Catawba River Outfitters and Ella Blu Boutique opened in the newly renovated Sadler Square Shopping Center. Store fronts continue to be filled, and a range of restaurants, medical care facilities, and clothing stores are expected to open at the 201 Griffith Street building. Former tenants like OurTown Cinema, The Egg and BK Custom Cleaners are not among the businesses slated to fill the center. Once Piedmont Capital Real Estate LLC, the owners of the Sadler Square Building, finalize two more leases, all business locations will be occupied.
Karsen Osborne owns Ella Blu Boutique, part of a larger franchise. She described the store’s inventory as a “little bit of everything.” “We have great accessories. We have really good bags, and we sell pre-owned designer bags, which that’s obviously a splurge item, but I think that’s something that kind of makes us unique and sets us apart from other boutiques. We do sunglasses, we have belts, jewelry, hats, all the accessories, along with, you know, all the clothing items that you could imagine,” Osborne said.
Jerome Simeon, who is a General Manager for both the Davidson and Belmont locations of Catawba River Provisions, said that the inventory in this store is primarily a mix between outdoor lifestyle and athleisure. “We carry brands like Vuori, which is a really comfortable, athletic kind of lifestyle wear. To, brands like Peter Millar, which is kind of a higher end men’s brand, to Barbour jackets, which are kind of like timeless wax jackets from England, along with a great selection of footwear, from Hoka on and Birkenstocks [….]”
These stores are situated within the newly updated façade and interior of the Sadler Square Shopping Center. Gone is the red brick, replaced by a coat of white paint, just as the green roof has been replaced with black roofing. Jonathan Stewart, a partner at Piedmont Capital, said that renovations to the building were completed around two months before the store’s openings. “The new facades along with other base building improvements such as new roofs, building sprinkler system, new storefronts along with the new parking lot and new pylon signage were completed around August of this year,” Stewart wrote in an email to The Davidsonian.
Catawba River Outfitters opened on Oct. 6 to a fair amount of foot traffic. “We’re pleasantly surprised with the walking traffic. We’ve noticed a lot of people that have come in since we’ve opened are walking distance […] passing by the Sadler square shopping center, and they’re seeing our open sign, which is great, it is visible from the road,” Simeon said.
Ella Blu Boutique has had similar beneficial experiences with pedestrian traffic since the store’s opening on October 10. Obsorne said that despite hosting a soft opening with little advertising, people have still found the store. “We have the now open banner, and most people that have come in say that it’s because of the banner, but for how well we’ve done without any advertisement, I’m really pleased. As we continue to advertise, it should hopefully only get better,” Osborne said.
The stores will host a grand opening on Oct. 25. “We’re actually, we’re actually having the ribbon cutting with the mayor as well. We’ll also have maybe from Kiss 95.1 a local DJ and he is going to be playing some music doing some giveaways,” Simeon said. These giveaways include raffles for a Badfish stand up paddle board, a $500 Peter Millar shopping spree, and a pair of Costa Sunglasses.
As these businesses celebrate their openings, more openings of other shops in the center can be expected down the line. Renjoa Wellness, owned by Davidson locals, is currently under construction and is expected to open this fall. “Renoja is a wellness, longevity and athletic recovery studio providing holistic health services such as red-light therapy, cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen, infrared sauna, dry float, halotherapy, PEMF and compression therapy in one location,” Stewart wrote. Rise Modern Dentistry is also under construction and expected to open this fall as well.
Further down the line, construction is expected to begin on Rooster’s Wood Fired Kitchen as well as Copain Bakery. Both of these restaurants are part of The Noble Food and Pursuits family, a southeast based restaurant and hospitality group. Rooster’s serves up southern food through the European tradition, and Copain Bakery is a Boulangerie and Patisserie concept. These two restaurants are slated to open in the Spring or Summer of 2026.
Leases are still being finalized on other tenants. In a site plan provided by Piedmont Capital to The Davidsonian, F&B Local Burger Place is listed as an incoming tenant. Though not paired with specific business names, a frozen dessert shop, greek restaurant, and medical primary care are also all listed as future tenants. “Once we finalize the two remaining leases, we will be 100% occupied,” wrote Stewart.