‘Outside’ to open in OTR
BY STEPFANIE ROMINE | SROMINE@ENQUIRER.COM
Outside, an outdoor décor store, opens Saturday at 16 E. 12th St. in Over-the-Rhine’s Gateway Quarter.
Terry Lee, who spent 18 years in corporate retail jobs, said he hopes the store will “really be a regional destination because of the unusual product mix.”
He said the store is not just for urban dwellers, though he expects the influx of condo buyers in the area to boost sales.
Outside will carry unique outdoor furniture and decorations, including a line called Sticks+Stones that he designed for a Dayton company.
“Nothing I have is immediately available in the Tristate area,” said Lee.
Lee is also a product designer and developer, and after a couple of years of working from his Burlington home, he wanted to get back into retail.
He was set to open in Covington, but then a chance encounter with some Gateway Quarter business owners changed his mind.
Last winter, Lee rented a booth at a home décor convention, where he met George Crawford and Jerry Schmidt of Metronation, the gift and furniture store in Over-the-Rhine.
Crawford told him about Gateway Quarter, and Lee started researching the area.
Early this year, he started readying the 12th Street space, cramming six months of work into two, he said.
He invested $130,000 in loans and his own money to open the 1,500-square-foot store.
Lee said his store will compliment others in the Gateway Quarter, especially City Roots urban garden shop, at 1133 Vine St.
Hours will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information, call 513-744-9344.
