It's the start of a new chapter for a local art supply store. After nearly 60 years on Main Street in downtown Buffalo, Hyatt's All Things Creative is opening a new larger facility in North Buffalo.
Hyatt's has moved from a small store in Buffalo's Theater District into a large blue building on Elmwood Avenue between Hertel and Hinman avenues.
"We outgrew our space down on Main Street," said Seth Martin, Hyatt's Purchasing Director. Martin is overseeing the move and says the old location didn't have enough room for all of their product or personnel.
"Most people that came into the store probably saw three or four store clerks. But what they didn't realize is there were about 50 people working in that building, in the back doing shipping and receiving, upstairs doing various office functions whether it was accounting or purchasing, marketing, customer service, all that sort of thing."
Over the years Hyatt's has grown to be much more than art supply store. Martin says the company also does custom framing and there is a division that sells sign making materials and equipment.
"Everything from vinyl wraps to do signage on a commercial vehicle or a highway signage to monument machines, something you would use to carve in granite, whether its some sort of monument or a marker or a tombstone, that sort of thing."
There is also a division that sells color matching systems for the graphics, printing, and fashion industries.
"We have a lot of customers outside the Buffalo area from government institutions, anybody that needs to make signage to fashion companies like Eddie Bauer."
Martin says Hyatt's e-commerce division sells nationally and internationally and has become an industry leader in art supplies, which benefits local artists.
"There's a lot of products and product lines that for a city the size of Buffalo it would be difficult to stock. But because we have so much business outside of the local area we keep a lot of that inventory here and obviously it's available to everybody," he said.
In fact, Martin says, Hyatt's new store is the largest of its kind in the country.
"Some people locally don't realize it because we've been around here for so long, but if you go to New York City you're not going to find an art supply store with a selection like we have. If you go to Toronto you're not going to find it. If you go to L.A. you're not going to find it. There's just not a lot of good art supply specialty stores out there because it's so specialized," Martin said.
Another benefit of the new Elmwood Avenue location, Martin says is there is plenty of free parking.