Village Square moving soon across square to former Cottonwood Gallery location

The Village Square retail cooperative is moving out of its current location on the east side of the downtown square in the coming weeks to the former Cottonwood Gallery & Arts location on the south side of the plaza due to a change in building ownership.
After Clint Mickey, co-owner of Cornwell Inc., bought the building, cooperative members stated that they had to move and plan to open their business in a new location by the end of February. 
“Well, they gave us a couple of weeks afterwards, but I think they’re anxious to get over here and do some construction, too,” said Village Square member Joyce Dose.
“We wish Village Square the best of luck with their move and thank them for their support in our expansion,” Mickey said. “We are excited to update the buildings to fit our needs and bring new customers and opportunities to Aurora’s square.”
Details on the company’s planned use for the space will be announced at a later date.
Dose stated that by the middle of the month the group will get the key to the new location. The last day in the current locale will be Saturday, Feb. 25, allowing the following three days to move to the new location and open by March 1. 
Membership in the new location will go down from eight members to at least five, according to Dose. Fellow member Dorothy Balaban added that more members could join in the future.
“For the ones that want to move from here, there is enough room for us,” Balaban said. “We hope to add a few, maybe one or two more, to help pay the rent.” 
Though the space will be smaller than the current building on the east side of the square, Dose stated that the change will help showcase some of the jewelry, canned goods, antiques and vintage items that will make the transition. 
“It’ll probably have a whole different look,” Dose said. “We have so much space that is not being rented right now, which we are just filling to make it look like a full store.”
Though the change might be challenging, Dose stated that all moving members will help provide room to make the space their own. 
“We’re all going to have to pull in a little bit, too,” she continued. “We might go off on a different idea and there might be some whole different things in it. We have to be able to get an idea of how much space we actually have to work with in the new store.”
As of now, Balaban said she did not think the former art gallery space will need much renovation. 
“It’s pretty good as is,” she said. “It actually looks nicer than here. I mean the girls that have been there with the gallery, they’ve done a beautiful job of decorating that.”
Another benefit they pointed out was that even though the rent will be a bit higher at the new location, utilities will be cheaper. 
“I think the rest of the rent is higher, but I think with the electricity and utilities that’ll offset everything,” Dose said. “I think we’re at a level that we can handle.” 
Village Square has launched an inventory reduction sale lasting until the move on Feb. 25, with each cooperative member setting their own prices.
Dose stated that overall they will run it basically the same despite the move and hope that their customers will move with them. 
“We probably really won’t know (what we’ll miss until we move over there),” Dose concluded. “We just hope our customers will find us over there.” 
Village Square has had a presence in downtown Aurora for more than 30 years, as reported during the milestone anniversary celebration in June of last year.
Back in 1992, according to News-Register archives, a group of 20 people began talking in April of 1992 about the concept of turning their hobby-business into a retail cooperative. Two months later, the Village Square Mall opened its doors with more than 20 members filling 10x10 foot spaces, representing a wide variety of retail potential including things like wood, ceramic, sewing, crafts, a bookkeeping service, bread, furniture refinishing and restoration.