If your river-adjacent arts space was recently destroyed by flood waters, would you rebuild in the exact same spot?
Initially, Marquee co-founder/owner Robert Nicholas’ answer was “no.” Home to over 300 artists, makers, antique dealers and small-business owners for the past three years, his enterprise within the River Arts District’s Foundation Studios community was one of numerous structures along the French Broad River ravaged by Tropical Storm Helene.
In addition to being overrun by 15 feet of water, flood debris crashed into the building, tore down the back walls and blasted through the entrance. Nicholas estimates that 75% of what was inside washed out of the building and that over 100,000 items in Marquee’s inventory were compromised.
Visiting the property in the storm’s aftermath, he contemplated the logic of reinvesting in such a fragile spot and wondered how he could expect vendors to locate their businesses in a former — and potentially future — disaster zone.
“But I’ve changed my thinking,” he says. “I’ve heard from so many of the artists and vendors who’ve said, ‘I’ll be the first to sign up [if you reopen]. You say when.’ It’s been very encouraging.”
The way back
Further raising Nicholas’ spirits is a commitment by the Marquee building’s owners to prioritize repairing the structural damage. However, that still leaves the costly undertaking of rebuilding the infrastructure of the 50,000-square-foot former warehouse.
Like many local businesses facing financial uncertainty post-Helene, Nicholas launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with expenses. But he says Marquee was “late to the game on purpose” in timing its call for donations.
“I didn’t feel right doing one because I knew that there were lives still missing. There were people trying to figure out ‘What am I going to do?’ or their homes were messed up,” Nicholas says. “I felt like those were greater needs than ours, even though we had 300 jobs, plus our employees.”
Marquee’s GoFundMe set a $500,000 goal. As of press time, nearly $40,000 has been raised, and Nicholas is optimistic that the intended amount will eventually be met. With most of the local arts and antique industry wiped out by post-Helene flooding, he feels that there’s “a real need” for Marquee to reopen and that the original spot remains the best option.
“We looked at some other opportunities that were not in River Arts, and none of them felt right. It felt like it was going to be forced,” he says. “I probably bleed River Arts District if you cut me because that’s my home. That’s my family. That’s my community, and that’s where I want to continue to invest — and take a risk.”
Nicholas adds that he’s “lived risky [his] whole life” and, despite the gut-punch of Helene, he’s willing to take another chance on Marquee. For the business’s second iteration, much of the interior will be rebuilt in the same fashion as its original version, complete with gallery walls and enclosures, sales counters, an office and a shipping room. But certain details will be tweaked to improve the space for customers, clients and staff alike.
“When people walk in, I want it to feel like there’s a familiarity, but it feels different and it feels better,” Nicholas says. “We’re hoping by next fall — late summer, early fall — we would be ready to open the doors again.”
‘This is my community’
The Marquee team also runs the Uncommon Market, a monthly pop-up where 100-plus artists sell their wares over the course of a weekend. Usually held in the Foundation parking lot, the event’s September and October editions were canceled as cleanup continued in the River Arts District. However, the annual Holiday Market will take place Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 7-8, in the Haywood Park Hotel’s event space.
While Nicholas and his crew look forward to the Market and reconnecting with participating artists — some of whom they haven’t seen since Helene hit — their larger goal remains bringing back Marquee in full. That commitment dates to 2013 when he opened antique furniture and custom lighting store Splurge in the Wedge Studios building.
“I looked everywhere — I looked downtown, I looked on [Swannanoa] River Road, where Antique Row was,” he says. “I just kept being drawn to the River Arts District. I was like, ‘This is my community. This is where I want to be.’”
Though Splurge’s location was terrific, Nicholas gradually yearned for more regular interactions with fellow artists, which led to the launch of Marquee. It’s those connections that he wants to restore and is hopeful will fill his business’s walls once the space reopens.
“I really feel like Marquee created an environment to bring people together,” Nicholas says. “It was the relationships spawned from the staff to the artists and the antique dealers to even our customers. It was almost like our fans became our friends.”
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Doesn’t Eddie Dewey own the Marquee business? – and the building it is housed in? Did Marquee employ 300 people or did over 300 artists pay to have space in Marquee? Those people lost their livelihood, and while having space to return to is important, it should be clear that any money raised will go to rebuilding space to rent, not to artists.