The Shops Around the Corner

In 2006, Curtis Bashaw of Cape Resorts Group acquired a former car dealership and gas station on Perry Street in West Cape May, with an eye toward redeveloping it as office space.

The Great Recession made quick work of that plan.

With capital scarce, Bashaw decided not to proceed with a planned overhaul of the former Buick showroom, which dates back to the 1920s. Instead, he opted for what Wendy Guiles calls “a barebones renovation.”

“We wanted to find a way to lessen the financial burden, and the most economical way was to turn the space into an antique cooperative,” says Guiles, general manager of the shopping destination now known as the West End Garage. “That meant just putting up walls for the stalls, making sure the roof and windows didn’t leak, and then renting the space.”

To cut labor and other costs, Cape Resorts maintained much of the look of the almost century-old dealership—and that was a good thing. The roof was replaced, a drainage system installed, and some windows and pressed tin replaced, but old wooden beams were exposed to form a gridwork under 12-foot ceilings, and the original scuffed concrete floors remain intact.

Overall, the stripped-down space with its warren of vendor stalls has a quasi-industrial look and a friendly, rough-hewn charm. To complete the picture, there’s a spic-and-span red-brick storefront, and the whole place opens into the Beach Plum Bakery, which opened in 2015.

Something Old, Something New

When the garage-turned-shopping complex first opened in August 2009, the vendor spaces were one-third full, says Guiles. “By November, we had a waiting list.”

The cooperative approach appealed to entrepreneurs for one big reason: “It gave them an opportunity to sell their merchandise without a storefront of their own, and without spending a lot of money,” a critical factor in Cape May, where commercial rents can be steep.

The original group of antique dealers was soon joined by estate jewelers, boutique owners, artists, craftspeople, woodworkers and other purveyors of quirky, custom-made, unusual and offbeat merchandise.

Today, the West End Garage, a moderate, pleasant walk from the Cape Resorts flagship at Congress Hall, is home to more than 60 vendors, all under one roof, selling everything from maritime memorabilia to original art to salvaged architectural items, fair trade apparel, children’s toys, and more.

West End Story

Susan Lotozo, proprietor of the Flying Fish Studio, has been a vendor at West End Garage “since Day One”—even though her retail store is directly across the street, on Park Boulevard.

A former general manager of Cape Resorts’ Virginia Hotel, Lotozo got in because she was confident that any Cape Resorts enterprise was likely to succeed. “I just know how Curtis and his team do things. I knew all the guests in all the hotels would be told about the West End Garage, because they co-market all of their properties. I knew I wouldn’t have to do any advertising.” She started with a small booth, and it worked out so well, she moved into two larger ones.

“I thought I was going to compete with myself, but in the winter my space at the West End Garage outperforms my retail store, especially if it’s cold and rainy,” Lotozo observes. “The West End introduces me to a new customer who might never find me here in the winter. It adds a lot to my bottom line, and I’ve never ever had a month when I did not make a positive cash flow.”

On a recent Sunday afternoon, dozens of shoppers roved the space, which flows, mazelike, from one vendor stall to another, almost without demarcation. Many of the spaces are no bigger than a linen closet. The space is delightfully (but not overly) crowded with unusual wares: mermaid lamps, brass porthole clocks, hand-tooled jewelry, hand-painted stemware, sea glass-inspired framed landscapes. And though this is Cape May, where premium prices are not surprising, here high-end resort wear hangs alongside souvenir T-shirts and ball caps, and anyone with a few dollars to spare could find a gift item or memento.

The Greater Goods

Rebecca Holden is the proprietor of Eastward, which offers coastally influenced clothing, handbags and other accessories. Her goal as a vendor was to offer “reasonably priced, nicely made things that somebody actually touched”—in other words, nothing mass-produced.

