From staff reports

BRANDON – Business owners in Brandon are building a retail center that will house their shop and five others.

Ellison and Billy Cutrer own Gypsy Trading Co., but they’ve run out of room in their store, which is in an older retail center on Cedar Street.

“We are busting at the seams,” Ellison Cutrer said.

The shop carries mostly handcrafted items by almost 60 makers.  Inventory ranges from home decor to clothing.

Local makers provide much of the inventory in Gypsy Trading Co.

In addition to more room for merchandise, the Cutrers want the extra square feet for teaching weekly classes on skills such as painting and sewing and for hosting children’s birthday parties.

One of the handcrafted items at Gypsy Trading Co.

The 12,000-square-foot retail center on the main north-south route through town, Splitrock Boulevard, will have room for five additional tenants. Gypsy Trading Co.’s current neighbor, Beautique, will lease space in the new building. Negotiations are under way with a third tenant, Cutrer said.

“We’d like more retail shops, and we’d like a café,” she said. Tenants will be able to build out the space to fit their needs. One spot will be able to accommodate a drive-thru.

“We’ve had a lot of buzz and interest,” she said. “People are really excited about it.”

The general contractor, Westmar Construction, expects to be finished with its work before the end of the month. Cutrer estimates it will take a couple of weeks after that for Gypsy’s build-out and move.

“We’re hoping to be in the new store by the end of May or June at the latest.”

Gypsy Trading Co. sells items made by almost 60 makers.

Beautique owner Amanda Christopherson hopes to be in her new space before Mother’s Day. She looks forward to having twice as much space to display clothing and accessories and to handle inventory for the boutique’s online sales.

“When I was just getting started, I did what I could afford to do,” she said of her current space. “Now, I can do what I dreamed of.”

Beautique offers clothing, accessories and gift items.

Chistopherson started the business in the summer of 2014, selling items online and out of her basement and then the garage.

“Then, with winter coming, I said, ‘It’s now or never.’” The retail space opened in November 2014. Now, she has three full-time and five part-time employees.

With the extra room, Christopher plans to offer more kids clothing and add more beauty products. She’d also like to find a vendor who could provide school spirit wear and items promoting Brandon.

Clothing on display at Beautique

Cutrer has been in business almost as long as Christopherson. She and her husband started Gypsy Trading Co. in August 2015. Before giving up their full-time jobs to open the business, the Cutrers had been restoring and selling antique and vintage home décor out of their garage and online.

Beautique and Gypsy Trading Co. will move out of this retail center in Brandon.

She and Christopherson said the new location will provide greater visibility for their businesses. Cutrer said the only negative feedback they’ve heard about the new retail center was from a girl who lives west of the site and was mad that “we took the field where her butterflies were living.”

Hoping to fix that, Billy Cutrer is planning to build her a butterfly house.