PR Pro Bringing Some Of The ‘Big City’ To St. Stephen With New Co-Working Space
ST. STEPHEN — A public relations professional in St. Stephen is hoping to bring a little bit of the big city to the small town with her new real estate venture.
Holly Johnson and her husband recently purchased 16 King Street in downtown St. Stephen, with plans to renovate it to become a co-working space for creative professionals as well as a home base for her growing PR practice, Holly Johnson Media and Public Relations.
“One of the things with the pandemic is my husband and I started a little bit of real estate investing this year,” says Johnson. “I had little extra time and real estate has always passion of ours for a long time. It started really with just making an appointment.”
They were shown the historic brick building, which was the original home of the St. Croix Courier newspaper, by a local real estate agent. Johnson says they were immediately drawn to the building’s character.
“When we first looked at it, we were initially thinking maybe this would be great for apartments, especially upstairs because it has so much character,” says Johnson.
“This property was once home to the St. Croix Courier newspaper, so when you go upstairs it has these gorgeous Roman arch windows and it’s really a step back in time. You feel like you’re still in the late 1800s when you go upstairs.”
But after further thought, Johnson, who had run her PR practice solo out of her home for years, saw another opportunity.
“I thought, ‘you know, you’ve been home, your kids are almost grown and you’re so close to being empty nesters … Why aren’t you moving your business outside of the home?’ ” says Johnson. “Especially with the pandemic, a lot of people want to break out of the house. I thought now was the time to jump and that upstairs space is absolutely perfect.”
The plan is to turn the building, now dubbed the “King Street Creative Building,” into a co-working space where people working in the creative fields in Charlotte County can work. The top floor’s 2,000-square-foot main room will be an open concept working space, with the backroom becoming a boardroom.
“The whole idea will be an open concept with workspaces where people can come in. Graphic designers, web designers, photographers, writers, anyone in that creative space looking to get out of home, like me,” says Johnson. “This is a place where you can go and have a meeting in the boardroom with people or your clients.”
She also plans to offer the boardroom to the community to rent.
“I have since learned there is a real shortage for community space for boardroom rental space in St. Stephen,” says Johnson. “I’ve already been talking to people about that and being able to use that as a source of income coming in.”
The upstairs space also has a huge vault. Johnson says they’re not sure what it was originally used for, but she has an idea of what it could be now.
“I think it would be an amazing podcasting space for people coming in,” she says.
The King Street Creative Building will also be a home base for future employees Johnson hires for her PR practice.
“I do intend to hire and absolutely want to grow,” she says. “But I think one way to make that happen is to open it as a cooperative space for creatives.”
The building’s bottom retail space, which is currently vacant, will be renovated and rented out, along with another spot in the back.
“It would be a great space for an art gallery or some sort of creative space down there too. It’s going to be gorgeous, and there’s another space at the back that I was told used to be a dance hall in the 1930s, so that’s a third space,” says Johnson.
“The whole focus of the building will be creativity, breathing life into this space, rejuvenating that section of King Street for the town of St. Stephen.”
Though many people from the outside view St. Stephen as a tourist town, or a place you drive through to get to the United States, Johnson describes the town as “booming” with people living, working, and making it their home. Since announcing the project on social media, she says she’s already received a lot of inquiries.
“You’ve probably seen the media coverage of people buying from Ontario and from B.C. and they’re coming and they’re bringing new businesses. There’s a Best Western Hotel that’s going to be built there, there’s a lot of growth that’s happening,” says Johnson.
She hopes the King Street Creative Building will add to that.
“I think one of the other aspects I’m really excited about is getting in early on the growth and offering existing people in the town but also new people coming to town a service they wouldn’t expect,” says Johnson. “There really isn’t anyone doing this in the area and there wasn’t before.”
“It’s going really to be really exciting to have it there and to raise that profile. It will bring a little big city to small-town New Brunswick.”
Johnson says she expects to have the King Street Creative Building open for business within six to eight weeks.