Residents of Alexandria’s Cameron Station used to be able to walk down the community’s tiny main street on Brenman Park Drive, buy a bouquet of flowers, grab a latte and even stop in for a spa treatment. Afterward, they would gather at the local restaurant to chat about the gossip of the day.

But since January, the mixed-use town center has lost three of its eight retailers for a variety of reasons, ranging from a highly publicized shooting and suicide to economic problems.

As Cameron Station works to recover from its losses, the center symbolizes the struggles many small retailers and landlords are facing in this recession.

“We were fully leased until this year,” said Christina Sanders, vice president of Tysons Corner-based GreenVest LC, which developed and manages the property. “It’s an unfortunate situation.”

The first casualty was in January, when Stems, a flower shop, closed. The owner filed for bankruptcy under the Chapter 7 liquidation process.

The second loss was higher profile. Cameron Perks coffeehouse owner James Downs shot his business partner and personal partner (who survived) and then killed himself in his townhouse within the development in early February. The store closed.

Now the development is facing another setback. L’Vida Spa closed two weeks ago, after months of struggling to stay viable.

Owner LeisaMarie Brewer, who bought the spa in November 2007, saw her business begin to falter in October due to the struggling economy. Brewer said she made repeated attempts to renegotiate her $10,000-per-month rent from her landlord. She believes that traffic to Cameron Station was not helped by the highly publicized shooting tragedy, she said.

Brewer had high hopes that this month’s Spa Week, a promotion in Virginia to lure customers to participating spas with special deals, would boost business.

She had more than 60 new clients scheduled for that week and an offer from Northern Virginia Magazine to be featured in its “best spa” section.

It obviously wasn’t enough.

On April 17, Brewer went to her store and found the locks changed. Her 12 employees were “instantly unemployed” she said, and she still has not been able to access the property.

“I was hoping to salvage the business, make some money to put toward our debt, but we weren’t allowed to do that,” Brewer said. “My reputation has been damaged, and I’ve been doing business in Alexandria for 20 years.”

Brewer’s attorney, citing the lack of notice for eviction and the locked property, charges that GreenVest wrongfully terminated her lease.

Michael Chamowitz of Alexandria law firm Chamowitz & Chamowitz PC said he and Brewer are weighing their options.

Sanders, the GreenVest executive, declined to comment on the specifics of Brewer’s case, beyond noting that the landlord has not been paid rent since the third quarter of 2008.

“She owes us more than $100,000 today,” Sanders said. Henry Brandenstein from D.C.-based Venable LLP, GreenVest’s counsel, stated that his client made overtures in January to Brewer but said there was no response. Brandenstein also said Brewer’s attorney was notified that the store was going to be reclaimed by the owner.

Cameron Station residents are taking the loss of their Main Street’s third store seriously.

“It’s definitely an issue for us,” said Ingrid Samven, president of the Cameron Station Civic Association. “Residents don’t have places they can walk to to get the services they need, and there’s a general sense in the neighborhood of, ‘Oh, there goes another business.’”

There are still businesses surviving in Cameron Station. A dry cleaner, corner mart and the Food Matters restaurant remain. A dentist office and day-care facility are operating.

Workers at both the dry cleaner and convenience store say they have not felt too much of an impact from the empty storefronts because their businesses can survive on customers strictly within the Cameron Station boundaries.

“But people are very worried about all the closings,” said Moo Sang Ve, manager of Main Street Market.

Food Matters, which opened in January 2007, saw a 30 percent drop in business between September and December. Co-owner Gerald Hebert attributed the decline to worries over the economy but said business since the new year has turned around.

The restaurant changed its menu and has been getting more publicity from its sustainability and local farming message. Customers also heard that business was down and responded.

One thing that all parties seem to agree on: Cameron Station needs better signs in the surrounding area to draw people outside of the community to the main street. Community leaders have been working with city officials to do this, and have seen some response.

There are signs of progress for the shopping center, Sanders said.

The day-care center, Bright Start Learning Center, is expanding into some of the space formerly occupied by the Cameron Perks coffeehouse. GreenVest is in talks with one prospective tenant for the rest of the coffeehouse space, and three tenants have expressed interest in the spa’s location, Sanders said. Possible tenants could include a gift shop, a UPS packaging store or other amenity-type retailers.

“There’s a lot of activity going on,” Sanders said. “People are still wanting to be at Cameron Station, despite the series of bad events.”
Retail vacancy inches up, sluggish sales continue

Local retail sales will remain soft throughout most of 2009, with a slight rise later in the year, according to a new report from Alexandria-based real estate research company Delta Associates.

