Renovation not closing most doors at Trolley

Three months have passed since a gunman opened fire at Trolley Square, killing five people and seriously injuring four others.

But if the Feb. 12 shooting was supposed to mark the end for merchants, it hasn't happened.

In fact, the biggest challenge facing Trolley tenants and shoppers today is a $40 million renovation, which will include an $8 million remodeling of the main building, the addition of a new building in the northeast corner of the Trolley Square block, a new underground parking structure and the possibility of new upscale residences.

For Karri Jackson, owner of The Next Big Thing, a novelty gift shop formerly located at the historic mall, it wasn't the horror of a gunman that ended her store's three-year run at Trolley Square, but the mall's owners, ScanlanKemperBard Companies, which terminated her monthly lease.

"They said it was time to go," Jackson said. "I would still be there and would have stayed there for years if they hadn't asked me to move."

In the month following the shooting, Jackson said customers went out of their way to shop at Trolley Square.

However, she said, the uptick in shoppers following the shootings has since fallen off.

"Right after the shooting there were a lot of what I would call thrill-seekers," Jackson said. "But people were very, very nice, and they opened up their pocketbooks, and we had a really great month after the shootings."

Even so, Jackson said she won't be back after the renovations are completed.

"The lease is going to be a lot more expensive," Jackson said, "probably three or four times as much. I don't know how many of the local businesses or smaller businesses will be able to stay, but we weren't able to."

Joy Spriggs, manager of Vitamin World, a health and sports nutrition company located on the second level at Trolley Square, said with the exception of March, revenues at her store have been down every month since October, the same time SKB outlined its vision of a new Trolley Square.

Spriggs blames the slow sales on the renovation as well as the shootings. In March, her store's revenues were up 1 percent compared to March 2006.

"It's still sad in here in my opinion," Spriggs said. "I think that the mall as a whole was doing well after the shooting, but really here at Vitamin World I got no benefit from it. ... Walking through the mall more than half of the doors are shut with white paper in the windows."