Downtown Winder showing signs of life

The building originally was built in the 1960s for a Colonial grocery store, Rice said.

“It’s one of those things where history is repeating itself,” he added.

Another newcomer is Mike and Val’s restaurant, which has replaced GeGe’s restaurant.

The new restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch six days a week and for brunch on Sundays.

Mayor Chip Thompson said he’s had an opportunity to eat two different kinds of sandwiches since the change in ownership.

“I enjoyed both of them,” he said. “The food is good.”

On the other end of Broad Street, the popular Loco’s Grill & Pub is undergoing interior renovations in an effort to make it more family friendly.

“We are working very hard on that now,” said owner Kevin Young, who owns the local franchise of the Athens-based restaurant company.

He said the restaurant’s name makes some people think Loco’s is primarily a bar, and that image isn’t helped by the presence of smokers gathered outside the rear entrance adjacent to the parking lot.

But alcohol sales are actually only a fraction of food sales, which he said have been up this year despite the relocation of the county court operations.

To move smokers away from the back entrance, Young said he plans to create a separate indoor area for smokers, making the dining experience more enjoyable for them and access to the restaurant easier for families.

Around the corner from Loco’s, property owner Jerry Maynard is renovating a 2,500-square-foot space that he plans to open in early January as a low-cost event venue.

“It’s called ‘2 Doors East’ and is one door down from Chatterbox off Broad,” Maynard said. “We are almost finished.”

He said the facility would have tables and chairs and handicapped-accessible restrooms, and it would be able to accommodate community group meetings and private parties.

“It’s not going to be as nice as the Betty Joe Maddox Community Room or Constance Manor, but we are looking at being very affordable, and it will be great for family reunions, or for someone to hire a band and have a private party, and for meetings,” Maynard said. “Any caterer that wants to can utilize it, and we may have civic clubs that want to meet there.”

He said if Community & Southern Bank moves any banking operations into the Betty Jo Maddox building, that would likely eliminate that building’s popular meeting room and reduce the available meeting space downtown.

“I’m not certain that (Community & Southern Bank) officials are going to move,” said Maynard, a leading real estate broker. “They may want to stay in the big building; pricing may have something to do with it. We’ll know soon, and they are going to make any move pretty quick.”

He said if CSB were to vacate the former headquarters building of The Peoples Bank, one idea would be to convert it into condominiums.

Another business on the same block as the headquarters building — Larry’s Easy Pay — already has vacated its storefront at 79 N. Broad St.

But co-owner Sammy Everett said the business has merely relocated to its original site at 64 N. Jackson St., where the showroom, repairs and parts are now housed under one roof.

Everett said the recession’s impact on revenues, along with customers’ difficulty backing onto Broad Street, were factors in the decision to relocate.

“I hated to move off Broad Street because of what it could have been, but the way the economy and traffic were affecting business, we didn’t really have a choice,” Everett said.

“So far, everybody who has walked in the door has said, ‘We’re glad you moved.’” Everett said he was also concerned about the disruption of business during the planned streetscape project on Broad. The Winder City Council on Tuesday night agreed to apply for a second grant to enable the project to be completed in one stage, not two.

Once completed, several blocks of Broad Street in center of downtown will have wider sidewalks, landscaping and other pedestrian-friendly features.