Two couples with longtime downtown Chelsea business ties have each purchased half of the former Chelsea Village Hardware building–vacant since the store closed in January 2013–and are renovating their spaces separately for retail openings in the new year. Bill and Pam Conn of Mule Skinner Boot Shop will move their vast selection of boots and Western wear from their Main St. shop to the new location down the street. And Scott and Bonnie Cook, owners of downtown’s Potting Shed, Potting Shed on Main, and Cut Loose Clothing, will open a store devoted to baby and children’s gifts and toys in their half of the space.

“The right location came up,” explains Bill Conn, who adds it was an opportunity to own their own building on Main with better parking. He started selling his handcrafted leather belts and barrettes in 1969 from a card table in the Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market and ran Mule Skinner in two different spots in Ann Arbor before moving it to Chelsea nineteen years ago. Pam says the shop attracts everyone from business executives to foreigners to farmers–including lots of female shoppers. She pulls out a pair of best-selling Tony Lama boots for women with brown embroidery and turquoise accents. Many of the boots in the store, she admits, “are way too pretty to ride in.” Bill also designs custom boots and makes leather belts, gun holsters, and concealment vests.

For Scott and Bonnie Cook, who opened their first Potting Shed location in a tiny storefront on W. Middle St. twelve years ago, their newest venture “is an investment in our future,” Bonnie says. Scott, a builder, has renovated each of the properties as their businesses expanded. “We make a pretty good team,” Bonnie says from the sales counter at the Potting Shed, where she sells a whimsical assortment of new and vintage gifts and garden items. She says her children’s and baby items upstairs have been popular, which is why she’ll feature them at the new location. “We’ve been collecting lots of vintage Fifties and Sixties baby items” for display in the new store, she says. Vintage “stork” flowerpots and Fisher Price toys will be for sale, along with baby and children’s clothes up to age six.

The 1890s building near the railroad tracks is partitioned into four retail spaces. While the Cooks plan to use both their spaces for their new store, the Conns are looking for a retailer to rent half their space. Both couples plan to rent out office space above their shops.

The Conns plan to move Mule Skinner Boots after Christmas and will host a grand opening in February during Chelsea’s Chocolate Extravaganza. Bonnie says she and Scott plan to open their shop–the name yet to be revealed–in “early spring or sooner.”

In May, Dollar Tree filled another vacancy in the Chelsea Shopping Center, next door to Family Farm & Home. Store manager Linda Brown knows the spot well: she worked there years ago when it was first an Ames and then a Pamida store. Sporting a Dollar Tree green polo shirt and matching painted fingernails, she laughs and says, “Green is my favorite color!”

Brown says party supplies and household items are the biggest sellers. A teacher going through Brown’s line purchases a dozen pencil cases. For teachers, she says, it’s economical to shop here for large quantities. A mother shopping with her two young sons laments the closing of Dollar Arena Plus, across the road, after Dollar Tree opened. “We used to find things there that we couldn’t find anywhere else,” she says of the independently owned shop. “The family was so nice.”

Dollar Tree, 1044 S. Main St. (Chelsea Shopping Center), 433-9980, Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

The Golden Apple, specializing in sterling silver and semiprecious gemstone jewelry, closed its doors at the end of July. For almost fifteen years Bill Rotay ran the small shop on Main St. next door to Reed Barbering-Gary’s, which he described in a recent Facebook post as “my second home.” Rotay could not be reached for comment but wrote in another post that “it’s time for a change.”

Chelsea Hearth and Fireplaces is moving from Oak Tree Plaza to the former Russell Cellular store in the Clocktower Commons. A grand reopening is planned for mid-September. “We’ll have twice the space and can triple our displays,” says owner Chris Livengood. The business sells freestanding stoves, fireplace inserts, and furnaces fueled by corn, wood, pellets, coal, or natural gas.

Chelsea Hearth & Fireplaces, moving to 350 N. Main St. (Clocktower Commons), 433-1461, chelseahearthandfireplaces.com, Tues.-Fri. noon-6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Closed Sun. and Mon. (Hours are subject to change.)