Creativity replaces grit
01:00 AM EST on Sunday, March 7, 2010
By Lisa Vernon-Sparks PAWTUCKET — The city’s gritty and somewhat empty downtown — the birthplace of America’s industrial revolution — is fertile territory for development. With an arts resurgence firmly in place, Main Street’s winding strip already has an eclectic mix of stores and cafes, a barber shop, antique shops and galleries, and the Grant Building arcade, which is home to a recording studio, a photography shop and a chess club. Now City Hall has its eyes on another downtown fixture, the historic Toole Building, and its transformation into Artéé Fabrics and Home, a high-end retail design and home décor business. City officials see the opening of Artéé as the beginning of an economic boon that will help draw shoppers to the area and its arts community, said Herb Weiss, the city’s economic and cultural affairs officer. “We view them as important commercial anchor in city’s historic downtown,” Weiss said. “There aren’t a lot of fabric stores, and when you have a good one chock-full with high-end textiles, it becomes a draw. In Rhode Island, where no one wants to drive, people will drive 50 to 60 miles for good fabrics.” The five-story brick structure at 228-230 Main St. was built in 1892. Most recently, until it sat unoccupied for years, it was the home of Kresge’s and later K-mart department stores. Shekhar Mehta, 47, and Arti Bhandari Mehta, 42, began their textiles business 15 years ago; they bought the building for $230,000 in 2009 and in February opened the Artéé showroom on the ground floor. Arti Mehta started a company, called Artéé Collections, with just two spools of fabric, selling out of the apartment she shared with her husband. The business continued to grow, and Arti eventually opened a wholesale shop in Hudson, Mass., and also, partnered with another retail design shop in Westport, Conn. The Pawtucket business is her first solo retail endeavor. Arti Mehta, a designer by trade, said she chose Rhode Island because it’s home to Rhode Island School of Design and because of the region’s rich history in textile industry. “I also saw in the area, there are no good stores [for textiles],” Arti said. “Pawtucket was right for the price. I loved the beautiful building. It’s the perfect place for a store.” The building, which wasn’t up to building code, needed some work. It was given a new floor, extensive electrical work, a fresh paint job, roof repairs and a little soap and water to spruce it up. The Mehtas’ shop is now a sparkling arena with aisles of fabrics: jacquards, silks, linens, mohair velvets, cotton crewels and prints, wrapped on large spools and arranged by color combinations. Some are hand embroidered, while others feature delicate patterns using screen printing techniques. Arti designs 80 percent of the fabrics, she said. All are imported from either China or India. The sales floor has a few decorated beds, some furniture and other décor items on display. In the back showroom there are embroidery, trimming and other window-treatment accessories. The upper floors, while still unoccupied, will eventually be converted into a custom furniture showroom and individual offices for interior designers to do consulting. Mehta said the business is consumer-friendly, for everyone — from the savviest of shoppers to the novice, who doesn’t have a clue about designing a space. To give special assistance to those customers, Arti said that her interior designers will go to a consumer’s home and do an initial consultation for free, and she said her company offers high-end products at an affordable price. “The American consumer is very conscientious,” Arti said. “We are offering services to make life easier.” Additionally, consumers who need direction, or who are looking for ideas, can bring in a page from a magazine layout of a room and say, “I want this,” and Artéé will try to create that, Shekhar Mehta said. “People have to come and talk to us. If people are serious, we will help.” he said. Weiss agreed with Arti that bringing a high-end specialty fabric store to the city returns Pawtucket to its Slater Mill roots. “It really fits in what we are doing with arts … and what we are trying to do,” Weiss said. “The fabric store is going to do well here. There will be a synergy. Someone who buys an antique chair will go to the fabric store to have it reupholstered.” City officials believe creative businesses, such as architects and graphic designers, could revitalize the city. “What does a city do with its mills?” Weiss said. “We turn these assets into incubators for small businesses. The development that is taking place in our city … is maybe not prominent … [as it is in] Providence, where you might see all the cranes. We don’t have cranes. Our economic development over the years, with artists, has taken place in our mills.”
Journal Staff Writer
