Following a new thread

Jul. 9—Monograms Plus is making a big move — though if you're a frequent patron of the Warehouse-District destination for all things personalized and pretty, getting to the store's future new home will still seem only a stone's throw away.

The City of Cullman has signed off on a property rezoning on the downtown area's north end that clears the way for the store to begin construction work at what will eventually become its new location. Monograms Plus owners Lynsey and Tommy Todd are funding the project, which encompasses a new-construction retail center of approximately 20,000 square feet featuring the longtime local store as its anchor tenant.

The center will also include space for four additional retail tenants whose names will be announced as negotiations are finalized, Lynsey told The Times on Friday. Birmingham-based architectural firm KPS Group is handling design duty for the new space, which will occupy a continuous single-story structure situated at the intersection of 8th Street NE and Main Avenue NE. For those who orient themselves by landmarks rather than street names, that's the site of the former House of Shoes store, or, more recently, the former Factory dance studio.

A longtime fan of Monograms Plus before working and eventually purchasing the business from former owners Margaret and Mark Hamm, Lynsey and her husband have owned the store for the past four years. Making the move a few blocks north of the store's familiar Warehouse District location, she explained, will allow Monograms Plus to precisely tailor its made-to-order operations, all while offering a purpose-built retail space unshackled from the space constraints of its current adaptive-reuse footprint.

"I've always wanted to be a property owner, and we were outgrowing our space," she said. "We had looked at several places to locate a new store, but none of them was ever just right. We wanted to remain in the downtown area, which this location allows us to do.

"The new store will be a wide-open space compared with the space we have now, which is split into 3 separate areas — which is really almost like having three separate stores. We'll have additional fitting rooms instead of the single room at our current location, and there'll be a large production area for our laser engraving and embroidery business."

Longtime locals may recall how the Warehouse District slowly evolved from an almost-derelict section of town into today's go-to gathering spot for public outings, retail events, and all-around pleasant outdoor strolls. Monograms Plus was one of only a small handful of businesses that committed — and stayed committed — to locating in the area early, after property owners Eddie Hart and Danny McAfee separately embarked on retail-focused renovations to the one-block streetfront span beginning in the mid-1990s.

"When we opened, we were the third business in — the Rumors end of the building wasn't even complete," recalls Margaret Hamm, a friend of Lynsey's as well as the business' original owner. "It was us, Donna Richter and Nancy Richey with an antique store. We got in when Donna moved out of the 1,200 square-foot space into what is now Flavors Bakery. Danny's building [on the opposite side of the street] wasn't built until years later.

"[At the time], Depot Park was a parking lot for city equipment and there were metal buildings on both ends — no Festhalle. It was probably ten years before the building was full. That is how we were able to keep taking spaces. Rumors opened six months after we did. The two of us and Interiors were the only stable businesses there for a very long time."

The Todds are targeting summer of 2023 as the tentative opening date for the store at its new location. Lynsey said she's proud to have played a role in helping the store revivify the Warehouse District into an area with a present-day reputation as a retail hot spot, and noted that the store's future home will still feel closely connected to the place it's leaving behind.

"Monograms Plus has been in the Warehouse District for 23 years, and it really helped the entire area grow," she said.

"We know that timelines can change, but the city's longer-term plans call for creating a greenway that's supposed to run all the way past Second Avenue and toward our new location. Once the current Second Avenue work is finished, and once the new skatepark and all the improvements at Depot Park are complete, it should really feel like one continuous area from the Warehouse District to our new site."

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 234.