a key employee or family member to take over, or there’s a change in the market. The change, to me, is the internet,” Wells said. “Clothes, apparel, household goods – there are people who buy those right from home. It’s a threat, in my opinion, of the fabric of downtowns across the U.S. And I think it’s the whole key to continuing to see improved tourism. In places like Durango and Santa Fe, tourists enjoy the leisure of window shopping. Visitors are a key part of retail strength.”
jpace@durangoherald.com