‘It’s a shame to be thrown out’: Landmark Hilton Head businesses given 45 days to move
When Rick Tramuta’s daughter handed him a letter last Wednesday, he knew it’d change his life.
It wasn’t in a good way.
The letter said Tramuta would have to pack up his business of 32 years — aptly named The Barber Shop — at 55 Mathews Drive, and move it somewhere new in 45 days.
Tramuta is not alone. Managers and staff at at least seven other businesses — including Healthy Habit, Pan Fresco Ole, Parks Auto Shop, Lowcountry Mercantile, Nail Tech, Good Health Unlimited and Express Wok — have all gotten the same letter.
The “Triangle Square” strip mall on Mathews Drive has been a central shopping center since the 1970s.
Tramuta has watched it grow up.
But he said he had a feeling the letter was coming.
For the last several weeks, rumors were flying that Public Storage, the company that owns the building and all the storage units behind it, was going to redevelop the area.
Last time he saw Candess Wing, regional leasing manager at Public Storage, Tramuta asked if he should be looking for a new place to run his business.
She was vague, but Tramuta knew what that meant.
Now, he’s got until mid-May to pack up over 100 antique weapons and animal heads that hang on the shop’s walls.
The shop is run by Tramuta and his wife, Karen, who are both barbers. Alongside them is Jeff Land, their son-in-law, and three other friends and family members.
“We know everybody’s name that comes through that door,” Land said. “It’s a shame to be thrown out just for more storage.”
The shop is familiar — when customers enter, they quickly meet a stuffed beaver, and they’re sometimes greeted by a barber saying, “Would you like some water? We don’t have any!”
That sense of tradition is going to be hard to say goodbye to, but like his father-in-law, Land said he saw it coming.
“Some people came in six months ago to measure the space,” he said. “They’re not trying to fill the empty spaces (in the strip mall) ... even the landscaping (crews) quit coming.”
What will happen to 55 Mathews Drive?
The business owners were told they’re being moved because Public Storage is going to convert their stores into more storage units.
The area falls in an “opportunity zone,” a relatively new designation for “an economically-distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment,” according to the IRS website.
That means investors who buy into the new storage units could get tax breaks if they stick with the project over time.
Three calls to Public Storage and Candess Wing were not returned Monday.
Tramuta said what the company is doing is totally legal because an addendum to his contract in 2017 allowed the owner to terminate with 45 days notice.
He said he’s going to relocate his business to Berkeley Place in Bluffton, which is closer to where his family lives anyway.
“I’ve been out in Bluffton for the last 20 years,” he said. “It’s the epicenter of growth right now.”
A few doors down from The Barber Shop, Millie Burke was working on projects at the Lowcountry Mercantile — a jewelry and linen store. She has a sign on her front door that the shop will be moving across the street to Northridge Plaza in June.
She said rent will be higher, but she’ll have to make it work. Burke said she’s lucky, and that not everyone else in the mall knows where they are going yet.
“There are people whose livelihoods are in here and (Public Storage) doesn’t care,” Burke said. “There’s a fine line between having a business and having compassion.”
Staff members at Nail Tech and Healthy Habit, also in the strip mall, said they don’t know where — or if — their stores will be relocated.
As the whole building prepares to move, Tramuta said he’s clearing out space in his attic for all the shop’s decorations. He said he has to be optimistic.
“While an average guy would get all upset, it’s another opportunity to see what God will do,” Tramuta said.
This story was originally published April 8, 2019 at 2:38 PM.
