There’s a new business afoot in downtown Rochester.
Partners Jon Ryanand Cordie Walkerare revamping a prominent storefront at 325½ S. Broadway on the corner of Fourth Avenue Southwest to turn it into a showroom for The Flooring Collective.
That’s the spot best known to longtime Rochester residents as the former home of Carson Framing.
The pair have been running the young commercial and residential flooring business out of Ryan’s Dwell Realty Groupoffice at 923 N Broadway, since July.
Ryan said he was buying and "flipping" homes in the area and was dealing with local flooring contractors.
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"We saw an opportunity to do something different," Walker said.
Now they are creating a new base of operations in the 1,500-square-foot space in the building owned by RGA of Rochester. RGA is a group of local investors that includes Paul Armon,of Armon Architecture, Inc., and Peter and Paul Gerrard,of La Crosse, Wis.-based Gerrard Co.Armon and the Gerrards also have office space in the building.
The owners of The Flooring Collective hope to open the showroom sometime in April.
"It will be very different than traditional flooring showrooms. It will be more like a home and less overwhelming," Walker said.
While they have many hardwood options, The Flooring Collective offers a wide array of products for commercial and residential construction and remodeling projects.
"We try to keep up with the trends and offer the hottest choices, but we are still competitive in pricing with the Big Box stores," Ryan said.
