TONY SCHUNN | ANDVINYL RECORDS On what he wishes people knew about downtown: “When they come in here, a lot of people don’t even know we’re here. They’ll be like ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were here, how long have you been here?’ And we’ll be like ‘Oh, three years,’ and it’s just that they haven’t come down here in awhile. I think a lot of people don’t know there is a lot of shopping you can do down here — it’s not just government buildings and a maybe a couple restaurants. There’s literally a whole bunch of stuff on the street to do. Night life isn’t all that big yet down here which would be nice to have, but there’s a whole bunch of retail and food that’s come down here.” On what worries him as a downtown business owner: “The potential of our rent or cost of something going up could be an issue, but our landlord has been pretty cool so that hasn’t been a problem. Aside from that, maybe the parking issue, which is a common issue down here. And the more people that come down here, especially with the event center and everything, that’s probably going to be difficult and deter people from coming down here but I’m hopeful that will get fixed at some point.”
WES CUNNINGHAM | STRAWBERRY ALLEY ALE WORKS On downtown’s growth: “It’s super exciting. We’ve been down here for four years now at Strawberry Alley and we decided to open up here because we were excited for the future of downtown and cared a lot about downtown. Since then, it’s just becoming more and more obvious that downtown Clarksville is a great place to dine, shop, hangout, and spend time with your family and friends. In that time, we’ve added the new park down the street, the Downtown Commons, and F&M Bank Arena is opening up here soon. Those two projects along with all the local businesses are making it a really great place to be.” On what he wishes people knew about downtown: “I think the secret’s out on downtown as far as there being a wonderful mix of local shops and restaurants. But there’s more and more happening every day so the secret might just be that there are brand new restaurants popping up, brand new shops popping up. It’s no longer just a handful of longtime businesses that have been here. Those great businesses have been joined by small businesses that are popping up pretty frequently so just knowing that there’s more and more out there to be discovered, it’s not just what you might expect.”
LLOYD NICELY | MOM AND DAD’S MUSIC On downtown’s growth: “I like that downtown is starting to be bigger and more businesses are moving in and cooler businesses are moving in, and some younger-owned businesses, which I think is pretty much what downtown needs. Nothing against all the law offices, but it used to only be law offices and a place to drink beer and that’s not really productive. I like having the ArtLink over there, and Tony over at the record store, and my shop’s down here. Not that we’re the coolest but we’re pretty cool. I just think it’s great. I like the growth and the direction that downtown is heading right now.” On what worries him as a downtown business owner: “I don’t really see a downside to the growth downtown. The only thing I think that would make me a little bit nervous is being priced out of our buildings if it starts to get pretty big. I worked at the world’s largest vintage guitar store in downtown Nashville for about 10 years called Gruhn Guitars, and when the growth starts happening, some people can be priced out of their buildings. And I guess greed is another thing that scares me a little bit.” 52 • VIP CLARKSVILLE MAGAZINE