The company’s annual survey of more than 300 grocery-anchored retail shopping centers showed a metrowide vacancy rate of 3.7 percent at the close of 2008, up from 2.3 percent a year earlier. Delta noted that the vacancy rate is still more than a whole point less than the last downturn, when vacancies hit 4.8 percent at the end of 2002.

In suburban Maryland, the vacancy rate was 3.8 percent, up from 2.2 percent. The Northern Virginia vacancy rate was 3.6 percent, up from 2.4 percent.

Rental rates at the centers surveyed increased 1.7 percent in 2008, less of an increase than the previous year, when they went up by 3.9 percent. The average rate for the tenants was $33.71 per square foot per year in the metro area.

Delta noted that the decline in retail spending nationwide is having less of an impact on the Washington area than nationally. For example, the consumer price index increased locally by 0.4 percent during the year ending March 2009, compared with a 0.4 percent national decline.

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Know your competition. Whether you are playing a baseball game, building a business or trying to please your clients, knowing your competition is an essential key to success. In the spa industry, many owners, managers and professionals are spending too much time competing against each other. Instead, it’s time to join hands and marketing brains while banding together to take on the true competition—big-box stores selling over-the-counter skin care. Too many people in the industry are letting the mainstream media and marketing executives tell the story of professional skin care, and they are sending a misleading message that consumers can achieve the same or better results from an over-the-counter skin care product compared to a spa product.

Case in point, one over-the-counter line has recently introduced an expensive, high-end product to be sold in big-box stores, positioning it as an alternative to dermatologist-prescribed product offerings. However, it forgot to include one important value in the pricing: the guidance of a licensed, trained professional. This is where the spa industry can soar.

The opportunity is immense for spas to develop brand loyalty by fulfilling clients’ desires for long-lasting results through professional guidance. Spas already have a viable and loyal audience at their doorsteps. Statistics from the International SPA Association (ISPA) show one in four Americans have been to a spa, and there are more than 32 million active spa-goers. They are coming through your doors regularly. You are touching them, and yet allowing them to walk out the door empty-handed, leaving your clients to buy products elsewhere.

How do you educate and instill in clients’ minds that every time you touch them you are there as a professional to guide them through their important lifestyle and skin care choices? It’s all in the training. Give your staff a new vernacular, one unified message to send. And teach them to listen.
Share the knowledge

Spa owners, managers and estheticians have to tell the story and share the knowledge—it’s absolutely your responsibility as a spa professional. You are the people with the essential licenses, training and expertise. When consumers are provided with good information, they will make wise choices. This means, as a spa industry leader, you have the awesome responsibility of keeping your staff up to speed on the latest developments, products and their benefits, and in turn, the best ways to communicate this knowledge consistently and accurately to clients.

Nearly every spa professional educates on what products they use. For example, an esthetician may explain to a client why vitamin C is great for the skin, then simply let them leave without purchasing a vitamin Cproduct. The client then goes to her neighbor-hood drug or big-box store, reads a few labels and buys something with vitamin C in it. Most likely, the product—as well as the money and time spent—will disappoint her. This was the spa’s mistake. The esthetician educated the client, but she didn’t take that education to the next step by leading the client toward an effective product purchase.

Think of it this way: Treatments, products and guidance should be viewed as one seamless education experience for your clients. In one visit, this one-stop shopping mentality enables clients to receive the proper service, products, education and guidance to keep their skin maintenance and care going at home.
Putting the big-box theory to the test

With every dollar counting right now, you need to help your clients make educated decisions. Understand it is more cost-effective for clients to buy a product they can use for six months with great results than spending a little less, using the product for two weeks and then throwing it away because they don’t know how to use it.

Spa professionals owe it to their clients to share this knowledge and empower them to make the right decisions. When they end up at a big-box store, who’s there to prescribe the best products for their skin type? Who’s telling them what they do and don’t need? Honestly, besides the kid who’s standing behind the checkout counter, do customers even have the opportunity to talk with another human being during this process, which can directly affect their health and self-esteem?

Think of how cost-effective it is to have a professional recommendation with each product. When you help a client, consider that the coaching and professional recommendation is essentially free, and your client has the opportunity to better understand professional products are not more expensive than those found at drugstores and big-box stores.

Again, those outlets are your real competition—not other spa professionals. Focus your energy on figuring out how to educate clients on the benefit of a professional recommendation.
Learning to listen

Almost all spa professionals have likely witnessed firsthand the value of listening to clients. The power of the professional recommendation in the eyes of the client is enormous. These women and men look to personal trainers, life coaches, supervised weight loss programs and various support groups to master lifestyle changes that would lead to long-lasting, visible results. They value the training, tips, techniques, product suggestions and, most importantly, the consistent moral support they received from these professionals, and they credit these experts with encouraging them to stick with a program long enough to see results. With all of the knowledge and wonderful advice you share, it’s also important to take time to listen. Your clients are your best source of knowledge.

