ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290054
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
THE STORE'S NEW LOOK will resemble jewelry salons on Fifth Avenue in New York and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
Fink's Jewelers said Thursday that its downtown Roanoke store is getting a late Christmas present: a new look and a new name.
Renovations to the building at 310 Jefferson St., which houses a Fink's retail store and the company's offices, will begin after the store closes next Friday. The interior of the three-story building will be gutted and remodeled over the next few months.
The retail shop is scheduled to reopen in May as Fink's Jefferson Street Salon, which chairman and CEO Alvin Fink said will be different in merchandising style from the company's other Roanoke stores. The salon, which will be about two-thirds the size of the existing store, will specialize in one-of-a-kind, high-end merchandise.
The operation will resemble jewelry salons on New York's Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, he said.
But he doesn't anticipate any problem selling the idea to Roanokers. Fink's has carried high-end jewelry for years, Fink said; the salon will simply consolidate that merchandise and present it in a more upscale setting. The downtown location will be a destination for shoppers seeking unusual gifts, he said, rather than a place where casual shoppers come to browse.
While customers will notice the changes in the retail store, the decision to renovate was prompted largely by behind-the-scenes crowding. The company, which owns and has its headquarters in the Jefferson Street building, has run out of room for its offices, said president Marc Fink, and decided either to move to a larger building or renovate the existing space.
"This was a tough decision," he said. "But we didn't really want to leave downtown."
Because there is no elevator in the building, the third floor has remained unused except as warehouse space. An elevator will be installed as part of the renovations, and executive offices and the advertising department will be moved to the third floor. Accounting and information services will occupy the second floor, and the salon and merchandising offices will be on the ground level.
Only minimum changes will be made to the building's exterior. Renovations to the 6,000-square-foot building will cost an estimated $400,000 to $500,000. Until the construction is complete, the company's headquarters will be housed in the Boxley Building nearby.
The chain's other Roanoke locations are at Towers Shopping Center and at Tanglewood and Valley View malls. Fink's operates two stores in Richmond and one in Lynchburg. The company also owns four stores in North Carolina, operating under the name Garibaldi and Bruns, a company that Fink's purchased in 1969.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. Marc Fink and his father,by CNBAlvin Fink, are planning
to renovate the three-story building downtown. It will reopen in May
as a salon
specializing in one-of-a-kind, high-end wares. color.