BY MIKE HELENTHAL
DANVILLE — The revolving door of downtown businesses is spinning again with the announcement MB Music and Sound will be moving back to Covington, Ind. — and into the same building it started working out of in 1992.
MB owners confirmed Tuesday they had struck a deal to sell their building at 35 N. Vermilion St., an arrangement expected to become final at the end of the month.
But the storefront won’t sit idle for long.
Owners of Kids Kloset, 1113 E. Main St., reported Tuesday they expect the sale to go through in time to complete renovation work for a mid-March reopening.
“We needed more space and this is going to double or triple what we have now,” said Dan Duncheon, who owns and operates Kids Kloset with wife Jody. “We’re excited about the move.”
He said the couple already had already filled the floor plan of their new building with the store’s stock of children’s “resale” clothing.
“Literally every square inch has something planned,” he said.
Alan Lynch, MB owner, said the sale of the building reflects the changing focus of his business — which increasingly is not retail.
“We’re more of a production company than we are a retail store,” he said.
The company has sold music accessories from Danville’s downtown for 10 years, but it is better known for supplying sound for festivals and events such as the annual Festival of Lights show, and for installing sound systems in churches and schools.
MB will move to 411 Third St. in Covington where it will still sell some accessories, but only three days a week —Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The company will continue to service existing contracts and the owner has no plans to scale back on the production side of the business. He said the company’s major contracts were secure for the next two to three years.
“The heating bill in this large building just got too expensive,” he said, adding there were also storage and loading issues. “It’s just didn’t fit downtown anymore.”
The company started moving away from retail around 2001 when Internet sales start to affect walk-in business.
Lynch first listed the building in January and had been looking for a replacement location in Danville.
“We exhausted all of the buildings in town,” he said. “We were devastated by some of the prices. We’re getting things ready to move right now, but we were trying to find something as late as last week.”
Lynch said he has enjoyed being downtown and, outside of a few parking issues, thinks it has a bright future. He said he was glad another store was coming in to fill the void so quickly.
“We didn’t want to leave an empty building downtown,” he said. “Danville has always been good to us.”
MB’s doors will stay open through Dec. 18 and the store is conducting a moving sale that includes some fixtures. Lynch said he expects to open the doors at the Covington location Jan. 5 and that phone numbers would not change. The company’s Web site is http://www.mbsound.net.
The Duncheons have plans to use the city’s TIF district façade program to alter the front of the building and have considered utilizing the upper-space for living quarters in the future.
“We think there’s a potential for doing that,” Duncheon said. “But there are lots of ifs and ands and contingencies. For one thing, we already own a house.”
He said the store’s former location was somewhat isolated and will benefit from a central traffic area like that of downtown. He said the couple had already attended Downtown Danville Inc. open house meetings.
“We’re excited to have neighbors,” he said. “It’s nice to have an umbrella to advertise under.”
FYI
The sale of the MB Music and Sound building to another relocating business is the third such arrangement in the past year.
-- The owners of Brewstar sold operations at 108 N. Vermilion over the summer and the storefront became The Varsity Room.
-- Last week the owner of Chic’s, 138 N. Vermilion, closed and sold the building to Fancy That, a formalwear supplier currently based in Village Mall.
-- Currently the owners of All Things Unique Boutique are renovating their leased downtown new-clothing storefront at 30 N. Vermilion with hopes of opening by Christmas.
