Gardner Village expansion to fuel new fun
By Joe Baird
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/18/2007 01:58:32 PM MST
Baseball-playing witches adorn the lawn at Gardner... (Tiffany Sadler/Close-Up Correspondent)
Gardner Village has survived, and even thrived for over a quarter-century as a unique, quirky restaurant and retail center that draws clientele from all over the Salt Lake Valley and beyond.
Now, the village is on the verge of reinventing itself.
The recent purchase of 26 acres just west of the Gardner Village - which sits near the West Jordan-Midvale border along 7800 South - will nearly quadruple the size of the existing site, creating an unprecedented opportunity for owners Joe Long and Angie Seeley to take their family-owned business in a new direction.
Gardner Village Marketing Director Marcia Johns says the property acquisition wasn't planned, but was too good of an opportunity to pass up when the parcel became available.
"Because we've been sort of landlocked, we haven't been able to add new things, beyond the goal of the owners to keep things fresh and new, to continue to evolve," said Johns. "This gives us a chance to do some new and different things."
Johns says planning is still in the conceptual stage.
But the expanded area could include a small performing arts venue, perhaps another restaurant, and maybe even an inn.
"What we want to do is add entertainment-based retail, while keeping it within the historic theme of the village," she said.
Gardner Village was born in 1979, when family matriarch Nancy Long purchased the historic Archibald Gardner Mill, intending to turn it into a residence.
Long and husband Chris Christensen instead seized on the idea of an old-fashioned shopping village. They opened Country Furniture and Gifts, a specialty furniture outlet, in the mid-1980s, and Archibald's restaurant was added in 1990.
Since then the couple, and their son and daughter, have sought out and relocated a whole series of historic homes and cabins around the state to their property.
Today, the village includes over three dozen shops, many of which are housed in the historic structures. All that, paired with horse stables, a petting zoo and landscaping that includes brick paths, a pond and floral displays, has turned the village into a destination location for shoppers seeking unique, locally owned businesses.
The Long family continues to own Country Furniture, as well as the Down to Earth furniture outlet, the Village Quilt Shop and the Gathering Place reception center. But the rest of the village is comprised of owner-operated shops that lease from Gardner Village.
"I think what we offer is a really different shopping experience," said Anne Hansen, who owns Sweet Afton's candy shop and counts herself as one of the village's original proprietors, dating back 16 years. "If you want, you can eat, shop and spend an entire day here if you want. We try not to duplicate the other stores [in the village], so each is very different. We try to offer something for all sorts of different people."
Gardner Village retailers also try hard to offer customers something different from surrounding retail outlets.
Kay Freeman, who owns the Rooster House, a kitchen and back porch specialty store, goes so far as to do zip code searches of what potential competitors might have, then orders what they don't sell.
"We're looking for customers who want that uniqueness and who want to support locally owned businesses," said Freeman, who has been at Gardner Village for seven years.
Gardner Village has been around long enough now to ride out the ups and downs of the economy. The future looks bullish too, thanks to the planned expansion and a new TRAX station that will be located across the street from the village, its completion scheduled for 2010.
"I don't know that it will make a huge difference in terms of our local customers, but it certainly will for our out-of-town visitors. We've become a destination for tourists. The problem is, people in town for conventions don't usually rent cars. But the coming of TRAX means we'll now have public transportation to the village. That will have a definite impact."