POSITION: Owner
COMPANY: Stella Boutique
WHAT THEY DO: Contemporary women’s clothing and swimwear boutique
REVENUE: Project $850,000-$950,000 for 2010 [per-square-foot estimates]
NEXT GOAL: Engage the community in charity fashion and art events
The perfect dress might not look like much on a hanger, but once draped from the shoulders of a woman, it can fall perfectly into place. That’s similar to what happened with Katie Jacob Dallimore’s decision to move Stella Boutique into her father’s building near the Perkins Road overpass.
Dallimore had been thinking about moving out of her Towne Center at Cedar Lodge location when her five-year lease expired in spring 2010. Then her father called one afternoon. “He said, ‘Just go take a look at it,’” she says.
What Dallimore saw was the relatively windowless Living Foods storefront. “It definitely took some imagination,” to see what it could be, she says. But within a few days, everything fell into place. Her father’s company purchased the building—there were several potential buyers almost immediately after it hit the market. And then the process of reinventing the space—figuring out how many dressing rooms to build, deciding to include a public restroom—began to manifest.
That isn’t to say Dallimore hasn’t faced any challenges with leaving a prebuilt corporate space for a location that’s all her own. “It’s so time-consuming,” she says, “staying on top of your current business” while planning a new location.
And then there are the obvious tangible negatives about moving Stella to Southdowns. “[We’re] going to have some difficulties with parking, obviously … and we have a lot of Bocage customers we’re moving away from, which makes it harder for them to just pop in,” Dallimore says, adding she knows the new location will be frequented often by Stella’s customers, maybe even attracting some new ones.
Dallimore likens the area near the Perkins Road overpass to Magazine Street in uptown New Orleans. “There’s something about that area,” she says. “It just has that neighborhood feel.”
And though Stella is leaving Towne Center’s ample parking and big-box cushion, Dallimore knows the new location will be just as stunning when it opens in February or March as her dresses look on her customers. “We’re so excited,” she says. “I feel like things happen for a reason.”
