In West Asheville land rush, entrepreneurs work to stake claim

ASHEVILLE -  A  small backhoe rested behind Mountain Valley Spring Water in East-West Asheville this week, its bucket lowered like the head of a sleeping bird.

But this piece of machinery, like the handful of buildings that remain empty up and down the Haywood Road corridor, will not stay dormant for long.

West Asheville is an area in transition. It has been for years. But right now, things seem to be moving at a particularly fast clip.

Patrick O’Cain is one of the locals investing in this area's future. He's staked a small claim where Haywood takes a hard turn toward downtown, known as Beacham’s Curve.

In a new commercial development there, O’Cain in two or three months will open Gan Shan West, a second, more casual location of his Charlotte Street Asian restaurant.

East-West Asheville, dotted with empty buildings pushing up against newer businesses, is ripe for development, O’Cain noted.

“It’s going to pop up, and it’s going to be fast. I think, within the next five years, this place is going to be bonkers.” 

'The magic Asheville juice'

Jamie Howton, who with business partner Chris Johnson will this year open Local 604 bodega and bottle shop in a building that shares a wall with Firestorm Cafe, echoed O’Cain’s sentiment. 

"The last three years, it’s like someone pulled the handle on an ACME Asheville neighborhood, and it went poof.” 

Howton and Johnson, two local musicians, want to sell six-packs of local and domestic beer, bottles of wine, cigarettes and locally made snacks — things people need, they said.

In doing so, they say, they're hoping to preserve a little of the old, workaday West Asheville. “Some things don’t need to be all Mercedes and Gucci,” Howton said.

On a street with four and counting breweries, who needs a place to buy more? The closest place to get a six pack when Ingles is closed used to be the long-established I & J Food Store, at 662 Haywood Road. That property closed, and the space it occupied has been leased as the site of a forthcoming bar, the partners noted. 

It’s the way of things around here, Howton said.  “I hate to see so many restaurants and bars going in, but I know that’s what people do now.”

Johnson, who moved to Asheville in 1998, said he once paid $550 a month for a two-bedroom house behind where Sunny Point Cafe now draws hordes of diners. "Back then, it was like, old person, young couple and then a drug house," he said. 

The "drug houses" are disappearing. That's good for the neighborhood — and property values. Bungalows are now snapped up for half a million by well-heeled transplants and trust fund kids, Johnson said. "Once 'Beer City' kicked in, everything changed."

"Everyone in the U.S. wants to drink some of the magic Asheville juice," added Howton. "It’s like a land rush over here."

The Haywood Road "land rush"

At 697 Haywood Road, the site of the former Barleycorn, Reza Setayesh, Rezaz founder and Baba Nahm co-owner, is one of the many other entrepreneurs snapping up property. 

With Mitch Orland, whose food industry experience includes Earth Fare and Sunflower markets, Setayesh will open BimBeriBon, a bakery, kitchen and bar with a healthy focus and coffee counter. This week, a Craigslist ad for the location was looking to hire pastry chefs with a knowledge of alternative flours.

At 507 Haywood Road, in the former Color TV & Appliance store, the owners of Belly Up Truck are building a farm-to-table restaurant called Haywood Common. They expected to submit permits this week and have targeted an October opening. 

Once complete, owners Rob and Hannah Starr will sublease the back of the building to a beer bar. 

"So much is happening on Haywood Road, and we are thrilled to have gotten in when we did and to be a part of the action," said Hannah Starr. "Looks like our little block is evolving into a really engaging scene."

At 715 Haywood Road, the newly opened Jargon restaurant offers a snapshot of that scene in the form of craft cocktails and eclectic dishes, served in a space that might as well be a time-tested Brooklyn neighborhood haunt. 

A bit farther west at 777 Haywood Road, Westville Pub has grabbed the building adjacent, recently vacated by the Center for Holistic Medicine, which has moved upstairs.

Westville Pub is set to expand its footprint by 50 percent and open a five-barrel brewery, Triple Seven Brewhouse.

Owner Drew Smith said, in the 15 years his bar's been open, he’s watched Haywood Road change from largely desolate at night to a nightlife-rich, well-lit avenue, heavy with foot traffic. 

“When we were the only place in town, it was cool,” he said. “As the neighborhood expanded it got even better. We were able to form our identity early on, rather than trying to be everyone’s place.”

Triple Seven joins Oyster House Brewing Company, Upcountry Brewing Company and the recently opened Archetype Brewing, all brewing beer on Haywood Road. There's also Urban Orchard Cider Co. and Bar, which makes its own cider.

