Melissa Anderson at The Recreation Center FXBG said the coronavirus pandemic has made things hard for her business, but she’s grateful for the help supporters have shown the eatery known for its chili dogs, billiards and live music.
Anderson closed her business in April as the pandemic surged, then reopened in May during daytime hours, largely doing takeout orders. As restrictions eased, they stayed open longer. She restructured the live music—open mikes and walk-ins were replaced by pre-scheduled showcases and concerts—to the point where the venue has been able to offer shows once or twice a week.
“We were really doing OK until the [COVID] spike after Thanksgiving,” Anderson said. “Things have declined since then and people just haven’t been coming in.”
The downtown fixture put out a call recently asking supporters to help keep its doors open by making online donations to get happy hour drinks, shirts and more, or by attending a Save the Recreation Center showcase. Anderson said she’s gratified by the response, making her even more determined to preserve the restaurant billed as Fredericksburg’s oldest eatery.
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Those feelings are echoed by owners of other local businesses, who describe emotions ranging from exhausted to determined to frustrated to hopeful as they try to keep their operations open and viable during the pandemic.
Also hopeful that 2021 will be a better year is Patrick A’Hearn, producing artistic director at Riverside Center for Performing Arts in Stafford County. COVID shut the doors there from mid-March until early August and required quick pivots to change how it operated through the Christmas season.
A’Hearn said while “Grease” had a great run through March 15 last year—grossing over $1 million with 16,000 guests—the arrival of COVID forced the theater to find a different way to offer shows.
At first, that meant the creation of a “Sip and Sing Supper Club” in the events center with social distancing. Then, in late September, came the opening of a two-character play “Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins,” with actors 10 feet apart and 50 percent capacity. A socially distanced Christmas show with eight actors started Nov. 25, with A’Hearn noting that it “pulled in about 1,000 people over 18 performances.”
But those shows produced only between $100,000 and $125,000, putting 2020 total revenues at only about a third of the $3.6 million the theater brought in 2019. The theater staff dropped from 50 before the pandemic to as low as 13 in spring and summer, before rebounding to about 20 at the end the year, he said.
Valerie Kettl, owner of That’s My Dress in the Village at Towne Centre in Spotsylvania County, said COVID and the closing of neighboring stores has affected her business. She saw revenues drop some $400,000 in 2020 and had to cut her staff from six full-time employees to just herself and two part-timers.
“We’re just trying to keep the lights on and provide good customer service,” she said.
Kettl said when she walks outside, the number of shuttered stores around her looks like “a scene out of a Western ghost town.”
“There’s only Books-A-Million, Arhaus and me in our little tract. Everything else has gone out of business,” she said.
“We’re not seeing any traffic, down to 25 percent of what it used to be. Is it COVID, or the mall changes? ... I’m treading water to be honest with you, by the grace of God surviving. You can’t sit here and continue to rack up” bills.
KEYS TO SURVIVAL
People interviewed had different takes on what has helped and hurt businesses since March, but most agreed on a few things they said have been critical to coping with the pandemic.
“The ability to be successful in this difficult business environment seems to hinge on three things: Do businesses have access to capital or grants, do they have a product that still makes since amid COVID and were they able to quickly pivot and meet the needs of their consumers as things rapidly changed,” said Main Street Fredericksburg executive director Ann Glave.
Bill Freehling, director of economic development and tourism for Fredericksburg, said the city’s Economic Development Authority distributed some $500,000 in Cares Act grants to city businesses.
Other area governments and economic development agencies also stepped up with grants and other stimulus programs to help businesses, and two local banks, Atlantic Union and Virginia Partners, said they provided more than $1.75 billion in loans to local businesses last spring through the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Plan program.
Several owners said that help made a huge difference early on in the pandemic and they hope to take advantage of more going forward.
Glave noted that many city businesses had strong 2020 fourth quarters, which makes her somewhat optimistic. A factor in that success was how long they may have been closed for the initial onset of COVID or whether that had coronavirus exposures later that also shut them down for a while.
Freehling said it’s hard to speak in generalities about how businesses are doing, because while grocery stores, home improvement and some recreation-connected businesses have thrived, many others have struggled.
“It’s been challenging for a lot of locally owned businesses, maybe the majority of them,” he said. “But many of our businesses have done a great job at pivoting when they needed to, creating new business models and opportunities. The ones who found new or better ways to get their products or services to their customers in ways those customers found safe have done the best.”
Freehling provided examples: the team at city restaurant Foode selling groceries in the early days of the pandemic, making take-out safe and easy and adding fire-tables outside to extend the outdoor season into winter.
He also pointed to the art studio PONSHOP, which turned its window display into a marketplace when customers couldn’t or were wary of coming inside. He noted the studio focused on online purchasing and curbside delivery, and offered virtual art classes online.
There are other examples.
The idX Corp., located in the former GM plant in Spotsylvania, shifted from making traditional store shelving and displays to acrylic and polycarbonate shields and signs with social distancing graphics that stores needed during the pandemic.
Tia Cadow, one of the owners of Fredericksburg Rentals in Spotsylvania County, said the business rented tents out to restaurants such as Sedona to provide outdoor seating in cold weather, and to hospitals to handle potential patient overflows.
