Isabella’s Collection (201 E. Dewey), the popular boutique store known for its sassy shirts and strong community spirit, is going to be leaving the home it’s had since 2006 at the Westfall building on the northeast corner of Dewey and Park.
Mark Nerrin, the building’s owner, has decided the time is right to put the place up for sale after watching the interest in downtown buildings grow over the last few years.
“It’s always been a situation where, if the right person came along with the right amount of money, I probably would’ve taken them up on it,” he said in a recent phone interview with Sapulpa Times.
Thankfully, that particular scenario never happened, but the last few years of watching other downtown buildings being sold—some reopening, others currently undergoing renovations, and still others at a standstill—have given Nerrin confidence that the area is still hot and the building won’t stay on the market long. “I’m sure it will sell,” he said.
Nerrin says he plans to put the building on the market near the start of 2022 but has a few preparations to make that would require its existing tenants to relocate. One of them, Balamachi Salon & Spa, has rented a space upstairs for years but has already relocated to a new location further east on Dewey Ave. The other, more prominent business—Isabella’s Collection—is taking the time to celebrate its last holiday season at the Westfall location before moving to a new place, which is yet to be determined.
“We haven’t made any firm decisions about where we will be moving to at all,” says owner Sherrie Curtis, who started the business in 2000 in another location, but moved to the Westfall building in 2006. “We are exploring all the possibilities that are available.”
Curtis has nothing but great things to say about Nerrin, whom she described as “the best landlord ever.”
“Mark has been great enough to let us have this last Christmas in ‘our’ building,” Curtis said, adding that, for now, they are just focusing “on having a fun Christmas where we are, and helping customers, Jingle Bells, things at hand.”
“Jingle Bells,” which officially kicked off on Saturday’s Spooktacular Trails and Treats event at Kelly Lane Park, is the perennial holiday shopping contest that encourages shoppers to keep it local while enticing them with the chance to win some big bucks. The season is always a big one for the downtown merchants, most of whom have been participating for years.
Curtis says the iconic birthday for the boutique is a big deal, but she can’t believe it got here so quickly. “I’ve had so much fun it doesn’t seem that long!” she exclaimed.
Though getting to where they are now might’ve seemed like a rush, just settling on a name for the boutique was a three-month process, as she describes it. “My father was very definite that it should have the word ‘Collection’ in it…he was right—that is my personality,” Curtis said.
While getting her hair cut one day, her stylist, Deana Engle, was looking up the meanings of some of the names. When she learned that Isabella meant “pledge to God,” she knew that was it. “No more discussion,” she said.
The rest, as they say, is history. Though they are still figuring out the future, Curtis says they’re just happy for all the love and support their “customer-friends” have given the past 21 years, and she’s looking forward to sharing more in the near future “We will let everyone know of our new plans soon!”
