Geneva store set to relocate

A business that's been in one location on Third Street more than 50 years is moving away this spring.

Ye Olde Provincial House, a home furnishings store and window treatments business, is leaving the 144-year-old two-story building at Third and James streets by the end of May.

Co-owner Chris Deitz said that the retail side of the business isn't going well enough to justify the rent and utilities he pays.

"Window treatment is going gangbusters," he said, "so we're going back to our first love."

Even though people may not be buying new homes, they are redecorating and improving the ones they already own, he said. That mirrors building permit activity in Geneva; new-home permits are down, but permits for improvements have picked up.

But the window treatments part only needs about 10 percent of the space in the shop, because the treatments are custom-designed and ordered, not kept in stock.

The new space, when he decides on one, will be smaller than the current shop, and most of it will be devoted to the window treatment work.

"We will continue to be the same company," he said.

Chris and his wife, Carleen, bought the business 10 years ago. The retail side was doing well at that time, he said, but began to slide about seven years ago.

Deitz, who worked in advertising for 25 years, thinks several factors have hurt the shop.

First was the 11-month reconstruction of Third Street in 2000, complete with sewer and sidewalk replacement. People may have gotten out of the habit of shopping Third then, he said, when the area was torn up and traffic detoured.

Then there's the growth of retail along Randall Road, including the opening of Geneva Commons.

They don't compete with Randall's national chain stores "product for product, but we do compete for (shoppers') time and dollars," Deitz said.

"It breaks our heart to leave this building," Deitz said.