Business owners ponder future of Norwich Street (Atlanta, Brunswick: live, shops)

[Airforceguy]

I hope this street can make a comeback, Brunswick has so much potential...

One relative newbie is Tony Mills. He opened his tattoo parlor, X-Ray Tattoo, on Norwich Street seven years ago. Since then, he’s worked to acquire other properties with a vision of turning the area into a funky stretch of hipster shops and boutiques.
“We’ve got a grassroots business going and it’s all sort of based in art, music and antiques — really the things that we love. I had this vision of starting something here like a little Five Points (in Atlanta) but on the Brunswick scale,” he said.
To date he’s acquired roughly half the 1900 block of Norwich Street, where he’s opened Gamma-Ray Vintage and HBGB, a venue for live local music.
“I’ve moved my tattoo shop closer. It was four blocks north of there. We also have Gamma Ray Vintage, which is mid-century antiques, vinyl records, vintage clothing, robots — a lot of fun, geeky stuff we all love. And at HBGB we bring in a lot of punk and metal original music,” he said.
Mills is planning on opening another spot soon.
He’s planning to take items from Gamma-Ray and move them over to a new space called Kreepo.
“It’s going to have vinyl, comics, robots — general geekery. And we’re going to invite local musicians, anyone who has taken the time to record something, and let them have their stuff there. We will have T-shirts, stickers and albums,” he said.
While Mills is still working on bringing his idea to life, he’s hopeful this will be the start of something bigger. And not just for him, but for Norwich Street in general.
“I would like to see is it branch out from what we’ve done. We would like to see other like-minded businesses bloom out from what we’ve started. We’re not expecting the whole Norwich corridor. We don’t have designs on the Norwich corridor but we think it could become like some of these other hip, funky areas in other cities whether it’s Melrose in Hollywood or Little Five Points in Atlanta,” he said.

Business owners ponder future of Norwich Street - Brunswick News: Local News

[Iconographer]

I applaud this fellow for at least having a vision for Norwich St. It is a mess and has been for years. The irony is that Norwich serves as downtown's 'front door' if you're driving into town via 341. It's a really bad first impression.