Spa professionals have many gifts for clients. These gifts are built by using education to help people achieve amazing skin, improved self-esteem and a healthier lifestyle. Only the spa community has the knowledge and personal connections to create these life-changing gifts and priceless. Embrace that responsibility and share your wealth of knowledge with clients today.

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SouthPointe Pavilions’ latest tenant, The Face Place Spa, opened Monday in space formerly occupied by Pixi Chix.

Though the tenant is a small local day spa, it’s a noteworthy addition, because it means SouthPointe is now 100 percent leased at a time when mall vacancies nationwide are skyrocketing.

“We have very tired leasing agents,” joked Julie Lattimer, SouthPointe’s marketing director.

SouthPointe’s leasing agents have probably been working harder to keep tenants than to find them.

SouthPointe has stayed full largely because national retailers have not defected, as they have from other malls, including Lincoln’s Westfield Gateway.

According to Reis, a commercial real estate analysis firm, mall vacancies approached 10 percent nationwide in the first quarter.

In Lincoln, the overall retail vacancy rate was 11.1 at the end of March, up from 10.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and up from 8 percent at the same time last year, according to a quarterly report from Grubb & Ellis Pacific Realty.

Kent Thompson, owner of Coldwell Banker Commercial Thompson Realty Group, said what SouthPointe has been able to do is nothing short of amazing.

“That shopping center is one of the top-performing shopping centers in the country,” Thompson said.

A big reason vacancy rates are climbing is that national retailers have cut back significantly.

“Retail is just going to be down for a long time,” Thompson said.

“The big issue is that national people are not willing to step out yet,” he said. “We’re a long way from that.”

Thompson has one of the few recent retail success stories: Earlier this month he announced that Rod Kush will open a 40,000-square-foot furniture store in the former Kmart building near 56th and Nebraska 2 — a building that has been vacant since Thompson and some partners bought it more than five years ago.

That occurred in the second quarter of this year. The Grubb & Ellis report noted that despite the uptick in vacancy, the first quarter was otherwise uneventful for retail, with no major openings or closings.

The report described the Lincoln market as “maintaining status quo.”

“Lincoln has remained below the radar … with little activity to note during the quarter,” the report said

The report noted that there have been small retail stores that have gone out of business, “but overall, Lincoln is surviving the recession fairly well.”

Even at Westfield Gateway, which has seen major tenants such as Steve & Barry’s and Circuit City, along with several smaller ones leave in the past year, things are looking up.

“I think we’ve started to get some things going in the right direction,” said Marketing Director Ryan Bouc.

A perfume shop called Perfume Point opened up last month next door to Lids, while a local shop that services computers and sells used ones, 123 System Solutions, is opening in the former Holway Formal Wear spot on the lower level.

Bouc said the mall also has plans for empty space in the food court that could mean new stores opening before the end of the year if all goes as planned.

While retail vacancy went up, the office vacancy rates in Lincoln actually decreased slightly in the first quarter — from 12.4 percent to 11.9 percent — according to the Grubb & Ellis report.

Industrial vacancy increased from 8.4 percent to 8.7 percent in the first quarter. That is better than the first quarter of 2008, when the rate was 9.5 percent.

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The owner of a medical spa in Nevada has sued a former employee and her husband, claiming they performed discount cosmetic surgery on the premises.

In her complaint, Tracy Hurst, owner of the Spa at Summerlin, said that to add insult to injury the couple diverted her clientele to the business they ran late at night and on Sundays, The Las Vegas Sun reported Friday.

Hurst charges that Nancy Vinnik, a nurse, and her husband, Dr. Charles Vinnik, performed procedures like Botox injections and laser skin treatments. The Vinniks allegedly allowed other surgeons to use the spa to insert breast implants and other cosmetic surgery.

A nurse told The Sun that at times the operation was bringing in $30,000 a night.

Michael Stein, a lawyer representing the Vinniks, said the couple would never risk their medical licenses for “chicken feed.” He also said they would have been taking a stupid risk.

“So the owner decides to go back to her office to get something and you’re sitting there working on patients? It’s ridiculous!” he said.
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Thomas Serra, owner of Thomas Serra Salon & Spa, was honored recently by Top Salons & Day Spas in America! and Total Look-Gala Fashion, and also received an invitation to do a photo shoot in Washington, D.C.

