Music business grows again

After years of blending in, Scott Johnson is ready to stand out. His business, Northwoods Guitar, moves into the center of three buildings that were the former Louis Cafe on Sept. 1. A bold canopy highlights the site as Northwoods Music, and a blue neon sign will soon do the same.

"I'm going out of my way to make sure my building looks different and separate from the other buildings," Johnson said. "The old charm building thing is nice, but people have to find you."

Johnson's expanding business began as a coffee shop in the storefront area of the Nottingham Apartments building on Tower Avenue's 1800 block. The store offered lattes and cappuccinos, and Johnson taught guitar lessons on the side. Despite a front sign that blended in with the other businesses in the building, the number of people interested in lessons grew. So in 2003, the store changed its focus from Java to music.

"The coffee business just kind of fizzled and my interest was more in guitars anyway," Johnson said.

Store volunteer Wendy Saathoff put it another way.

"It's much easier to make a living selling $150 guitars than $1.50 cups of coffee," she said.

Johnson began teaching full time and the business, renamed Northwoods Guitar, thrived.

"We outgrew (the space)," Saathoff said. "We were giving lessons in the corner of the guitar shop."

So the business hopped down to 1112 Tower Ave., next to Who's Bar. Thursday, the store was filled with sunlight and music. The sound of a piano floated out from one of two back practice rooms and Johnson pulled a warm, mellow note out of a restored Nippon violin before setting it on the shelf for sale.

The store currently sells new and restored string instruments and buys vintage guitars and violins. It is also home base for six music teachers -- including Johnson and his son, Scott Johnson Jr., who both teach guitar.

Abbie DeMeyer, 10, has been taking guitar lessons with Johnson for two years.

"He's fun and he makes everything more interesting," she said.

Other instructors at Northwoods offer violin, piano, drum and bass guitar lessons. A stainless steel kitchen shelf serves as a workshop for Ron Koivisto, who repairs guitars.

The business will morph again with the leap into the 6,000-square foot building at 1606 Tower. Now called Northwoods Music, Johnson will offer band instrument rentals -- trumpets, flutes, clarinets and saxophones -- along with guitars and violins. For a straight rental fee of $100, students can get an instrument for the school year, Johnson said.

The site also boasts a 100-seat recital hall, a family waiting room, two lesson rooms and workshops for both Koivisto and Johnson. The new spot is four times the size of Northwoods Guitar's current space.

"It's pretty huge," Johnson said. Originally, he planned on constructing his own, smaller building. But the former Louis space "was just the best opportunity out there."

And, looking at the current layout, Johnson said it's the perfect fit.

Bruce Thompson, executive vice president and chief lending officer for National Bank of Commerce, which owns the trio of buildings, agreed.

"I think it was a very focal corner," Thompson said, with high visibility in town. "We need to have businesses there."

By the time Northwoods Music opens Sept. 1, all three spots may be taken. The Flame nightclub currently occupies the south building. And a third business is eying the section closest to the library.

"We do have an accepted offer on that," Thompson said. He declined to name the business, but said the deal may close by the end of August.

NBC has been involved in the Louis complex since the 1980s, Thompson said, but have had "a few hiccups" since Louis Cafe left in August of 2004. Braunvieh Cafe and Farm Restaurant purchased the site in the spring of 2006, but closed its doors a year later. The building was empty nearly a year before The Flame Nightclub anchored down the south building, 1612 Tower Ave.

"We felt for a while the best chances for success was to keep the buildings together for a restaurant tenant," Thompson said, but that plan faded. Now, he said, the site will succeed with three synergistic businesses.

Johnson has been putting the finishing touches on the Northwoods Music building after store hours. Once the carpet is laid, he said, it should be ready for the big move.

"We do need all this room and I am sure we will fill it up," Johnson said. Especially now that they are so easy to find.