This past November 9th saw the opening of yet another venture aimed to bring more business to the town of Houghton. Buddy’s Place, which had its first open house then, currently offers spaces for rent to community members, students, and other interested renters in the area to retail artisan crafts and other goods.
Although the establishment has received support from the Houghton Group, a collection of professors and community members interested in bringing business and further economic development to the Houghton area, the venture itself was spearheaded by Ralph Kerr, Houghton Group member and owner of the upcoming Genesee Rapids baseball team. Ken Bates, business professor at Houghton and Houghton Group member, said, “We began considering this about three months ago if my recollection is correct. When Ralph brought up the ideas there was an immediate positive reaction and several began suggesting possible businesses that would be interested possibilities.” Added Kerr, “We kind of play off each other and if somebody has an idea, we may just throw it out there.”
The name comes from Buddy Keith, a member of the Houghton community member who passed away about a year ago. “”Buddy was the headmaster of the Houghton Academy for years and years and he and his wife–this was their family home,” explained Kerr. “To the people that live in this area, Buddy Keith was like an icon.”
With eight total rooms open for rental, Buddy’s Place offers spaces at rates per square foot as well as deals on full-, half-, and quarter-room rentals. Several community members have expressed interest in renting spaces. Stephanie Wittenrich, administrative assistant for the Genesee Rapids who is also involved with the project, described the visitors as “a lot of local crafters, just a lot of community members that are crafty but … want to team up with other people. There’re a lot of people in the community that are creative and belong to little groups, so they just do crafts on their own. So, they’re all trying to look at forming groups to rent out spaces together.”
According to Wittenrich and Kerr, two of the available rooms have already been taken. “The first people in this morning… they run a place called ‘Tracy’s Delightfuls.’ They do gift baskets and sell candles and home decorating kinds of things and they also run the Tuxedo Junction tuxedo rental shop…” said Kerr during the open house. Other interested parties have come from the local Allegany Artisans. In addition to accommodating community members, Kerr has also expressed a willingness to work with college faculty and students in putting their pieces up for sale. “We know that, particularly for the students, they’re not going to be in a place where they can commit to a rental,” said Kerr. “But, we’d like to work out something where we could give them a wall to display their stuff and leave it here under consignment or something.”