Jill Terrill beside the fireplace in Threads, her retail shop in the old Lind Chevrolet building in downtown Grand Marais. Terrill bought the building in October and has big plans for creating a community gathering spot there.
Changes are in the works for the old Lind Chevrolet garage on the east side of 1st Avenue West in downtown Grand Marais. The building’s new owner, Jill Terrill, would like to see it become a gathering space for community members as well as an attraction that could benefit local entrepreneurs.
Terrill bought the building from Tom Kurschner October 1, a year from when she opened Threads, a retail store featuring clothing and jewelry at discounted prices. “I’m like a small town TJ Maxx,” Terrill said. “I see it as a service. …My goal is to bring quality merchandise closer to home.”
“Threads kind of started as a fluke,” Terrill said. She liked shopping for deals, and friends started asking her to keep a lookout for deals on various things they needed. She tries to avoid having people buy clothes they will see someone else walking down the street in.
Threads offers a “range of price points,” Terrill said. She buys at the lowest prices possible, allowing her to sell at half the original price.
Thestore attracts both locals and tourists, she said, but “the locals are the bread and butter.” Sizes range from newborn to petites to women’s 3X.
Terrill also offers personal shopping services, which she starting doing before opening her retail shop. She will order, for example, five pairs of jeans for a client to try on and will return what doesn’t work for them. This has been especially helpful for people like care center residents who would have difficulty shopping around for clothes. She knows brands that work well with certain body types and often saves clients money in the process, she said. “I’m making it easier to make wise choices,” she said.
Terrill tries to help people find what looks good on them. If a client tries something on that doesn’t seem just right, she will quote an old friend: “It hums, but it doesn’t sing.” On the store’s fireplace mantel, Terrill has a collection of books intended to help people find clothes that look good on them.
Terrill would like to offer “girls’ night out” parties where women could gather to snack on hors d’oeuvres, try on clothes, and get facials or manicures.
As Threads took off, Terrill started to imagine how else she could benefit the community. She was able to purchase the building and has named her business “Joy Enterprises, LLC.” She got the name from the last journal entry of a friend of hers, Edie Broschat, who died with her husband and daughter in a car accident 14 years ago: “Joy is a decision.”
This fall, Terrill started renovating the building by having a new roof put on. She has big plans for its 2,500 feet of space, the back of which she calls “‘The Garage’…My goal is to retain the vintage look and feel of ‘The Garage,’” she says in her business plan. She envisions antique vendors and local crafters and artisans selling their wares on commission, home-based businesses renting retail space on the weekends, and local nonprofits and youth organizations fundraising with concessions. Toward that end she has purchased a coffee/soft serve ice cream trailer for fundraising groups to use.
Terrill would like her building to help build economic infrastructure into the community. “I can provide a living wage for one person with this space (maybe),” Terrill’s business plan states, “or supplemental income for a broad range of Cook County residents. …I propose to develop a cooperative market where residents of Cook County can market their wares, skills and talents.”
Terrill envisions the building becoming an indoor-outdoor community gathering space in the summertime. She hopes to offer family-friendly movies and bring in local musicians. She would like to offer a large space for class reunions, family gatherings, and community events. She plans to create a beautiful outdoor space behind the building for people to stroll through or rest in.
Terrill has offered one of her outside walls to the Sawtooth Elementary fourth and fifth grade classes so they can continue their tradition of creating mosaics as they have done outside the Whole Foods Co-Op.
Many may not realize that the Lind Chevrolet building has an apartment on the second floor. Terrill wants to see the whole building used well. “Let’s use some of the infrastructure that’s already here,” she said of the commercial buildings in downtown Grand Marais.
“I love developing this idea into something,” Terrill said.
Prior to Threads, The Garage, and Joy Enterprises, she was working on developing her talent for art quilting. She envisions getting back to that at some point. “I have things I need to say through my quilts, or want to say.” Her first art quilt was called “Joy is a Decision,” made in memory of Edie Broschat and her family. It is displayed at the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic where Edie practiced medicine and where Jill’s husband, Dr. Paul Terrill, works.
Terrill is comfortable with both the business and the creative aspects of what she is doing now. She is grateful for technical support and mentoring she has received through the Northeast Entrepreneurial Fund.
As she works on the building, Terrill thinks about its history. “I have people coming in all the time telling me stories about when they worked here.” She wants to highlight “vintage Grand Marais” and plans to display historic photos in the walkway where people will enter from the street. She even has the original “Gunflint Trail bear” that topped the sign leading to the old Gunflint Trail.
Is she surprised she is doing this? “Yah,” she said. “I’m surprised that things have gone so well. …I enjoy the business, but I enjoy the connection to people that flows through all of it.”
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