The changing face of Athens’ business

Photo via Eva Ludke/The New Political

While Athens is most commonly known as the Appalachian home to Ohio University, its economic landscape extends beyond the academic sphere, encompassing a diverse array of local businesses that many agree give the town its unique character. 

However, a recent spike in local small business closure has some residents worried the city is losing sight of its character. Seven locally-owned businesses have closed their doors in the past year, with more expected to follow. 

One of these recently closed businesses is Import House, which shut down in October 2024 after nearly 30 years of operation in Athens. Its closure was largely attributed to its inability to compete with corporate retailers as their typical distributors gradually stopped selling to them.

Import House’s situation reflects a broader national trend. While small businesses make up 99.9% percent of U.S. businesses, they accounted for only about 44%, or $11.75 trillion of the $27 trillion in total revenue for all U.S. businesses in 2023. 

“When [my family] moved here in 1964, Uptown was a vibrant shopping district,” Barbara Stout, owner of the Athens Underground, said. “Everybody went Uptown to shop. I mean, there were all kinds of stores. There were clothing stores, there were bookstores, there was a hardware store, the library was Uptown. Everything was going on Uptown…but now more and more is getting closed down and is being turned into either bars, vape shops or residential.”

Stout, an Athens native and Ohio U alum, opened the Athens Underground at 90 N. Court St. in 2004 and says the business is struggling to survive. She explained that full recovery after COVID is difficult. Moreover, Stout said the shop has a few inherent disadvantages. Mainly, its location in a basement at the end of Court Street and Uptown makes it difficult to attract new customers. 

On top of these innate challenges her business faces, Stout says she feels the Athens city government creates additional unnecessary obstacles. 

“Saturdays make your week, and there are at least four Saturdays between May and August where they basically closed down Court Street [for festivals],” Stout said. “It prohibits traffic so townspeople avoid the area. And to lose a Saturday, that’s at least fifty percent of the sales for the week.” 

Stout expressed frustration with the city’s handling of communication regarding the street closures, saying they provide little to no advance notice and, instead, direct business owners to their website or Facebook page for updates. 

Street closures across Athens due to various construction projects and festivals are a large point of concern for multiple business owners. 

The Farmacy Natural and Specialty Foods was a locally owned grocery store that was open from 1970 until 2023. The owners attributed its closing largely to the construction that caused the street it was located on to be shut down for extended periods of time.  

Saraquoia Bryant, owner of Cool Digs at 596 E. State St., recently expanded her business with a second location in Uptown at 13 W. Union St. that specializes in selling crystals. Bryant purchased the Uptown location in the fall of 2023, unaware of the upcoming construction planned for the building next to it. 

Bought by the Columbus-based hotel company Indus Development in October 2023, the building had been vacant since 2019 and was in a state of disrepair. Indus is transforming the property into The Lostro, a boutique hotel with about 20 rooms on the upper floors and retail and restaurant space intended for the lower floors. 

The building’s hazardous condition necessitated extensive repair and work on the basement—which extends beneath parts of the sidewalk and street—required sections of the sidewalk and, briefly, a lane of West Union Street to be closed. 

The timing of the construction, coupled with the sidewalk closure and resulting limited parking, Bryant says, has greatly hindered the new Cool Digs’ location to gain traction and customers. As a result, she says the Uptown shop will close at the end of February, consolidating its inventory into the East State Street location.  

Bryant contacted Andy Stone, Athens’ Service-Safety Director, at the end of December inquiring about the permits that allow Indus to have the sidewalk and parts of the street continuously closed. 

“I said, ‘You guys have not taken into consideration any of these other businesses that were already here for empty promises from this developer with no assurance that it’s even a thing,’” Bryant said. “And he wrote me back that it is not in the city’s interest to think about the interests of the other Uptown businesses if it means this building sits empty.” 

