Open for Business on Saturday

“I’ve got a hundred ideas,” Chris Donaldson with the Dyersburg Dyer County Chamber of Commerce, The Mill Workspace, and owner of Tencom Services told us.  “We are working together. When ideas come and with our group, awesome ideas get molded through the lifetime of experience that these business owners bring to the table into something that works.”  Even on Black Friday, downtown Dyersburg has shoppers. “The internet has a two-way reaction. Used to, people would pile up in cars and head to Memphis or Jackson to go shopping, but now they can do that online from the comfort of their home. Last year, downtown reaped the benefits of shoppers actually coming downtown… some even bought for their entire Christmas list at the shops that Friday,” supplied Joe Yates, owner of several downtown businesses, including General Appliance. Donaldson continued, “I just think it’s more of a family event now, I saw it last year when people came downtown.”  They are coming downtown, partly because the Dyersburg Dyer County Chamber of Commerce is helping to give them reasons to come downtown.

And it’s working. Not only is Downtown open during the week, but they are open all day on Saturdays, too. With shopping galore and places to eat as well, Dyersburg downtown has had a net gain of 23 businesses in the last 5 years, including Buff City Soap, Any Jane’s, Uptown Girl Boutique, Copper Lane, and Joe’s Market and Cafe, Bus Stop Cafe inside what was the Greyhound bus stop. The Mustard Co. Store (which serves lunch on Thursday only) is inside the old post office alongside Pennington’s Seed and Pecan House and General Appliance who have been downtown mainstays.  General Appliance has been in that same location since the 1950s. “Downtown is something special,” added Yates, “according to traffic counts and ‘business sense’ we should have left and gone to the building that we own on the bypass a long time ago, but I couldn’t leave downtown.” “It’s always worked for us,” Mike Pennington added, “The downtown setting and the product line that we do goes hand in hand for our business. I can’t see us working in a strip mall setting. Dyersburg businesses collectively have been inspired to improve our heritage with our buildings. Now, it is the ‘go to’ area for creative retailers.”

What areas of town are collecting the new businesses? There are two to three thriving corridors that have come to life, near Pennington’s and near General Appliances, but downtown doesn’t just follow around the square.  The side streets are filling up first—and Dyersburg has a large downtown, not just four streets around the square. Store fronts are now available for even more new businesses to move in to connect the corridors and provide uninterrupted shopping.  “When I started looking for a place to come back to downtown, there wasn’t a building ready to go,” Donaldson explained, “My building was literally full of junk. We brought in a front end loader and scooped it out, 40 dump trucks worth. After our renovation, Mike Pennington renovated two of the buildings next to him, but his building, Pennington Seed, inspired me and my building inspired him to do reno’s on his adjacent buildings.” All of these reno’s gave Dyersburg places to put new businesses.  Buff City Soap and Amy Jane’s took advantage of those recently renovated buildings. “We are doing things like exposed brick and going back to original hardwood floors in these buildings and people love it!” Yates commented, talking about the renovations he recently completed for the newly occupied The Uptown Girl Boutique.

The Mustard Co. Store told us, in our article last year, that they really loved being in the old post office, it gave the people who came in the nostalgic feeling—they had been there with their parents and were now bringing their kids or grandkids back.  “The whole downtown has that nostalgic feeling, people love that and they love to shop in stores that make them feel good,” Yates added.

People in Dyersburg are embracing the changes and helping to move things forward. “People wanted to get the Christmas Festival Lights back downtown, so they donated enough to do it...  It gives them something to see, and we have a contest for decorating and painting the windows.” Yates continued, “It gives them something to come back and see.” Steve Guttery with the Dyersburg Dyer County Chamber of Commerce, added, “People wanted to see the lights they grew up with, while the city sold those, we are replacing them with historically accurate lighting.”  Yates continued, “When Dyersburg burned, most of the buildings were rebuilt back in 1915, a city ordinance forced all downtown buildings to be built back in bricks, so all of the buildings around the square are brick. This was a rural economy, the surrounding area all came to Dyersburg with their families on Saturday, and they spent the day downtown.” Most of the buildings around the square at that time were retail.  That continued until the late 60’s when the first stores went out on the retail strip center. Stores moved out to the centers and the mall until, in the ’80s, there were about twenty empty buildings around the courthouse square. That continued until a plant started looking at Dyersburg. The site selection committee picked Dyersburg, everything was a go until the owner of the company came to town. He told the chamber board that “He would not spend one red penny with any town that didn’t take care of their downtown.” and the plant didn’t come to the Dyersburg area.  At that point, Dyersburg started making the downtown a priority.

“We’ve got people who have come in here lately to really take an interest in the downtown.”  Yates added, “we’ve got people that have started to make the empty buildings come alive.” There are three corridors that have really started the rally with everything from Buff City, boutiques, six restaurants, antiques, furniture and even more, are coming with the new renovations that are happening to the buildings around the square.  The buildings are spread out around downtown. There’s a lot of walking activity around downtown, County and City Government are all still located there which gives a great captive audience for lunch and when those people walk past the shops, they come in and buy. “We are coming back to people ‘loading up the family’ and spending the day downtown,” Yates added.  

Downtown is also adding a river park along the Forked Deer, alongside the Farmer’s Market Pavillion.  The Pavillion will provide a place for concerts and a great place for community events. On the other side of the river they are adding Soccer fields, “We don’t want people to come to Dyersburg just for the downtown, we want them to come spend the day, go out to eat, and maybe go see a movie before they leave to go home. We want Dyersburg to be a great place to come visit, a destination.” Guttery and Yates continued, “Dyersburg is the number three shopping hub in West Tennessee, drawing people from the Kentucky line to Alamo, to Covington and Southeast Missouri.”

Companies who are looking at locating in an area look at a few different things; “What do you have for my people who work for us to do?”  Guttery explained, “We are working to make sure that we are stacking up to be a great community.” Yates added, “We also want to keep the amenities for the people who are moving here for their work, and for ‘remote’ workers who are looking for a small-town experience for their families.  Rural communities have a ‘brain-drain’ problem, we give our kids great educations and get them scholarships to go to Dartmouth and Harvard, but then they don’t come back here, they go elsewhere. We need to keep our kids interested in our area, provide those kinds of jobs, and make this a place to have fun experiences for the 20 and 30 something-year-olds.”  Coffee shops and Microbreweries top the list of ‘wants’ for business ventures in downtown Dyersburg, along with even more retail shops. They have their own blend of uniqueness, including the Bus Stop Cafe, The Mustard Store, and Mike Pennington’s store that is its own brand of fun. “We need to offer the amenities that our kids and their friends want, it’s a nice place to live, it’s a safe place to live, and there are things to do,” Yates continued, “We had a trunk or treat last year, and will do it again this year, from the Methodist Church and Baptist Church through town to the Police department.  We had the inflatable jumpers and the stores filled the gaps in between with things for the kids.”

There is a boomerang effect, that young people leave and then when they start having kids and they move back, not necessarily to their ‘hometown’ but to a small town somewhere.  Dyersburg wants to be that small town. “It’s not the area around us, but the things that we have to do here that make the difference,” Donaldson added. “Success for me will be when people wake up on a Saturday and they decide to come downtown and spend the day—not to any specific store—but to just spend the day downtown.”  In the future, downtown stores are working on adding loft apartments, so additional enticements to staying in downtown will be added. “The buildings have a lot of character, patina, the things that younger people are looking for in a place to live,” Guttery added.

“Whatever we do, we plan on getting it better than it was, better this time around.” Yates and  Guttery finished, “We are providing an experience, a great customer experience, unique experiences, things that Wal-mart and Amazon can’t provide.”