The Centralia Chamber of Commerce celebrated the first phase of the Commonwealth development on East Broadway at Poplar Street with a ribbon cutting Thursday afternoon. The ribbon cutting welcomed the three retail stores that are located in a large building that spans nearly a half city block. They are Trends, Monroe Dean, and Go Gurl.
Tyler Fleeman says his family was looking for business opportunities when they settled on what is now the Commonwealth building across from the Carrillon Park.
“Once we got it, it was kind of like, okay, now what do we do with it? We already had two businesses here, so we figured we’d go ahead and fill in the third space. Everybody in town wants to bring Grill back, so that was a no-brainer for us to get on,” said Fleeman. “The apartments upstairs is kind of a newer thing. There’s been a nice trend lately in town where people are wanting to bring housing downtown, especially with the low supply of housing that we have in town, so we thought we’d make use of the space and add the apartments upstairs.”
Tyler Fleeman in a room under construction. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
Fleeman says there will be five upstairs apartments, three with two bedrooms and two with two bedrooms. The goal is to have them completed near the end of summer.
Fleeman says work is just beginning on the space to be occupied by the Green Grill.
“The Green Grill is really going to be brought back to life with whichever partner we decide to go with. We’re looking for people right now who are interested in coming and bringing their restaurant to life. We can build it around whatever their needs and vision is.”
The goal is to have the Green Grill open by sometime next year. Fleener says they have also purchased the former Shopper’s Weekly building at the corner of Broadway and Poplar where the bar area of the Green Grill will be located.
Fleeman is undertaking the project with his parents Mike and Tara Fleeman who own the Body Shoppe in Centralia.
Centralia Mayor Bryan Kuder commended Fleeman on the project and is especially looking forward to the reopening of the Green Grill and having housing return to the downtown area.
Crowd in attendance listens to Marcus Holland speak in Trends, one of the retail stores in the building. Photo by Pat Hodges.
