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WHAT DOES THE FUTURE
HOLD FOR DOWNTOWN?
ARE FORCES AT WORK TO DESTROY THE CLIMATE THAT HAS
NURTURED ATHENS’ WORLD-FAMOUS DOWNTOWN MUSIC SCENE?
Wuxtry Records has occupied the epi
center of the Athens music scene downtown
since before the beginning. Opening its
doors in the Shacldeford Building at 197 East
Clayton Street in 1975, Wuxtry has remained
in business at its original location for 25
years (Michael Stipe met Peter Buck there!)
During that time, owner Dan Wall has
opened two more shops in the Shackleford
Building: a used CD store facing College
Avenue and above it a comic book shop,
Bizarro Wuxtry.
Last September, Wall received an unan
nounced inspection from the Athens-Clarke
County Building Inspector’s office. By the
end of the month, Inspector Byron Thaxton,
from nuisance and dilapidated housing, had
completed his initial report, citing electrical,
drainage, and other problems. Wall and the
building's owner, Bertram Boley of Atlanta,
were given until February 6, 2000 to begin
repairs or else Wall would face closure of his
businesses. Wall conceded to some of the
repairs, but filed an appeal regarding others.
That appeal was denied.
Normally, such an inspection would go
largely unnoticed—building inspections are,
after all, a normal governmental function.
But unusual circumstances surrounding the
Wuxtry inspection fueled speculation that
something bigger was afoot. For starters, of
the five businesses operating in the
Shackleford building, only the three leased
to Wall were inspected (197 East Clayton
Street, 201 College Avenue, and 225 College
Avenue). Next, when Wall asked who
ordered the inspection, Thaxton said he
didn’t know. There were rumors that an
Athens-Clarke County commissioner was
behind it, but after calls to the ACC building
inspector’s office, the county manager and
the fire marshal, Flagpole has still not been
told who requested the inspection.
Finally, perhaps the most intriguing con
tributor to the conspiracy clamor was last
summer’s Starbucks controversy. Despite
protests by activists on behalf of local busi
nesses, the coffee giant had recently signed
a lease on a prime downtown location,
within sight of Wuxtry, on the comer of
College Avenue and Broad Street. The immi
nent arriva’ of Starbucks led to talk of other
national chains establishing themselves
downtown. Some thought the Shackleford
building was in the process of being sold, or
singled out for demolition, to make way for
corporate storefronts.
The repairs mandated by the county,
however, turned out to be affordable to
Boley and Wall, laying to rest for now the
specter of costly renovations leading to
higher rents, driving Wall and the other busi
nesses out in favor of businesses with
deeper pockets.
That’s exactly what has happened,
though, to Ed Magruder at Musician’s
Warehouse on East Clayton Street. The local
Holiday Inn franchise, which is tearing down
a city block on Clayton to make room eventu
ally for a hotel and parking deck, has bought
the building that now houses Musician's
Warehouse. Magruder has six years
remaining on a 10-year lease, but the new
owners want him out. Magruder has spent
almost a year negotiating with the Holiday
Inn owners and contends that he cannot
relocate his business downtown because he
can’t afford to rent in any other location.
“So far they’ve been very nice in trying to
reach a settlement," says Magruder. “I’m
trying to get them to understand how much
the rents have gone up, which is a lot."
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Flagpole 2000
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H FLAGPOLE JANUARY 19, 2000
PHOTO BY PETE McCOMMONS
