Dreams of small business ownership continues in light of a pandemic

ELYRIA — New small businesses are sprouting up around Elyria as the city aims to continue economic development in the middle of a pandemic. Bloom Nutrition, which has several other locations in Lorain County, plans to open downtown. It focuses on healthy teas and shakes. G&G Bistro Bar & Grill recently opened on Taylor Street. A new food mart opened on Middle Avenue. Other businesses are in the works, but progress has slowed some due to COVID-19. Ash Coffee Co. has started up operations out of the owners' home, and the owners are planning to expand using the Yes Zone commercial kitchen. Lori Setliff, owner of the company, said COVID-19 delayed plans to buy a building in the city. Her plans grew after her hours at her job were cut from full time to part time. She and her husband started making cold brew for family and friends, and she said she realized she could start her business small. With her reduced hours, Setliff now has more time to focus on the coffee. For the past couple of weekends, the owners have started offering cold brew coffees and bags of coffee in front of their home. Setliff said it took off quicker than she could have imagined. Each weekend they've set up a table outside their house, and Setliff said she has sold out each time. "In a time where we're only talking to a small group of people, having the opportunity to meet strangers and hear them and get to know a little bit about them has been amazing," she said. "We're just trying to help Elyria have something to be excited about and it's been great. We're grateful to everyone who showed up so much." City officials in Elyria are trying to keep development coming. With one of the city's largest employers, Bendix, leaving Elyria next year for Avon, and with the pandemic's hard toll on the city's income, new development will be needed to sustain Elyria's economy. Assistant Safety Service Director Dawn Calvert said it's been a mixed bag of impact across the city. Some companies have been hit hard by the pandemic, while others are weathering through. For a while, businesses pressed pause as they figured out how to move forward. Although the future with the pandemic is still unknown, Calvert said businesses have started moving forward anyway. Many Elyria businesses are revising the plans they made at the start of the year. Calvert said projects are still going forward, but at a different scope than they were before. "The impact of Bendix leaving is going to be huge for this city," Calvert said. "They've been such an integral piece of our economy and our culture here even for so long that it's going to be a devastating loss for the community. Looking forward, we're trying to better understand what our best assets are in the city and how we can leverage those. We've really begun to look at our sites in the city and say, what are our best opportunities and what work needs to be done at those sites to help lure investors?" There are five projects that the city is actively involved in, Calvert said. They run from entertainment to distribution logistics to manufacturing. Calvert said they total about $35 million in investments, including expansions and renovations. At a minimum, Calvert said those projects could bring 150 new jobs to the city. Among companies looking to expand is Amware, formerly 3M, on Lowell Street. The company brought its expansion plan to the Planning Commission on Tuesday with a rezoning request to build a distribution warehouse. Calvert said the city is still in the beginning stages with the five projects. Most of all, Calvert said small-business owners in Elyria have had resilience throughout the pandemic to stay afloat. She said they still field calls every day about investment in the downtown region. Ash Coffee is still hoping to have a storefront somewhere in the city at some point, Setliff said. She and her husband lived in Nashville for a couple of years, where she said they spent a lot of time in coffee shops. She said there's not a lot of local coffee places in Lorain County in general, and she wants to create a place where people can gather. Ash Coffee gets its beans from Phoenix Coffee Co. in Cleveland, which Setliff said she likes because Phoenix knows where its coffee beans come from and the beans are grown in a sustainable way. Phoenix also decaffeinates its beans in a natural way instead of using chemicals. "My son's name is Nash, which the name means 'under the ash tree.' Ash trees are symbolic of community and children and protection. And so we had this whole vision of creating a space where anybody can come and (also) partnering with the local community and the school, especially to help kids find their own path." For now, Setliff said she's just rolling with what comes their way. With the ability to use the Yes Zone kitchen, Setliff said she'll be able to finish up licensing to bottle and sell the cold brew coffee. It will bring in some income while they don't have a building. Ash Coffee Co. isn't the only new place in Elyria slowly opening. Unplugged Brewing has been about two years in the making. Recently, the owners were putting logos and signage on its building on East Bridge Street. Co-owner and head brewer Tim O'Neill said he and his two business partners have worked on the place in their spare time while also holding part-time jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly didn't help speed things along. The building has been completely renovated on the outside and the brewing part is almost finished inside. In the next week or two, O'Neill said they hope to brew the first batch in the building. But inside dining and the kitchen aren't quite finished yet. O'Neill said they shifted their focus a little bit when COVID hit and focused more on to-go beer sales and what would work in the different times. Unplugged will start with a soft open with some can releases. O'Neill said they would also like to have a tasting room where people can try the beer and buy some cans. The key focus is getting tap room approvals in place. With patio seating winding down, O'Neill said their focus will remain on to-go products. Unplugged's patio has a view of the waterfall, which O'Neill called the gem of the place. He said the biggest milestone is getting the brewing up and running. Once they can start selling beers, O'Neill said they'll bring in some revenue to start expanding. "We know it's been a long time coming and we want to get the community to get some beer and come see the place," O'Neill said. "We're doing what we can to make that possible." Ultimately, Calvert said the city is looking for different spots throughout the city to fill. City Council recently passed a downtown demolition grant to help owners demolish old buildings that would cost too much to rehabilitate. Calvert said the city doesn't want an empty wasteland downtown, but it instead is encouraging people to rebuild. The Chestnut Commons connector road, which will link Broad Street to Chestnut Commons, will be finished in about a month. With that comes 60 acres available to develop. Although Calvert said interest cooled down a little with the pandemic, she said they're still seeing people who want to develop around the area. Elyria's administration is also looking toward areas that have sat empty for some time. That includes abandoned property on Griswold Road. The land at 445 Griswold Road, a property that was once supposed to be a new Walmart, recently was approved to be rezoned for a future gas station. Although the city stayed mum about what else might go there, Mayor Frank Whitfield said it was key to additional development in the area. Whitfield told The Chronicle that the strategy his administration came through the door with — building a city for entrepreneurs, attracting employers through the city's workforce and growing existing companies — had to move faster in light of COVID-19. Calvert said she loves seeing the trickle-down effect to the local community after helping a business. "Even in these difficult times, there's still a lot of opportunity and I'm floored by the resilience of the business owners here," Calvert said. "I've talked to hair salons, barbershops, restaurants, manufacturers, and just truly the resilience is astounding. There's a lot of optimism and a lot of hope even amidst some of the most significant challenges they've probably faced and at great personal risk to their personal finances and personal goals. So it's rewarding. Even when it's difficult to find the resources to help, it's still rewarding." Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.