January 22, 2003

Music store moves to Xenia

There’s another empty storefront on Dayton Street after Margarita Music moved out of town a week ago.

“The foot traffic in Yellow Springs doesn’t justify the rent anymore,” said owner Mikey Chlanda. “The rent keeps going up and the foot traffic keeps dropping.”

Chlanda has cleared out his store and plans to relocate to 23 1/2 East Main Street in Xenia, across the street from the Greene County Courthouse and above Xenia Shoe Repair. He plans to open at his new location on Feb. 14.

Margarita Music has been operating in Yellow Springs since 1989, first as Margaritaville in Kings Yard and in its most recent location at 108 Dayton Street for the past four years. The store, which specializes in hard-to-find music, carries CDs, memorabilia, rock t-shirts and is the only store in the Dayton area to sell vinyl albums, according to Chlanda.

For the past several years, Chlanda said, most of his business has come from selling obscure music items on eBay. Chlanda said his store functions mainly as a place to buy used items that he then resells online. He believes the store can perform that function just as well in its new location.

Margarita Music’s former location is now the third unoccupied storefront on Dayton Street. It joins the empty building that until last month housed Center Stage and the unoccupied storefront at 126 Dayton Street, which previously housed Pyramid Perfume and Gifts. That business has since moved to an upstairs location at 108 Dayton Street.

The two-story building at 108 Dayton now has five empty business spaces, said Bob Baldwin, who owns the building. Baldwin said he has no specific plans at this time for the Margarita Music space, other than cleaning it up and looking for a new tenant. The building also currently houses Corner Books, the Yellow Springs Community Foundation office and Lang Hair Salon on the first floor, and Pyramid Perfume and Gifts and a computer software design business on the second floor.

“I expect come spring there will be more interest,” Baldwin said. “Right now it’s slow.”

Chlanda, who also owns the Yellow Springs Freeze, said that his ice cream business will not be moving.

—Diane Chiddister