At the end of March, 2009, our lease for our space in the Van Aken Center expires. Earlier in 2008, we began a process to review our options which included staying in our current location or moving to a new space. We saw this as an opportunity to upgrade our facilites to better accomodate our changing business.

Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, the greatest percentage of our business came from film processing and printing. But, times have significantly changed. Today, the majority of our business comes from portraits and event photography. We still do a significant amount of digital and film printing, and, we have expanded our offerings in print scanning and VHS to DVD transfers. But, our current store configuation makes it difficult to efficiently and effectively serve your needs.

Besides, we have not been able to refresh and modernize our store appearance and thought that this time presented the best opportunity to clean up our act.

So, at the end of our evaluation process, we were faced with two good options. The first was to renew our current lease agreement and remodel our store. The second was to purchase our own building and start from scratch. We choose the second option.

Besides the value of moving to a new location that is designed for our current needs, this building acquisition demonstrates our commitment to our community. When other businesses are closing or moving to more distant suburbs, we have chosen to stay near our customers. Our investment helps the community by modernizing an old building and making that part of the Van Aken Shopping District more alive and vibrant.

Where

We have entered into a Purchase Agreement to acquire the property that was formerly the Elsner's Steak and Steam on Chagrin Boulevard, just a stone's throw from our current location. Our new neighbors will include Chandler and Rudd, Bicycle Boulevard, Curves, Wendy's, Geno's Hair & Nail and the Malcolm Brown Gallery. Our main entrance will be behind the building, coming in from the parking lot. You will be able to get to the parking lot by traveling on Lomond and turning in near the intersection with Chagrin Boulevard.

Hopefully, we will attract more walkers and bicycle riders who might find this location more convenient for them.

When

Since our lease expires at the end of March, 2009, we need to move before then. And, there is a lot of work to be done. We need to demolish the entire interior which includes remnants of the restaurant, the sauna, the steam room and the showers. Then, the entire space must be built out in a manner to best accomodate our business. This means better portrait studios. More comfortable portrait sales areas. And, a far better digital kiosk facility without the sun glare, the cold wintry winds and the baking hot summer sun.

Additional Details

It is our plan to have our store closed on Sundays beginning in January to make it easier for us to clean out our current store and move things to the new store. We hope this will not be an inconvenience for you and we plan to reopen on Sundays sometime after we make our move.

We are sacrificing the large parking lot in front of our store for a more challenging parking area behind the new one. We think it will be a bit more challenging because if you pass the new store traveling east on Chagrin Boulevard, you have to go all the way around the block to get back to the Lomond entrance to the parking area. But, we promise to make the new parking area and store entrance easy to access and it will be secure. We hope you will find it more convenient.

Even though we plan to do a fair amount of publicity as we are moving, frequently, our customers don't get the message. They might show up at our old location and think we just closed. Please help us spread the word.

We also want to apologize in advance for the state of our current store. It has become old and somewhat shabby. We have deliberately chosen to not invest in new paint and other cosmetic improvements so that we can focus our efforts on our new store. So, forgive us for the torn wallpaper, the cracks in the laminate on the counters and the sample portraits that have been on the walls forever. Our new store will be a fresh new beginning.

We would like to thank our long-time landlord, RMS Investment Corporation, and the members of the Ratner, Miller and Shafron families who are part of RMS. You showed confidence in us when we started in 1989. You have provided us with a good home for many years.