Retail center to open in Vista

A new retail center will open on Gervais Street this summer with two new tenants and space for two more.

If Its Paper and SmartPhone Medic will move into the 9,000-square-foot, two-story center at 1801 Gervais St.

Bobbitt Design Build recently began transforming the building formerly a Michelin tire shop and plans to wrap up construction by July, a spokeswoman said. The new tenants will move in July 1.

If Its Paper will move to the more centrally located downtown site from North Main Street, taking a 4,000-square-foot chunk of the Gervais Street building, developer Cubby Culbertson said. Culbertson also owns a piece of each of the two stores that are moving into the spot.

Both of them are tired looking stores, Culbertson said. The new site will give them a fresh look in a good location, he said.

For SmartPhone Medic, it is much-needed space, he said.

The store, which repairs smartphones, has been operating out of a 200-square-foot spot nearby on Devine Street since August 2009, when it opened with a single employee. The new location will have about 1,100 square feet, Culbertson said, and employ nine.

The new store will have an iPad lab for repairing tablet computers and will include more display space. iPads becoming a huge market for us, Culbertson said.

The building also will include a 1,200-square-foot retail space upstairs, which Culbertson said would be a good fit for another tech business, such as computer repair or printing, or a business geared toward women, the target customer for If Its Paper.

The buildings downstairs will have another 4,000-square-foot space that could be used for retail, office or warehouse space, Culbertson said.

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Retail center to open in Vista