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The Victoria College. Full-time salaried position with benefits available...
DISTRICT "Champions for Community Wellness" has the following positions...
“Honey, it’s purple,” the owner of Randy’s Floor Co. said, shaking her wrist. She smiled at the women and strutted out the Iguana Way entrance, passing by several pink flamingoes.
Flamingoes gave gift shop owners both the idea for a sign and the name – The Funky Divas.
“She’s more diva,” Robin Sikes said about co-owner Melissa Crowley. “I’m more funky,” Sikes said, laughing.
Port Lavaca’s unique downtown, with its characters and eccentricities – the mayor sells and appraises antiques at Indianola Trading – attracted the women to open their shop on April 1. New businesses moving into an up-and-coming leisure-driven tourist destination breathe new life into the historic downtown.
“It’s just a matter of time that progress is made,” Coldwell Banker Russell Cain real estate agent Jan Regan said.
In the last five years, Regan watched as the old First State Bank building was purchased and renovated. She hated to see the beautiful stone, concrete and steel structure as derelict and vandalized.
Regan saw Tropical Home Furnishings make a home in the old historic hotel. Several buildings received makeovers in hopes of new tenants. The Fabrygel building just off Main Street was donated to the theater last year and got a facelift.
More buildings still need attention, though, as the Port Lavaca downtown may not be as far along as others, like the Victoria downtown.
“We’re just a little bit behind them, and we’re working on it one building at a time and one business at a time,” Regan said. “We’d love for people to come and join us.”
She added that the addition of another restaurant – Texana Grill, the dedication of Peninsula Park and Alcoa’s fishing pier help attract more people to the area.
On their way to the bay front, tourists often watch the children and folklorico dancers at Ann Smith’s The Dance Company, which opened in December. She was nervous in starting up her own business, but now keeps 40 dance students enrolled. She hopes to stage recitals at Main Street Theatre down the street.
Even though state Highway 35 is booming with new businesses, Smith chose downtown because of its available buildings and affordability.
“It’s more cost-effective here,”Smith said. “I like the atmosphere, the artistry that everybody has to offer.”
The friendly people are why the owners of the Paper Moon antique and gift shop opened a storefront on Main Street in September 2007.
Kyle Boyd-Robertson loves the flavor downtown with its old buildings and historic feel.
“We are really not opened as a shop, but kind of as a ministry,” he said. “We just like meeting people.”
Gayle Diedering saw people pouring into downtown and took a chance at finally starting her own furniture, gift and gourmet food shop, which will open in May.
While she’s nervous about fears of economic recession and rising gas prices that may keep tourists away, she said she thinks people will adjust to costs. She said Gayle’s Razzmatazz moved into the last empty storefront building on Main Street.
“Port Lavaca, I think, is picking up a lot,” Diedering said. “In a couple of years, it’ll be really good here.”
The Funky Divas owners think business can surge now. They expect to know more about how the shop will do in six months of operation.
About 75 crowded into the pink-walled Funky Divas during its grand opening. Customers shuffled on a sky blue floor to eye prom dresses, zebra-striped luggage and glittering jewels. After opening its door for just weeks, the shop is already selling out of merchandise, Crowley said.
“We were optimistic about this business, but evidently we weren’t optimistic enough,” Crowley said.
Before opening the shop, Sikes noted more foot traffic up and down Main Street on Saturdays.
“It’s just a perfect little gathering spot,” she said. “We wanted to help make this a destination.”
Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com.