Small merchants must move

The change may be good news for home-improvement enthusiasts, but it's meant upheaval for tenants such as Connie Tanner, owner of Connie's Cut Above hair salon.

"I'm staying either until my lease runs out or until something better comes along," she said.

Her lease is still valid for another three years, Tanner said, adding that she signed it a year ago when she bought the salon — a longtime fixture at Corona Plaza.

Tanner is the only tenant still open for business at the plaza, near Houghton and Sahuarita roads.

From what she hears, Tanner said, plenty of men are glad the hardware store is coming. But many women would prefer a restaurant or a grocery store, she added.

Beau Borboa, a custom builder who plans to bring in the hardware store, said that if all goes according to plan, the business will open in late January or early February.

He declined to give more details.

Hairstylist Tanner's roughly half-dozen neighbors included a plumbing service, Civano Community School and a Pima County Sheriff's Department substation. The other tenants left, but the salon and the substation still have valid leases.

Tanner has already notified all her regular clients that eventually she will have to find another site. Most of them are upset, she said.

One of them, Linda Kirlin, said she is holding out hope that Tanner's salon will stay in the community.

"It's real convenient for me," Kirlin said recently, as Tanner put highlights in her hair.

But Tracy Ryckman, who operated All Pro Rooter and Plumbing at Corona Plaza with her husband, Scott, said the dearth of commercial space in Corona gives small businesses few options.

The couple's eviction from the plaza forced them to move their business to Tucson, near East 22nd Street and South Camino Seco.

"We were stressed for a while," Ryckman said. "Trying to find a place to rent anywhere is not easy."

Ryckman, who lives in Corona, said she and her husband would like to move back to their community if rental space becomes available later.

"We were establishing a good neighborhood clientele in Corona," she said.

The changes at Corona Plaza surprised students and educators at Civano Middle School, where classes had begun July 17, said Principal Connie Erickson.

Fifteen students moved to a room at Corona Foothills Middle School, where they will stay for the rest of the school year, she said.

"We had not signed a new lease," Erickson said, adding that the charter school had been at the plaza for three years.

There are plans for Civano to move into the new Senita Valley Elementary School when it opens next year, Erickson said.

Meanwhile, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokes-woman said the substation at Corona Plaza will remain there.

"We have a $1-a-year lease on that building for the next five years," said Deputy Dawn Hanke.

The substation, which is used by deputies who drop by intermittently, is not always open. Volunteers staff it whenever possible, Hanke said.

The deputy added that long-term plans include building a new substation in the area.

Joseph Schulte, the building's previous owner, began renting the office space to the department in 1998.