Athens Mayor Steve Patterson says it was difficult to find any developer who wanted to buy and renovate the building, explaining corporations such as Target only ever had fleeting interest. In response to calls for the prioritization of local business rather than out-of-town developers, Patterson said, “I look around in Athens and I don’t see any developers that have the appetite to take on a project of that scale, that’s gonna cost that much money, to renovate and turn it into something other than a vacant property.”

Although Patterson said the city is constantly monitoring The Lostro’s construction progress, Bryant remained frustrated with the city’s response to her concerns and sought community-based solutions. Bryant, along with the activist group GrassRoots Ohioans hosted a community town hall on Jan. 22 to discuss the challenges small businesses are facing in Athens. Nearly 200 people were in attendance at the event, which lasted two hours longer than planned. 

“We had a real turnout of community. I could not believe how many people came out, especially because it wasn’t publicized,” Stout remarked. “Usually, when we do our info expos and stuff, we will put an ad in the paper and all we did was make that event page on Facebook and then shared it around with our email list.”

According to a survey conducted by GrassRoots Ohioans after the town hall, 94.3% of 87 respondents said they thought the city wasn’t doing enough to address the impact of construction on small businesses. Additionally, 91.7% of 84 respondents said they were not happy with the representation in the local government. 

Stout attended and spoke at the town hall, voicing her own disillusionment with city council and their lack of initiative to involve small businesses in decision making processes. 

“I don’t see a lot of movement on City Council’s part to actually involve businesses,” Stout said. “I’ll give you an exact example: the whole kerfuffle about plastic bags.” 

In May 2023, City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the use of plastic bags by businesses in Athens. Before the ban went into effect in January 2024, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against it, claiming it to be unconstitutional under Ohio Revised Code. On Aug. 28, 2024, Athens County Common Pleas Court Judge George McCarthy ruled in favor of the Attorney General’s Office and, since then, the ban has not been in effect. The city has appealed this ruling but the decision is still pending. 

On average, paper bags cost 35¢ per bag, while plastic bags cost 5¢ per bag, a difference that Stout says places a significant financial burden on small businesses.

“[City Council] did not involve any of the small businesses in coming up with creative solutions for this,” Stout said. “They just imposed it on the city, which is why several businesses brought suit with the state.”

Patterson was also in attendance of and spoke at the town hall, where he pointed to increasingly higher costs of rent and changing consumer buying behaviors as possible reasons for the increase in business closures. 

“So much of it isn’t in city control, you know, the city doesn’t control buying power and buying behaviors of individuals,” Patterson said. “Although we do recognize that [business closures are] happening, there’s just so many different challenges that any business owner is having to face these days.”

Additionally, he emphasized the need for suggestions and solutions when discussing the closures as well as the acknowledgement of the seven small businesses that have opened in the past year. 

Athens’ community and government are considering new ways to better support its small businesses. One idea being discussed is the potential creation of an independent business association, separate from the existing Athens Uptown Business Association (AUBA). 

Currently, AUBA is the only such group but its membership is limited to those who are paid members of the chamber as its an official sub-committee. 

Furthermore, some, like Celeste Polsinelli—co-owner of Little Professor Bookstore and a board member of the Chamber of Commerce—feel AUBA has become reactionary and lacks productive action. Currently, Polsinelli is in the early stages of discussing a revamp of AUBA, separating it from the chamber in hopes of getting more participation. 

“​​Mainly, my goal is to get better participation, get more businesses involved, especially ones who don’t traditionally feel like they have a voice,” Polsinelli said. 

Another solution from Patterson was the creation of a small business committee in City Council and a small business liaison to the city. 

Bryant’s next step involves legislative change. At town hall, she brought a draft for a Community Benefits Plan, the plan would work to “ensure that development projects within the community promote equitable outcomes, protect long-standing residents, historic businesses, and buildings from the adverse effects of gentrification, and deliver tangible benefits to the community.”

“I think setting up some fair and equal behavior will go a long way, right?” Bryant said. “Not bending over for out of town developers, but instead saying to them, hey, you want to be part of our community, great. We want to know how you’re gonna benefit us, not how we’re going to bend over for you.” 

This article was published in TNP’s Spring 2025 Print edition.