2009.04.22
Blacksburg's Daily Grind for sale
The Daily Grind, a coffee shop in Blacksburg's Collegiate Square on Turner Street just across the street from Virginia Tech, is for sale.
Gary Nelson, who co-owns the shop with his wife Cathy, lives in Martinsville and confirmed the store had been listed for sale for about three weeks on Craigslist, and was formally listed for sale Tuesday (4/21) with a listing agent.
"The only reason we're selling it is it's hard to handle from two hours away," Gary Nelson said in a phone interview from Martinsville Wednesday. "The one here [in Martinsville] it works pretty well but I'm right here, and it's just hard to get up there even once a week when I'm doing all these other jobs."
The couple also owns The Daily Grind in Martinsville, and Gary Nelson works at the New College Institute there, so that doesn't leave much time for traveling to Blacksburg, he said.
"That one's our baby," Gary Nelson said of the Martinsville location, which they opened in Nov. 2007. "That's the one we really need to focus on."
They bought the Blacksburg location from the Daily Grind parent company in August 2008, and did some remodeling, including painting the walls, installing new flooring and buying new chairs. The location has been open for about five years altogether, Nelson said.
The Daily Grind is part of a franchise, so anyone interested in purchasing the business would have to be approved by the company and then trained in company policy and procedure. Buyers would be purchasing the four remaining years on the five-year franchise lease, but could decide to renew the lease or become independent at the end of the four years, Nelson said.
"They'd be purchasing it as-is, so it's a really good opportunity for someone," Nelson said. "I'd train whoever wanted to take it over."
--Amy Matzke-Fawcett
