Brick & Mortar Living, a charming gift store, is taking over the Rebrick Home on Sixth Street, near Columbia Street next month.
Redbrick owner Michael Richardson told The Record last week he was closing shop on the hip furniture store he ran at the spacious and highly visible downtown location. Jennifer Pistone, who co-owns Brick & Mortar with her daughters, Julia Dewhurst and Emma Nash, confirmed they will be moving into the retail space.
"One of the things we love more than anything is window displays ... and, of course, there's ample windows over there to share the love," Pistone says, explaining how they are looking forward to settling into their new home.
Pistone and her daughters found it difficult to deal with the landlord at their Begbie Street location.
Through a chance chat with Richardson, Pistone learned his location was coming up.
At the time, she was trying to deal with the situation at the Begbie Street location, in the hopes that they could hang in and eventually find a space at the Trapp + Holbrook Block building that is being built on Columbia Street.
"We would love to have one of their retail spaces," Pistone said. "We've been in talks with (developer) Robert Fung about that - that was sort of the long-term plan."
But the issues continued. In the end, the family was given an eviction notice, Pistone says, because they had expressed concerns about the various issues.
"Our decision was eventually made for us. It's just the way the world works sometimes," Pistone sats. "When it happened, at first I was hurt, and I was angry, but in the end, I just thought this is kind of serendipitous that things happened the way they did - with Michael leaving ..."
Along with increasing Brick & Mortar's profile, the new location also means a rent increase - they'll go from $2,000 a month to $3,300, Pistone says.
As for business, Pistone says it's been tough to make it work, but she is committed to helping her daughters live their dream.
A sign of her commitment: Pistone actually lives in Seattle. She says due to her work with the shop she's spent a great deal of time on this side of the border - more than she probably wants to.
Despite the challenges, they have managed to carve out a place for themselves in New Westminster's challenging retail climate.
"The reason we've done so well is because of the nature of social media. We bring a lot of people to New West that otherwise wouldn't come," Pistone says.
She also says they've had a ton of local support, but they will continue with their social media push even though the new location will take them out of the shadow of Begbie Street and onto busy Sixth Street.
