Many Spaces For Sale On Main Street

WAITSBURG - Charles Smith's JW Morgan build­ing is up for sale and Lupe and Sandra Torres' Nothing New Lodging is now on the market, making Waitsburg's Main Street in need of some interested buyers.

Robbie Johnson, owner of Etceteras and past-pres­ident of the Commercial Club, said there are a couple of vacant spaces up for sale on Main Street that come to his mind right away - Delta Connection and what was formerly known as the auc­tion house next to jimger­manbar in addition to Noth­ing New and the Morgan Building.

The Waitsburg Hardware & Mercantile, the building next to Nothing New Lodg­ing and the garden lot next to the Anchor Bar have also been up for sale for some time.

There is a space for lease that used to house the liquor store and Mike Hubbard has a space for lease above his law office.

Smith owns the JW Mor­gan building that was once rumored to be a wine tasting room in the works. A sign saying the building is for sale was put up in the last month or so.

Lynne Anderson, who handles Smith's marketing, said the current asking price is $500,000 and numerous people have inquired about it.

Lupe and Sandra Torres, who purchased the Nothing New Lodging building in 2004, say they don't want to get out of Waitsburg -- they simply want to act like the retired people they are -- and retire.

Sandra said the couple purchased the building after many years working for the postal service because "we just wanted to try a busi­ness."

She wanted to lease a space for an antiques store, but nothing in town was for lease at that time, Sandra re­members. So they purchased it because the building was a good price.

The couple renovated the façade of the building, which had been boarded up and painted "ugly" colors, she said.

The front part of the lower level had been a barbershop and they made that into the antiques shop. They did a little work to the apartments and turned them into vaca­tion rentals and added a fire escape to the second level.

"It had been empty for a number of years," she said. "There was a lot of work to be done there. And we just kept going."

The duo opened the an­tiques shop in 2005 and opened the inn business in 2006. The antiques shop was closed in the fall of 2010 because Sandra said both businesses were too much for them to handle.

"We were running that just the two of us," she said. "It got so busy we couldn't do both."

And it's that same feeling of what Sandra called "get­ting old and tired," that is making them move on from the lodging business. The building and the business are up for sale for $329,000.

Sandra said the couple has had some interest so far, but says the process won't likely be a short one.

"Selling a business takes time," she said. "We're just playing the waiting game. We're not in a bind where we have to sell it now."

There isn't a trend of buildings selling quickly or slowly in Waitsburg, Johnson said.

He said when the Plaza building came up for sale, he and his wife Marilyn knew they wanted it and closed on it within a month and it never hit the market.

All anybody can do is wait and see what interested par­ties step up to the plate and scoop up these vacant spaces.

As for what kinds of busi­nesses could occupy these storefronts, Johnson doesn't really know.

"I've given that a lot of thought," he said. "People are always interested in some­thing new. But we don't need any restaurants at the moment."