John Boyle

jboyle@citizen-times.com

Drive up and down Haywood Road in West Asheville, and it may not strike you as a gentrified area.

And maybe that's not quite the right term. Hipsterfied? Millennialized?

Whatever the term, old-school businesses such as Daggitt's Pawn Shop at 476 Haywood Road and Color TV & Appliance across the street are giving way to newer ventures as the commercial corridor sheds what's left of its blue collar roots.

Haywood Road, the main West Asheville corridor that has a habit of landing on national websites' list of up and coming and downright delightful communities, is now known for its fine dining and hip night spots, a far cry from the Wild West it had become back in the 1980s and '90s, when Daggit's and Color TV set up shop.

“It was ‘Worst Asheville’ back then – prostitutes and drugs. Business was great," Kelly Davenport said with a laugh, standing inside the business he opened in 1984, Color TV & Appliance and Friendly Pawn. "There’s no businesses that are the same anymore.”

Davenport took a break from rolling out file cabinets to talk about his business and the building, located at a prime commercial spot at 507 Haywood, just off I-240. He describes his reasons for selling the building after 32 years in business as "mostly age and a bad back,” but he's quick to add that the neighborhood has just transformed.

"It’s a different area now," he said. "With the price of real estate, we thought we better take advantage of it now.”

His wife, Dianne, runs Speedy Tax Service out of the 3,810-square-foot building. She notes that they sold the property to a group of investors — quickly.

“We listed it, and within 24 hours we had a buyer — at over the listing price,” Dianne Davenport said.

They'll probably close by year's end.

Catty-corner across Haywood Road, Daggitt's Pawn Shop is also calling it quits after a long run, 25 years in their case. David Gibbs, 44, and his step-dad, David Stevens, say they hardly recognize the corridor anymore.

Standing behind the counter and taking turns between customers checking out handguns and gold rings, Gibbs said West Asheville has changed “dramatically," going a lot more "upscale" during his time at the store, which started right after he graduated high school.

It's also become surprisingly trendy with the millennials.

“With the younger generation, it’s a pretty disposable world,” Gibbs said. “They don’t go for anything with a lot of monetary value. They don’t mind paying $6 for a beer, but they won’t buy a gold ring.”

Haw Creek resident Hadiyah Saleen, a retired social worker, was browsing the jewelry at Daggitt's last week, lamenting the loss of a shop she’s come to enjoy over the years – and the shift away from that older Asheville feel.

“The economy just keeps going up and up,” she said. “The big businesses are pushing the little ones out."

While he appreciates that times change, Gibbs also laments the influx of outsiders and the skyrocketing real estate prices.

"It’s a lot of people who aren’t from here, and it’s driven up the prices for everybody,” Gibbs said. “We’ve been running a thin line for years, and he decided to shut it down.”

That would be Stevens, who roams out from a back office into the small retail space, chock full of power tools, guitars and shotguns. He's bright-eyed, lively and sports a bodacious flowing beard at age 74.

“Nothing ever stays the same,” he said. “Hey, I used to be young once.”

At his age, Stevens said he's ready to “finish up and go home and rest for a while." After more than a half-century of working, he’s earned it.

Before opening Daggitt’s, he was a power company lineman, ran a used car lot and cut women’s hair for a living.

“I was doing hair in Hendersonville and there was a pawn shop next door,” Stevens said. “He was making a lot more money than I was, and I thought, ‘I should try that.’ I was tired of messing with women and their hair – they’ll drive you crazy, you know.”

So he bought the building at 476 Haywood Road and opened Daggitt's. By the way, that name has nothing to do with him or his family — he took it from a robot-like dog in the "Battlestar Galactica" television series.

Undoubtedly, the new renter of the Daggitt's space will change the name and probably open a place peddling fancy craft beer or high-fallutin' biscuits. Chances are it’ll go quickly.

Tax records show the 1,950-square-foot building and 0.26-acre lot have a 2016 tax value of nearly $204,000, up from $94,900 in 2001.

At the Davenports' place, the assessed value for the building and 0.30 acre lot is $279,400, a far cry from the $133,000 they paid for it in 1997.

At both places, business was great for years. But they know times — and neighborhoods — change, and younger people aren’t interested much in pawn shop perusing.

Gibbs hates that they're closing, but he gets the tectonic shift.

"“I’ve been here 23 years,” Gibbs said. “Started right out of high school. Guess I’m going to have to get a real job now.”“

Hey, that's not all bad. He does enjoy a good beer now and then.

"I’ll be unemployed, so I can participate now," he said with a laugh.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com.