Gloria Jean’s Café and Bakery shut its doors for good on Saturday, making yet another business gone from downtown Belleville. She had been in the new shopping center next to the bridge.
Recently, we’ve seen vacated the two storefronts long occupied by the antique shop, the hardware store closed, and CVS pharmacy shuttered. Others, reportedly are teetering on the brink of closing. The Bayou Grill restaurant has been closed for a while and now it is for sale. The long-occupied funeral home on Main is empty and for sale.
We do have a Thrifts and Gifts store that recently moved into 430 Main St., one of the antique shop locations, and it is bringing a lot of foot traffic.
Also, Perspective Eyecare renovated the vacant Douglas Carpet store and moved in. HealthMarkets renovated the former credit union just down the street and moved in. They both did great jobs with their buildings and the city is happy to have them in place.
On Jan. 17 there will be a grand opening and ribbon-cutting at Twisted Willow Soap Co. at 331 Main St., where the Deering insurance business used to be. That’s good news.
We have several other vacant storefronts on Main Street that need to be filled with retail stores that will bring foot traffic. The stores that are doing well are lonely as they operate on Main Street with vacancies around them. What’s the answer?
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