New York Lace getting a face lift
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Taunton — Dolores Milho knows she can’t single-handedly turn around downtown for the better. But that’s never stopped her from setting a good example by making major capital improvements to her business property.

In the fall of 2007 Milho and her husband Francisco, owners of New York Lace bridal store and Kiara Salon and Spa at 89 Main St., began an extensive exterior, renovation campaign — neither a simple nor inexpensive task, especially when one takes into account that the building consists of four addresses.

(Other tenants include Edible Arrangements, Studio C Dance Academy, the law offices of attorney Garrett Crowley and a new Jackson Hewitt Tax Service office.)

In 2003, when the upscale Kiara day spa was added to New York Lace Store Ltd., Milho said that she and her husband had invested $500,000-worth of interior improvements during the previous two years.

But she said she never intended to stop short, and that the facade would also have to be replaced.

“We always knew that exterior alterations would be needed,” Milho said, adding that “It’s not a small task.”

Nor is it inexpensive. Milho estimates that she and her husband will have invested $70,000 by the time the job is finished.

When they started the project she said they anticipated it would take just two months to finish. But problems with the original construction company and a dispute involving a police detail led to costly delays.

Now, she said, the project will wrap up in the spring.

Milho credits Mayor Charles Crowley for his support in resolving the disagreement with the police department. She also said the Heart of Taunton and its director Julie Sprague have been “very supportive” in trying to secure a facade improvement grant to offset her costs.

“I think it’s great,” Sprague said of the exterior improvements to New York Lace.

“It should be a positive influence so that other property owners do the same.”

What Milho and nearly everyone else never anticipated was the current economic crisis in the country. But not once, she said, did she and her husband ever consider abandoning or delaying their project.

Instead, she said that they made “a lot of personal sacrifices” by cutting down on vacations and putting off improvements to their home.

Even before the banking crisis and the collapse of the housing market, Milho said that she’d seen a steady decline in revenue.

“There’s been a drastic decrease in business during the past few years,” she said.

Challenges to the bridal salon — in addition to customers cutting back on discretionary spending — have come in the form of fewer people getting married and a growing popularity of “destination” weddings held either on tropical islands or in Las Vegas.

As a result, she’s cut down significantly on the amount of clothes she buys from vendors.

On the salon side of her business she’s adjusted by offering special holiday discounts on hour-long and Swedish massages. Anything, she said, to avoid having to lay anyone off.

Milho said the color of the stucco finish on the face of her facade will be a salmon or sand tone. And the old New York Lace sign, she said, is going to be replaced with one that is brushed silver.

She especially thanks her husband, who works days as a driver for a Mansfield-based medical supply company, and her 80-year-old father Jose de Mello.

Milho said that both Francisco and Jose spent many hours working late together outside in front of the store.

“Sometimes the street lights gave them the light to work,” she said.

It’s her hope that other businesses and building owners, even absentee landlords, will pick up the gauntlet and seriously consider re-investing and improving the condition of their property.

“It’s tough being a downtown business. But we really have to be positive,” Milho said.