Author: Crystal Garcia
Publisher: North Augusta Today
07/15/2008
Website: http://natoday.augusta.com/node/3484
Shops taking shape in Hammond's Ferry
By Crystal Garcia | Staff Writer
Posted July 15, 2008 2:16 PM
Crystal Garcia/Staff
Edge Salon and Spa will open this week in Hammond's Ferry. Manuel's Bread Cafe is coming in September. Two other businesses are expected to open by the end of the year. Edge Salon and Spa will open for business this week in Hammond's Ferry. It is the first of four businesses opening in 2008 and helping the idea of Hammond's Ferry community take shape.
At the entrance to Hammond's Ferry on Crystal Lake Drive, the new businesses form a triangle intersecting at Railroad Avenue. Edge Salon and Spa is on the left side of the street at the stop sign at the entrance.
The salon and spa offers basic shampoo and wash, hair treatments and massage therapy, said owner David Towles.
"I have two estheticians, two massage therapists and eight stylists," he said.
The massage therapists are a husband-and-wife team, Towles said.
Towles, who is known for helping young women prepare for pageants, will provide interview and pageant consulting.
"I was looking for an ideal environment," Towles said about why he chose Hammond's Ferry to open a business. "It is a destination salon.
"I was looking for some place that was going to be a comfortable environment."
Using the services of Manuel's Bread Cafe, which will open in September diagonally from the salon and spa, clients will be able to have food delivered to them from across the street, Towles said.
Along with a full-service salon and spa, Towles will sell accessories, including, hair-care products, handbags, wallets, sunglasses, jewelry and headbands.
The third-largest business-front in the triangle of businesses is almost complete, said Turner Simkins, the Hammond's Ferry project director.
Many business prospects have inquired about the property, he said, and he expects another restaurant to open that will compliment Manuel's Bread Cafe.
Manuel Verney-Carron, of France, specializes in breads and has worked as the head chef at LaMaison on Telfair in Augusta. Simkins said the cafe will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The fourth business, situated on the backside of the salon and spa, could be some sort of Internet-based retail store to complement the other three businesses.
North Augusta Riverfront Co. will work out of the top floor of the salon.
Simkins said the four businesses will be the only ones in that section of Hammond's Ferry. It is actually the "residential" side of town, he said.
The Town Center, which will be near the 13th Street bridge along the river, will house the rest of the businesses.
Other businesses are not expected to begin construction until 2010, he said.
The final Hammond's Ferry community, which will include 800 home sites and 80,000 square feet of retail space, is expected to be completed by 2017, Simkins said.