A relatively new Yachats gallery and a well-known souvenir shop are on the move to destinations known and unknown.
The Laughing Crab Gallery, which opened a year ago at 2334 U.S. Highway 101 just north of Yachats, is moving into vacant commercial space on the ground floor of the Sunset Village condominiums across from the Yachats Commons.
The gallery plans to open in its new space Friday, Sept. 20, said co-owner Kim McLaughlin.
“I think it will be wonderful,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve done fine here but we want to do better than fine.”
The new location should offer better foot traffic because it is in the downtown core, has ample parking, and highway speeds are slower, said her husband, Gary Manos.
The new space has 1,150 square feet, McLaughlin said, about the same size as the former location.
McLaughlin and Manos opened their gallery last November after moving from Eugene. McLaughlin said they spent the past year “learning what sells and what peoples’ interests are … and that means we have mostly Oregon artists.”
But business is more uncertain for Su Carey and her son, Noah, and their Dark Water Souvenirs shop adjacent to the Drift Inn restaurant in downtown Yachats. They have lost their lease effective at the end of October.
Building owner Linda Hetzler, who also owns the restaurant/hotel complex and Yachats Mercantile, said there are plumbing and maintenance issues with the structure that need to be resolved. Once those are fixed, Hetzler said she may have to move the Mercantile into the space temporarily while that building is remodeled to fix foundation and other issues.
Hetzler said she is not sure of long-term plans for the 700-square-foot space.
Carey and her son, Noah, opened Dark Water in January 2014. The longtime Yachats resident previously had shops in Eugene and on the East Coast.
“We’re not going out of business,” she said. “We’re looking for somewhere to be. We want to stay in Yachats – and in the downtown core.”