Smith sees the cluster of brewing businesses as a boon to the neighborhood. 
"Early on people asked if competition would be good for our business," he said. "But I say it's not competition; it’s community building."

At 265 Haywood Road, Archetype Brewing is newly open, pouring pints of guest beer while the brewhouse works toward the summer release of its line of house brews. 

It pays to capture the foot traffic, growing seemingly by the day in what's now known as East-West Asheville.

And some of what the brewery offers say a lot about neighborhood demographics.  

For the kids, the taproom has a rock pit with construction vehicles and a custom-made “build your own brewhouse” block set. 

Everything the youngest up-and-coming residents of West Asheville need. 

West Asheville abhors a vacuum

Randy Hyatt is a third-generation West Asheville resident and former owner of Hyatt Electric Company Inc., founded in 1924 by his grandfather. 

Hyatt closed the shop in 2014, a year after his father died, leaving him the properties surrounding he'd purchased in the '60s.

He's now the landlord for the forthcoming Local 604, Haywood Comics and West Asheville Stand-Up Paddle Boarding, or WASUP, which makes its home in a garage where Hyatt Electric used to store trucks.

Hyatt remembers a time when he could cross Haywood without looking. "Now you take your life in your hands crossing over to the Family Dollar."

Haywood still boasts some body shops and services. They include Asheville Kitchens and Baths, family-owned since 1979, B & B Pharmacy, open since the '50s, and Silver's Auto Service, in operation since the '60s.

But many other tradespeople have moved elsewhere, changing the face of Haywood Road, Hyatt said. 

It's clear West Asheville abhors a vacuum, as few spaces stay empty long.

Hyatt's father had his electric shop for a little while in what's now Asheville Fungi, which specializes in the cultivation and selling of culinary and medicinal mushrooms.

The site of the former Ideal Drug Store became an Irish bar, before it was Biscuit Head. 

White & Williams Co Inc., a heating and air company since moved to Swannanoa River Road, became home to the Rocket Club and, now, the West Asheville Lounge and Kitchen.

The owners of the latter restaurant also have a newly opened restaurant called Pizza Mind in a former preschool at Beacham's Curve.

Two months ago, Hyatt tacked a for-rent sign on 604 Haywood Road, and fielded 20 phone calls in the first week.

Interested parties including a man who wanted to open a brewery, another who wanted to open a pool hall, a teacher who wanted to open a wine bar and a Charleston restaurateur who wanted to open a sushi restaurant. 

Looking to the future

Hyatt said he knew things were poised to change for West Asheville in 2001, when Krista Stearns and Cathy Cleary opened the West End Bakery.

"Then slowly more different things — the Oyster House, then Sunny Point," he said. "I couldn't foresee all that. I didn't have that vision. If I had, I'd have bought more property, if I could have afforded it."

It's a deep shift from the blue collar makeup of years past, Hyatt said, noting that when his grandfather died in 1962, Asheville was a manufacturing town, with little to foreshadow the artists, and then waves of tourists, that would come.

"There's no way my grandfather would have believed this," he said. "Back then, there were just textile mills, wood-working plants, furniture plants down on the river."

Hyatt said that way of life is gone. But an economy built by aspirations could replace it. Hyatt sees himself as not just a landlord, but someone who can help local entrepreneurs secure an affordable piece of a changing community.

"They have a dream, just like Doug the comic book guy," said Hyatt, gesturing toward the comic book store. "And I don't rob them. I could charge more. I'd have to dig deep to find somebody, but I have offers from people wanting to buy (my property) all the time."

John Root, a stained glass maker and tenant of Hyatt's, said West Asheville stakeholders using precious land for incoming industry might be the best way to keep it from changing even further.

"It's giving people an opportunity to do other things than just drink in town," he said. 

From the outside, where Root makes his stained glass, WAVL Industries, looks like a shed. Inside, it's a warren of industry where musicians record, a jewelry maker crafts and a photographer works.

This place is still unpolished. But Root, who himself invested in some West Asheville properties before the economic downturn, said the pattern of gentrification taking place in West Asheville is the same one that's played out in other cities.

"I'm not a fortune-teller, but I did see prosperity coming this way," he said. "When you have a place that's neat and interesting, creative people come. They make it safe. Money comes in, and more money comes in. It's the same all over."

The key to preserving communities, he said, is to keep the money flowing in the right direction. Asheville is thriving, he said. The effort to draw tourists worked.

"Now it's time to redirect some of that towards the people still living here," he said. "And not to just chase the tourist dollar at this point in the evolution of town."