“Those long-term rentals providing steady income,” she said. “It’s been lean and mean, but we’re surviving and we expect to have lots of events this year, assuming things get better.”
A. Smith Bowman Distillery, in the Spotsylvania Industrial complex, started making hand sanitizer in the early months of the pandemic, when traditional suppliers were unable to meet demand. The local business donated most of the sanitizer to area public safety workers.
Brian Prewitt, Bowman’s master distiller, said the pandemic restrictions interrupted the distillery’s tours and tastings business until July, when restrictions were loosened enough to allow small groups for visits. But the distillery made it work by selling its spirits online to customers across the state, which the state had previously banned but opened up to help businesses during the pandemic. It was a difficult adjustment, Prewitt said, but Bowman has stayed open and hasn’t laid off any employees.
“We just had to kind of change our approach,” he said.
The resiliency is reflected in the tax revenues local governments receive from businesses.
Freehling said city sales tax receipts for 2020 were up more than 5 percent over 2019, $11.57 million compared with just over $11 million, and that is expected to rise when December’s numbers are calculated.
But meals tax and lodging tax revenue, which do include December, show drops of 22 and 40 percent, respectively. Meals tax receipts for 2020 were $9.5 million, compared just under $12.3 million in 2019. Lodging tax receipts fell from $1.58 million in 2019 to just under $940,000 last year.
Spotsylvania Supervisor Kevin Marshall, who also serves as business development manager for the county, pointed to higher sales tax receipts in 2020 than in 2019—$21.8 million vs. $19.6 million—as a sign that businesses fared better than expected. He noted that 175 new businesses opened in the county in 2020, though he said there was no data yet on how many may have closed.
Stafford Revenue Commissioner Scott Mayausky said county sales tax numbers for the entire year were incomplete, but he noted that sales tax revenue for April 2020 was $146,745, a big jump from $32,862 the previous April.
He attributes that to online sales and a change in the tax law. He noted that in 2019, the state approved online sales tax, so if a Stafford resident purchases anything online anywhere, the state collects the tax and sends it to the county along with in-store tax collections.
“We can only assume the increase is due to online sales, but they don’t break it out for us,” Mayausky said. “So even though a lot of the businesses were closed during the lockdown, or their foot traffic was reduced even if they were open, people were still shopping online.”
LOOKING AHEAD
With vaccines now available and more government assistance on its way, many local business owners see better days ahead—if they can soldier on that long.
Beth Black, an owner of Foode and the chairman of the city’s Economic Development Authority, said January through March is typically a slow time for most businesses. With COVID still causing problems, those winter months are “scary,” she said.
“The first quarter is one many businesses always dread. People are so kind and giving to others during the holidays, but then you can almost tell the day when credit card bills arrive in January because spending dries up,” Black said.
She added that those fears are counterbalanced somewhat by the optimism that comes with the COVID vaccine rollout, more people living downtown and new projects moving forward.
“I think access to capital is important, as we hope those who can weather this storm and make it until later in this year will be OK,” she said. “But still this is a very challenging time, perhaps the peak of it as we have COVID caseloads going up.”
Catesby White, the owner of Fly Fitness Inspiration, closed the studio she started on William Street in March, but reopened last month at a new near the Silk Mill on Princess Anne Street.
“We did some online classes and rented out some fitness equipment during the break so some of our clients could work out, and we did some outdoor training with Fredericksburg Academy, which couldn’t have sports,” she said. “It helped not to have rent to meet during the toughest part of the pandemic.”
White said the business is currently operating with classes of up to nine people at a time—instead of the 25 she once had—with sessions spaced out enough to allow plenty of time for disinfecting in between.
“It’s been frustrating and still is, but I want to be smart about this and have people feel safe in my space,” she said. “I’m really just crawling ahead right now but at some point, hope to be up and running. I have customers who want to get back to their normal routines. If it weren’t for them, I don’t know if I’d even try.”
At the Riverside theater, A’Hearn said that while the pandemic has been “a killer to our industry, Riverside has been pretty lucky. I’ve spoken to many of my colleagues and they’ve got nothing going. We’ve been hit with a challenge and it gives us the opportunity to regroup.”
He’s optimistic going forward because of what he thinks people will be doing for the near future, staying closer to home in the short term.
“For a place like Riverside that does quality Broadway productions, that can be very good for us, said A’Hearn. “I think we can come back stronger than most.”
The plan now is to soon begin selling tickets for the season next week, with a proposed opening March 24 of “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” with the show “Bright Star” to follow in late May.
“By that time, we might be close to what we think will be the new normal,” A’Hearn said.
At the Recreation Center FXBG, Anderson said the the business’s landlord has been extremely cooperative in helping her keep the doors open. She said she bought the business to keep the city from losing a venue for musicians in the community and hopes the call for donations and sales of gift cards, shirts and sponsorships on the Rec Center’s FXBG Facebook page will help save it.
“We’ve got a loyal group of people who do still come in. These people are what keep us going,” she said. “It’s why I’m still fighting and I’m not ready to give up.”
Melissa Anderson, who co-owns The Recreation Center FXBG with husband Keith, said the business—billed as the city’s oldest eatery—has been hit hard during the pandemic. A Save the Recreation Center showcase was held Saturday.