Serra received these honors after attending a weeklong cruise for the Share the Wealth Program, which celebrates hair fashion artistry. The program, founded by John Amico Sr., included educational seminars presented by industry experts, such as Geno Stampora, John Amico Jr., Larry Oskin and Rudy D’Amico from Italy. Serra was a featured speaker for the events.

As a result of the program, a national consumer hair magazine– Top Salons & Day Spas in America! — will include Serra in a future directory article. Total Look-Gala Fashion honored Serra with a Supernatural Award Plaque. Passion International Stylebook also asked Serra to participate in a future photo shoot for its international audience.

This is not the first time Serra has been honored by this group. He has received the Ruby award from Share the Wealth Program and has styled hair for magazines, such as Harper’s Bazaar, Celebrity Hairstyle, Hairdo and Mademoiselle.

Serra has owned and operated his salon and spa on Landis Avenue for 45 years. He has been in the industry for nearly 50 years. Additionally, Serra had owned and directed the Philadelphia Academy of Beauty, a fully accredited cosmetology school.

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Mitchells Salon & Day Spa

* 8118 Montgomery Rd
* Cincinnati, OH 45236
* (513) 793-0900

Annual Revenue: $12,000,000
About Mitchells Salon & Day Spa

Mitchell’s Salon & Day Spa is the largest privately owned local salon and day spa in the greater Cincinnati area. With five locations city wide, we’re uniquely qualified to cater to your every beauty and spa need. Our size has enabled us to build an educational network which is unparalleled, offering both in-salon and big city workshops with the top names in national and international hair design. In turn, we draw a caliber of designers with the highest artistry and passion for their craft. The same holds true for our spa personnel, whose mastery will bring you to a state of heavenly comfort and tranquility. We were voted best pedicure in the city four times running and our facials receive rave reviews. And, though we may be large, we have used our size to design a space that allows for both privacy and intimacy. Our individualized salon stations and separate spa wings ensure your personal care and comfort.
Mitchells Salon & Day Spa Executives

* Deborah Mitchell-Buyniski [Founder and President]
* Laurel Smoke [Editor-In-Chief of Salon Today]
* Christi Burnett [Vice President, Operations]
* Sherry Williams [Vice President of Operations]
* Vivian Moore [Managing Vice President]

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With high unemployment rates and a wide-spread recession, you might think jobs in a “luxury” industry would be in short supply. Yet many day spas have actually seen an increase in demand, and need qualified massage therapists, yoga instructors and other professionals to keep pace with business.

Penny-pinching Americans may not be willing to spend extra on some luxuries or comfort items, but a trip to the day spa can be seen as making sense for both economic and health reasons, points out Debbie Bates, a massage therapy and spa instructor at Everest College in Fife, Wash. People who once took long vacations and bought big-ticket luxury items are cutting back, but still want to feel like they are treating themselves.

“We find that many people have started indulging in affordable luxuries like massages and yoga,” Bates says. “Day spas aren’t competing with the local beauty parlor. A trip to the spa is seen as a luxury good, like a two-week vacation or diamond bracelet. But compared to a cruise or expensive jewelry, a 90-minute massage is a real bargain.”

There are well over 14,500 spas in the U.S, with about 80 percent of those being day spas, according to the International Spa Association’s 2007 estimates. With many day spas experiencing increased demand, qualified salon and spa professionals are needed.

Demand for massage therapists is expected to grow by 20 percent through 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Money Magazine lists massage therapy among its top 20 careers. Demand for spa professionals has been growing for a while.

The industry has boomed since 1999, and 53 percent of salon owners had job openings in 2006, hiring nearly half a million new employees, according to a 2007 report commissioned by the National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts and Sciences. Despite industry changes, the future of the salon and spa industry is strong, and demand for experienced employees still exceeds supply at many day spas, the commission found.

Another factor driving increased demand at spas is the public perception of spas’ emphasis on overall wellness, Bates says. “Spas are not simply places for ‘pampering.’ Rather, they promote health and wellness. They really focus on helping clients relax and manage their stress.”

Americans’ stress levels have been rising for years. In fact, a 2004 APA survey found that 73 percent of Americans cited money concerns as the top factor affecting their stress level. “When times are tough, finding the right way to relax might be the best thing you can do for your health,” Bates says.

“Some see massage as a luxury, but in our Massage Therapy program at Everest Institute, we really emphasize how massage promotes overall wellness and can be an essential part of a healthy lifestyle,” says Erin Murphy, who also teaches massage and spa therapy at Everest College in Fife. She says that professionals find that even when times are tough economically, clients keep coming back for their massages because they know it’s essential to mental and physical health.

“There is no doubt that the recession is going to affect all sectors of our economy, but we have seen that the spa industry is quite resilient,” Murphy says.

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