Three local women-owned businesses are moving into a former arts venue in downtown Bangor.
The Cool Girl Collective, a local consignment shop, and Glowgetters, a spray tan salon, will soon open at 128 Main St. in Bangor, said Jess Stuart, who owns both businesses.
Next door, Jazmin Horne will open the first brick and mortar storefront for her handmade jewelry business, Dream in Gold.
The building was most recently home to Queen City Cinema Club, a bar, restaurant, movie theater and performance space that closed in July after six years in business. The business shuttered soon after the Bangor Arts Exchange, another downtown arts venue, announced it would close soon. The announcements sent shockwaves through the Bangor arts community, which feared the losses would leave a hole in the city’s arts and culture landscape.
Stuart opened the Cool Girl Collective in her existing spray tan salon in April. Both businesses shared a space on the second floor of 4 Union St., beneath the Union Street bridge. The consignment shop allows women to rent rack space to sell their gently-used clothing and accessories.
Stuart said she was looking for a bigger, street-level space to move her businesses, as the second-level space was difficult for some new customers and clients to find. Additionally, the tucked-away shop didn’t draw much foot traffic, she said.
“We’re trying not to be a hidden gem anymore,” Stuart said. “About 50 percent of new customers would call us because they’d get lost in the building.”
Next door, Horne will open the first physical store for her jewelry business, Dream in Gold. Horne specializes in handmade and permanent jewelry. Her space will also be located in the 128 Main St. building, but will have a separate entrance on the left side of the building, she said.
Though Horne has been making jewelry for herself and friends for years, she began selling her creations in Bangor in 2022. She began by selling jewelry online, in other storefronts or at weekend markets in her spare time.
“I enjoy making pieces that make people happy,” she said. “I love how putting jewelry on makes people feel like their outfit is complete.”
Horne has a studio in downtown Bangor, but it was on the third floor, making it inaccessible for many of her customers, she said.
Horne was able to make the jewelry business her full-time job when she started offering permanent jewelry — thin chains that are soldered onto a person’s wrist or ankle — this year, she said.
“Permanent jewelry allows me to have some variation because most of my pieces are made from repurposed materials for an affordable price,” Horne said. “With permanent jewelry, I can work with more fine jewelry that’s higher quality and will last longer.”
Stuart’s and Horne’s businesses will be separated by a wall, but customers can move between them through a shared internal door.
Both Stuart and Horne said their spaces needed substantial renovations, such as new walls, flooring and fresh paint, to transform the former restaurant and movie theater into storefronts.
Stuart plans to hold a soft opening for the Cool Girl Collective on Tuesday, then have a grand opening event in roughly a month.
Horne said she’ll likely hold a soft opening in November or December.
