“It was a big hassle to move, like serious stress,” says Ann Arbor Running Company owner Ian Forsyth. In April, he and his partner Nick Stanko were forced to relocate their flagship Oak Valley Centre running gear store to the Colonnade on Eisenhower. Forsyth says landlord Oak Valley Partners LLC, who also own The Colonnade, pushed them out to make room for an as-yet-unidentified new furniture store that will take over both the AARC spot and the one vacated by Total Hockey in 2016.
The news isn’t all bad: Forsyth says he and Stanko are grateful to have gotten a nearby location (most recently used as storage space for Panera) so quickly, and the landlord paid for the move. Plus, business has picked up where it left off. “We wanted to stay close to [Oak Valley] because we do very well on this side of town,” he says. The new Colonnade AARC is smaller than the original, but the merchandise is the exact same, Forsyth assures. The main loss was an extra room they had used for clinics and meetings. For now they plan to hold those in the finished basement of their secondary Kerrytown location.
Ultimately, says Forsyth, “We’re happy to be here and happy to get lots of Ann Arbor support.” They’ve already begun hosting “Colonnade runs” for the dedicated AARC community.
Ann Arbor Running Company, 901 W. Eisenhower. 662-2400. Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m. annarborrunningcompany.com
