(Published Monday, February 19, 2007 11:02:42 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Gina Duwe Gazette Staff
Evansville
A new retail center built on the city's east side has attracted three new businesses to the city and expanded an established one.
The retail center located on Brown School Road behind the new ACE Hardware adds to the east-side growth and created about a dozen new jobs, said Roger Berg, a developer of the project.
The center includes a real estate business, a pet store, a full-service salon and a physical therapy clinic.
"There's certain businesses that fit different locations. Some can be real fine downtown, but others need more immediate parking," Berg said. "I think we need to try to offer both."
The nearly 10,000-square-foot building opened the doors for several local entrepreneurs, each wanting to fill unmet needs in the growing city.
Xandra Kashkashian moved here from Philadelphia after working for years in the pet industry, and said it seemed like the natural thing to start Big Sweeties Pet Supply Center. She noticed plenty of pet owners in Evansville, but no place to get pet supplies.
"You have to go 17, 18 miles in any direction, so we thought this was a place to put one in," she said. "It would be like a whole population without a grocery store."
The same went for physical therapist Blase Strobl.
He started his first clinic in Janesville about 12 years ago, and found many of his patients were driving from Evansville, said his wife, Katarina, who also works in the office.
Now his clinic, Evansville Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Specialists, will provide residents with care in a private-clinic setting, including an aquatic center coming in spring.
"That definitely sets our clinic apart from our other clinics and other hospitals," she said.
Blase also owns a clinic in Clinton.
Evansville native Shannon Winger-Omvig also found a need for "a more upscale" full-service salon. She opened Indulge Spa & Salon after working for Heads Up Hair Design in Evansville. Her hair salon includes tanning, massage, facials, nails and body treatments.
"I'm hoping to accommodate the growth of Evansville," she said. "We have a lot of people from bigger cities where they're used to something a little nicer to accommodate all the services in one area."
For Allen Realty, it was space needs.
The real estate agency has been in business for four years, and the move doubled the size of its previous office on East Main Street, owner Lauri Allen said.
With the space came four new employees, too, she said.
