“It was the best thing I’ve seen out here in a long time,” said the Adirondack Store’s Tupper Lake manager Josh Mclean. “I saw so many smiles that day, especially from the business owners.”

Over the past year, several vacant storefronts on the street have been filled by local startup companies. Business owners credited hard work, their significant others and fellow business owners with creating the right environment for their ventures to flourish.

Sometimes their business partners are also their significant others. Sometimes they are good friends with their “competition.” At all times, they spoke highly of the support they received from their neighbors on Park Street.

“The businesses all work together very well from what I’ve seen,” Mclean said. “Boosting anyone that comes in. We’re all one big happy business family. Everyone just wants to see everyone succeed.”

Spruce and Hemlock celebrated its new location on Park Street on Saturday during the Party on Park. It has an expanded inventory to fill its larger, more prominent store space. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

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The Party

Mclean said he was surprised by how many people turned out for Saturday’s event, which marked the opening of the Adirondack Store and Birch Boys’ chaga tea company in the former Ginsberg building.

“I think it’s been a walk down memory lane for a lot of people,” he said of people walking into the historic building that once housed Ginsberg’s department store.

Though it started raining shortly after the event started, people stuck it out and the precipitation actually drove many into the stores.

Emilee Davis, who owns The Row, said the other store owners on Park Street have been helpful throughout the launching of her store. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

“The morning was slamming; it was awesome,” said Emilee Davis, who owns The Row.

Though her new storefront isn’t as big as it seemed when she first bought it, she said it has a lot of benefits.

“It’s so visible; it’s so bright. Tourists stop when they pass this place, which never happened before,” Davis said.

Saturday was also opening day for Faith McClelland’s Spruce and Hemlock in its new location, featuring a greatly expanded inventory. Patrick Bedore, her brother, and Andrew McClelland, her husband, own Stacked Graphics next door, and they said she’s come a long way from where she started in her mom’s basement.

On Saturday, Bedore and McClelland were not on the street selling their wares like other businesses.

Patrick Bedore, left, and Andrew McClelland, who both run Stacked Graphics, have been printing signs for the new businesses on Park Street. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

“I’m not going to try to hard-sell (signs),” Bedore said laughing.

They still benefit from the growth of all the businesses in town, though.

“We’re a little different. We don’t really cater too much to the tourist end of things … but with the growth in the new businesses, I think almost all of them have been in touch with us for new signage,” Bedore said.

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Business advice

Mclean said Tupper Lake is great for business during the tourism season, but stores may need a little help to get through the winter.

“If businesses have that online portion, too, then that can really help them thrive through the wintertime,” he said.

Andrew McClelland said people have to be ready to take on the overhead of moving a business out of their home and into a storefront, and that that move can be worth it.

He said the best business to start is one that is unique and offers a service that people can’t get elsewhere in town.

“We filled a pretty good niche; we were pretty lucky,” Bedore said of their sign printing shop.

Davis said there are resources for beginning entrepreneurs offered through the county that are not always capitalized on. She said she talked to a business counselor at the SUNY Canton Small Business Development Center who helped her organize a three-year business plan on a spreadsheet for free.

“I don’t know anything about the numbers,” Davis said. “That was extremely helpful for me because I’m not savvy with that stuff.”

Davis, who started selling clothes online out of her house and eventually turned it into a storefront business, said all it takes to get a business idea off the ground is “Determination, grit and somebody that can help you.

“Like for me, it was my husband because we had to renovate and renovate. I was lucky to have him in my corner,” Davis said. “Just a real desire and want to create something good for this town. Because people are receptive to new businesses here. They want it.”

Davis said that when she was starting her business, she received lots of support from right in town.

“A lot of the business owners, particularly, all the small businesses here, really helped me as far as encouragement goes,” Davis said. “They’re like, ‘If you’re going to do it, I’m going to support you.'”

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Community of stores

All the business owners commented on the quality of support, collaboration and acceptance they receive from other business owners, a quality Mclean said is unique. He moved to Tupper Lake in October from Plattsburgh, where he had grown up.

“I tried to get involved with the community in Plattsburgh … and a lot of the business owners would not cooperate with each other. There’s a lot of head-butting in so many different directions,” Mclean said. “One of the things I’ve really noticed out here is a lot of people are very willing to work together to lift everyone up and make Tupper even bigger.”

Even though there are several stores that sell clothes, souvenirs or other similar items, they all work together to share customers.

“We kind of send people back and forth,” Davis said. “Everyone is championing for each other.”

Andrew McClelland pointed out that each store has its own aesthetic.

“Everybody kind of offers something a little bit different, so it’s not like you’re going store to store and just seeing the same things,” he said.

There are signs in the windows of more buildings on Park Street advertising the coming arrival of new antique and jewelry stores, and the business owners already on the street all said they are excited for new arrivals.