Her suppliers include “many women-owned small and local businesses” who share her philosophy of sustainability, using recycled packing materials, packaging, and elements that can be repurposed. One example is Paddywax candles, made by a team of 150 chandlers based in Nashville. The hand-poured, soy-based candles come in bowls and other decorative vessels that are just too useful and pretty to throw away.

Along with the work of local artisans and crafters, Eastward shoppers are likely to find beaded cuff bracelets from Tanzania; African squash-blossom necklaces of sea glass and brass; and handmade bags from Bali.

Holden likes the simplicity and affordability of the West End. “It just costs so much to open a store and buy things to fill it. This is an easier way.” To make things even easier, the shopkeepers don’t actually have to keep shop. Guiles and her staff hold down the fort and process the purchases. But Holden stops in whenever she’s able. “I’m down here a lot, because I love interacting and talking with people and seeing what they’re interested in. To me, it’s more than just buying and selling, for sure. That’s why I enjoy it so much.” In her view, such cooperative shopping spaces could be “the future of retail.”

Birds of a Feather

In 2017, after almost 25 years in the retail business, Sharon Flanagan and Ken Low closed their specialty store, the Bird House of Cape May on Sunset Boulevard. But they couldn’t quite call it a retirement.

“We had been with the West End Garage for seven or eight years, selling from both locations,” says Flanagan. “Now we’ve gone from 1,000 square feet to 100. Call it our semi-retirement plan.” 

Their birdhouses—handmade of wood, metal or stoneware and handcrafted from gourds—are all made in the United States. There are big houses for purple martins, and little houses for wrens. There are white Cape Cods for modest living, and multicolored gabled Victorian styles that would look right at home on any street in Cape May.

Many are fashioned from lumberyard overruns, says Flanagan—sustainability again. And they’re built to last. One supplier from Mississippi uses wood from the state’s legendary cypress swamps. “They hold up forever,” says Flanagan.

The couple offers bird-themed wind chimes, ceramic birdbaths, bird feeders, and field guides for birders. Of necessity, they also give advice: how to keep squirrels, starlings and other unwanted visitors at bay; how to attract the most prized songbirds; and how to keep your feathered friends well-fed and thriving all year round.

Like other vendors at the West End Garage, Flanagan says the cooperative model works in a changing retail environment. “In the past we’ve had seasonal challenges, but you can plan for seasonal. It’s online retail that’s had a bigger impact. The recession hit a lot of independent stores, and when sales came back, they were pretty much online.”

She values the kind of hometown patronage of “Main Street” businesses that she finds in Cape May. “Definitely, the locals know and support each other as much as we can,” she says, “But most of our business is really from our visitors, and it’s wonderful to get to know them year after year.”

Be Our Guests

The West End Garage does a brisk trade in the summer and intermittently in the off-season, Guiles says. “We’re busy from the end of June when school lets out through the second week of September, and then busy on weekends. We have a bustling holiday season from Thanksgiving through the new year. December is busy every day. And Christmas is our peak season.”

Perhaps especially in the colder weather, visitors can take a break at the Beach Plum Café to warm up with a cup of coffee or cappuccino and a home-baked treat. Many of the delicacies in this farm-to-table bakery are fresh from Cape Resorts’ Beach Plum Farm, including fruits and vegetables, herbs, ham and bacon.

“In the winter,” says Lotozo, “people will go in there and spend hours just browsing.”

Rebecca Holden says being at the West End Garage lets her offer shoppers “that special item or gift you can’t find on Amazon. I want our customers to touch something and appreciate it and know, ‘Somebody made this by hand.’”

Sharon Flanagan has just one problem with the space. “I can’t bring my wallet into work—it’s too dangerous, because I know I would be buying everything in sight.

“It’s a nice group of people and a nice mix of merchants, and the customers—we call them our guests—they are all excited about being in Cape May. That’s one of the nice things about being in a resort environment. People are happy. They’re on vacation. They’re relaxed and there to have a good time. It’s a nice, pleasant way to be semi-retired.”