For years, Thayer Street has experienced a series of openings and closings, and the trend has continued recently. Several businesses - OOP!, Adesso California Café and Asian Paradise - have shut their doors in the past weeks, two others have relocated and one is soon to open.
OOP!, described by its Web site as a "contemporary gift gallery" that sells "an eclectic and whimsical collection of crafts, jewelry, furniture and toys by local and national artisans," closed its doors in the last week of January. It had been open at 297 Thayer St. since July 1990.
David Riordan, who co-owns OOP! with his wife, Jennifer Neuguth, said they made the decision to close the store because they were unable to purchase the building in which it was located. The couple wanted to expand the store to create office, shipping and receiving and recreation spaces, according to Riordan. The landlord of the building had told the couple since 1992 he would be putting the building up for sale, but it never happened, Riordan said.
"When you hear 'two to three years' for 10 years, you get the hint that it might never happen," Riordan said. "If we could have bought the building, we would have stayed there forever," he added.
OOP!'s other location on the third floor of the Providence Place Mall continues to be open for business. Riordan and Neuguth are currently looking for another location on the East Side of Providence that is big enough to accommodate retail and corporate offices.
The former OOP! on Thayer will be replaced by Only in Rhode Island, a store that sells "just about anything made locally of quality," including gourmet food, photographs, artwork, jewelry and children's toys, according to manager Beth Gudas. The business, which has another location at Long Wharf Mall in Newport, is tentatively scheduled to open its doors on May 1, she said.
"All of our products are made locally by local people, and more than 100 local artisans and small business are represented by our store," Gudas said.
Only in Rhode Island decided to open a location on Thayer Street because of the success of its Web site.
"We started looking for a location over the bridge so that we could reach more of our customers, and Providence seemed like the place to go," Gudas said.
Asian Paradise, located at 165 Angell St., which specialized in Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine, closed its doors recently, along with Adesso, which was located at 161 Cushing St.
Allegra Print and Imaging, formerly located at 212 Thayer St., has moved to the top floor of the same building with a new entrance and address at 102 Waterman St., according to a press release. Ted Stein, the owner of the business, said the primary reason for the move was to acquire more space.
"The move enabled us to more than double our size in terms of square footage," Stein said. The new location also allows Allegra to maintain its proximity to its biggest customer bases - namely, the Brown and Rhode Island School of Design communities, according to Stein.
Allegra started out as Jo-Art Printing 40 years ago on the same floor of the building it now occupies, Stein said. Back then, however, the company occupied only a section of the floor. Jo-Art eventually moved to the first floor of the building as it expanded and changed its name to Allegra Print and Imaging when Stein purchased the business in 1995.
The company, now back on the second floor, came "full circle," Stein said. Allegra currently occupies 5,000 square feet of newly renovated space with brand new windows, a new interior and an elevator.
Sovereign Bank, currently located on the lower level of 272 Thayer St., is moving to Allegra's old location on the corner of Waterman and Thayer streets. The new Sovereign Bank will open its doors April 17.
Don Heinold, assistant vice president and manager of Sovereign, said the main reason for the move was because the bank wanted to become more "visible and accessible" to its growing customer base in the college community.
"We're hoping to help students and businesses and employees of Brown and the community with our financial services to meet their needs and provide red carpet service," Heinold said.
Sovereign had been looking for a new location for about five years because its current location on the ground floor was not visible enough, Heinold added. "It's going to be a terrific-looking branch."
The new location will have two doors and two ATMS - one on the sidewalk and one in a vestibule.
The opening date of Spats Pub, to be located at 182 Angell St., is still uncertain, according to Armando Dias, general manager of Paragon/Viva.
The pub's owners encountered some difficulties that have delayed its opening. Spats was originally scheduled to open before Thanksgiving 2005 but was delayed due to complications involving the transfer of the liquor license held by the Korean restaurant Sura, which previously occupied Spats' location, according to a December 2005 Herald article.
"We need to have all our ducks in line before we can move forward," Dias said.
Spats will be a full-service restaurant with "a loungy feeling like Viva" but with a different design and a more pub-like atmosphere, Dias said. The menu will include pasta dishes, hamburgers and "fun appetizers" like chicken wings, calamari and mozzarella sticks, he added. Entrees will cost no more than $12.95, he said.
In Dias' opinion, Thayer Street has come a long way over the past 10 years.
"Twelve years ago, when Paragon opened, Thayer Street was in really bad shape. There were a lot of empty storefronts and disjointed businesses," Dias recalls. He feels there has to be a delicate balance among the different types of business on Thayer Street for it to be successful.
Dias also revealed that Viva is going to be redesigned this summer. The restaurant designer is currently drawing up plans, he said.
"It just needs refreshing, to be fixed up again," Dias said. The last time Viva was renovated was about eight years ago.
"We're going to install neat booths, and it's going to be fun," Dias said. But the red walls and ceiling, which he said "define the place," are going to stay.
