The East 10th Street Civic Association and the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Legacy Project’s Business and Economic Development Committee are proud to announce that local entrepreneurs Tim Harmon and Julie Crow are planning their next retail venture on Indianapolis’ Near Eastside.
To be called “Tim & Julie’s Another Fine Mess,” the new store will be located at 2901 E. 10th St. in a key redevelopment node of the 10 East Business District. It will feature a blend of architectural antiques salvaged from demolished homes and businesses; vintage clothing and textiles; and assorted artwork, handicrafts and other goods manufactured before 1960.
The business will also evolve into a center for artistic and practical “up-cycling,” where vintage and antique components are fashioned into new products, such as a table made from an old window sash, or a purse made from an antique curtain. The store is planned to open in the spring of 2012.
“It’ll be a very amusing and funky store,” says Crow, 59, an Indianapolis native best known for her former Modern Times vintage clothing store at 54th and College Avenue. “We’ll have a lot of odd things in Another Fine Mess-everything from fabrics, to lamps, windows and doors, to furniture. The possibilities are only limited by our imaginations and what we can find, and we both have a knack for finding oddities.”
The first-time business partners say they will spend approximately $100,000 of their own money to renovate the building to accommodate their retail space. They will receive bonus grants from the Civic Association as they achieve key renovation benchmarks, beginning with a façade grant from the association that will be used to replace the plate glass windows, woodwork and doors on the storefront.
“We began talking about going into business together last summer. In September, we were looking at buildings in Fountain Square and on Massachusetts Avenue, and it was on the way back from one of those trips that we saw this building and that it was available,” says Harmon, 59, who formerly owned and operated Tim & Billy’s Salvage Store in Indianapolis.
The building had been acquired by the East 10th Street Civic Association and they were looking for just the right tenant for the area. When Tim and Julie approached the Civic Association, they were very enthusiastic about the proposed business, in part due to Tim’s years of experience in saving old homes from demolition.
The approximately 6,000 square-foot-building was built in the early 1900s by Edward Vahle to house his hardware store. After Vahle retired in the 1920s, the two-story brick building was also home to a number of different neighborhood-serving retail businesses, including a general store, a physician’s office and an art supply store. The building also has two upstairs apartments, which Crow and Harmon say they will also renovate, and are considering living in when complete.
“Indianapolis’ Near Eastside consists of 21 neighborhoods with many homes being restored, making East 10th Street the ideal location for a retail venture,” says Tammi Hughes, executive director of the East 10th Street Civic Association. The association is the lead agency focused on the Legacy Project’s economic development strategy to bring a critical mass of neighborhood-serving businesses to East 10th Street.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Tim and Julie to the 10 East Business District,” added Hughes. “Another Fine Mess will be a great addition to the growing number of businesses along East 10th Street that have opened just in the last year, including Little Green Bean Boutique, a children’s clothing resale store; Pogue’s Run Grocer, the city’s first food cooperative; Made for Each Other community art space; and Metta Yoga Initiative, which offers yoga classes.”
Crow and Hughes agree the concept of Another Fine Mess reflects the grandeur of storefronts along the street about four or five decades ago when the 10th and Rural Street area was the heart of the city’s vintage clothing and antiques business.
As part of the Legacy Project’s efforts to support the redevelopment of the 10 East Business District, the East 10th Street Civic Association provides extensive assistance and services to business and property owners, and to developers, including strategic tenant recruitment initiatives.
