Salvage shop opening on East 10th Street

Two veterans of vintage ware are teaming to open a salvage store on a near-east side corridor that’s getting renewed attention from the 2012 Super Bowl Legacy Project.

Called Tim & Julie’s Another Fine Mess, the store is slated to open in the spring at 2901 E. 10th St. and will be operated by Tim Harmon and Julie Crow.

Indianapolis antique aficionados likely will recognize Harmon, 59, as a longtime owner of Tim & Billy’s Salvage Store, later called Tim and Avi’s, which closed in late 2006.

Crow, also 59, has operated businesses in Broad Ripple, most notably the Modern Times vintage clothing store that closed in 1995.

The pair has known each other for years and decided to go into business together. Lately Harmon had been active in neighborhood work and had traveled to New Orleans three times to help in the Hurricane Katrina cleanup. Crow, meanwhile, worked at not-for-profits serving the disabled.

“It will probably look like a combination of Tim & Billy’s and Modern Times,” Harmon said of the store. “We’re not gong to stray from what we know and what we’re known for.”

The store will feature a blend of architectural antiques salvaged from demolished homes and businesses, as well as vintage clothing and textiles, and assorted artwork, handicrafts and other goods made before 1960.

The two are confident the business will succeed despite the unstable economic conditions and poor housing market.

“What we sell on both sides is very popular and it’s really affordable, and it’s reuse; it’s the same as recycling,” Harmon said. “We’re a perfect business for a down economy.”

Harmon spent 20 years operating his previous salvage store—last located at 25th Street and Central Avenue—that built a national following. Besides being highlighted in The New York Times, Tim & Avi’s was featured in Time magazine in 2000 for its large stock of used, high-flow toilets.

Harmon bought out his partner, William “Billy” Vant Woud in 1998 and brought his son, Avi, into the business until the store closed in 2006.

Meanwhile, Harmon and Crow purchased their new building on East 10th Street for an undisclosed price from the East 10th Street Civic Association and plan to invest about $100,000 to renovate the building. They may be eligible for a façade grant from the association to replace the plate-glass windows, woodwork and doors on the storefront.

The 6,000-square-foot building was built in the early 1900s by Edward Vahle to house his hardware store. A general store, physician’s office and art-supply store also have operated at the two-story, brick building. Most recently, it was a used-appliance store.

Harmon and Crow first scoured the trendier Fountain Square and Mass Ave districts for a building but ultimately decided upon the property on East 10th Street.

Harmon knows the neighborhood well. He operated the former Rivoli Theatre on the street in the 1970s and has remained active with the John H. Boner Community Center.

The two say they have a plethora of inventory to launch their new venture.

“I have five buildings around town where I have inventory, and I’m looking forward to getting it to one place so I can see what the heck I have,” Harmon said. “We never stopped buying and selling.”
     
The shop could get a boost from commercial activity spurred by the 2012 Super Bowl Legacy Project.

Six projects with more than 25,000 square feet of space will be completed this year and in 2012 along the corridor, which runs from near Rural Street east to Sherman Drive.

Those include buildings such as the Mayfair at 2032 E. 10th St., which was donated to the civic association and is tenant-ready, and Clifford Corners, a 50,000-square-foot mixed-use development with 8,000 square feet of commercial space across from a community green space.

The neighborhood already has landed a Marco’s Pizza for the Clifford Corners space. In addition, several new businesses, such as Little Green Bean Boutique, a children’s clothing resale store, and Pogue’s Run Grocer, the city’s first food cooperative, have opened.

“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,” Tammi Hughes, executive director of the East 10th Street Civic Association, said in a prepared statement.