No Small Plans

Rebecca's belle gowns

"It does my heart good to have to look around Tuscumbia for a parking place," says Rebecca Underwood. Promenade, the store she opened in 2001, is a particularly southern kind of institution; it specializes in dresses for proms, pageants, and other formal occasions of the sort much loved in Alabama. Underwood had a successful home-based gown-rental business, but opened up the storefront in her hometown after Robbins not only allowed her to design the shop with David Blazer, but picked up 99% of the construction tab as well (within a budget, of course). "I wanted space for my girls," she says, "with footlights on a ramp leading to a wall of mirrors." Promenade is one of only three stores in Alabama affiliated with the National Prom Association, so the big manufacturers send Underwood exclusive colors and styles, and in 2004 Promenade has gone from 12 lines to 40. The business is working so well that three people have stopped in to let Underwood know they're interested in buying, if and when she's selling. That day is a ways off, though, because she recently had Robbins Property Development add another 1,000 square feet to Promenade.

Slide on over

Foot traffic is foot traffic. And since people like to follow a banana split with a stroll, all the Main Street merchants benefit, even those that were operating long before Harvey Robbins started drawing up blueprints. Take the Nylon Sew Sew Shop, which had been open for 35 years before Fredia Rice purchased it in 1995. "You always know who's been at the Palace because they walk in with ice cream cones," says Rice (left, with employees Mary Anne Willis, center, and Bernice Taylor). "It's generated sales for us because so many people stop to see what else is here." What shoppers find in Rice's store are hand-sewn items made of nylon, everything from fitted king sheets ($25 and up) to burial shrouds ($75) to caftans ($27) and nightcaps ($5). And just because the Nylon Sew Sew Shop has been around a while, don't think it's not a 21st-century retailer. Rice's online business has been growing, with customers from all over buying her airy e-commerce wares, and not only women. "I tell men," she says, "once you try nylon boxers, you will never go back."

Keys to success

Selling pianos is a low-volume business, so it wasn't the upturn in tourist traffic that enticed Brandon Romans to open Romans Piano in 2003. Romans chose his Main Street address because no other retail option came close to matching his pianist's ideal: a well-stocked, spacious store that feels like a cozy nook where ivories would actually be tickled. "I wanted the atmosphere and character of a 19th-century Victorian parlor room, where you can imagine the instrument in your home," says Romans. To that end, Robbins Property Development refurbished the original tin ceilings and wood floors of the space, and added French doors, as well as a separate chamber where a local teacher now gives lessons on a baby grand. Romans is happy to be part of a burgeoning tight-knit community of retailers who look out for one another -- more so since the ranks now include a distant relative. Restaurateur Rocky Romans moved back home to Tuscumbia and opened a branch of his Nashville Mexican eatery, Loco Lupes, after getting wind of Robbins's efforts.

Raise a glass

"A town isn't a town without pizza and beer," says Harvey Robbins. Well, he'll soon be able to sit down with David Blazer (above left) and his newest employee, Harvey Robbins III (above right), for a coal-oven pie at this yet-to-be-named pizza shop, which is owned by Harvey's daughter Beverly. For Harvey and his wife, Joyce Ann, the rewards of the rebirth of Main Street go far beyond a few more places to eat and shop. "Everyone in town is so happy and grateful that this ranks as high as any stage of our lives," says Joyce Ann. "I think Tuscumbia needs a little more prodding and a few more businesses, but other people are moving forward, and it's becoming a pleasant little town by itself." At right, Harvey Robbins sits at the restored soda fountain at the Palace. The place exists because Robbins decided he wanted to use his fortune to make Main Street matter again. But Robbins also wanted something much simpler: a milk shake, a thick one served in a stainless steel cup that holds three fills per glass goblet. And he thought others in his hometown of Tuscumbia might enjoy one as well.

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