WATCH: 2025 Christmas at Biltmore begins with tree raising
Watch the team at Biltmore House raise this year’s Christmas tree to kick off the Christmas season at Biltmore Estate.
ASHEVILLE – A reader asks about the fate of the supposed “West Asheville Roller Rink” building. It’s now a pet store? Curious about something? Email the newsroom at [email protected]. Your question and answer could appear in an upcoming issue.
Question: The Family Dollar building on Haywood Road had a sign that said “West Asheville Roller Rink” on it for over a year but now a new pet store has moved in? What’s the plan for this building?
Answer: For those who don’t remember what I will title as “The West Asheville Fake Roller Rink Prank,” a sign on the front of the building at 609 Haywood Road appeared in early 2024, announcing a “West Asheville Roller Rink” was coming soon to the building. A Family Dollar at the location had closed in January 2024.
The sign set off a flurry of a social media activity. Posts on Facebook excitedly speculated about the future of the site, but when I spoke with Ryan Israel, the vice president of Ellington Realty, in April 2024 he described the sticker as “kind-of a ruse.” There was no roller rink headed to the property, which is located near the intersection of Haywood Road and State Street
So, now, almost two years after the Family Dollar closed, it seems this building has found new life. This is a case for one of our top investigators: Answer Dog, otherwise known as my bulldog-mix Maisie.
Waddling up to the Pet Supplies Plus from my car, Maisie’s snout immediately drew us inside the store, whisking us into a world of dog toys and kibble bags. She walked up and down the aisles of the store, though at a steady pace and often stopping to investigate or, as she is prone to do, stare at the shelves.
However, once we made it to the aisle with toys and treats, her bulldog senses immediately took her to a box of beef tendons, which she promptly stuck her head into. An employee rushed over and asked to pet her as she made a selection.
Local businessman James Gunn (“no relation” to the Hollywood filmmaker, he said) opened the Pet Supplies Plus location in West Asheville on Nov. 26 and Maisie and I met him on Dec. 10 to talk about the new store, which is his first business. Leashed pets are welcome in store, which also provides dog grooming services.
“It’s getting busier and busier. I think people are starting to find out that we’re open,” Gunn told the Citizen Times. Maisie, who is better at investigating treats than at interviews, slept while we talked in the store’s “Community Room,” where Gunn plans on providing community events, like having an Asheville Police Department therapy dog named Thelma come by once a month.
The location is one of the over 725 Pet Supplies Plus stores in the United States, which makes it part of the largest pet-retail franchises in the country. The store brings 15 new retail jobs to Haywood Road, according to a Nov. 25 news release on the store. The store is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Gunn is planning on hosting a grand opening ceremony on Jan. 10-11, with $5 nail trims for dogs, free self-serve pet washes and free pooch parfaits, donuts and drinks. (Maisie may have to return for a follow-up investigation.) The first 100 people to show up on Jan. 11 will receive a free small bag of cat or dog food.
Gunn said his hope is that the store will be a gathering space for neighborhood pets and a place to easily shop for them. The store sells a variety of fresh water fish, small mammals like gerbils and hamsters, pythons, bearded dragons, tarantula, jumping spiders and parakeets, among other animals, Gunn told me. The location is just down the road from an old gas station at 644 Haywood Road, which is set to become a Bar-K Asheville, a dog park and bar that is in the works, according to city of Asheville permits.
Gunn also joked about the roller rink prank, which he described as “kind-of funny.” He had to be the bearer of bad news for some.
“The roller rink people were really excited about it, then I had to go around and be like, ‘Sorry, it’s going to be a pet store,'” Gunn said. Two roller rinks, though both with different hours and purposes, have been proposed in Asheville since Tropical Storm Helene wiped out Carrier Park’s Mellowdrome.
Still, part of the building’s future is undecided, though it is not big enough for any roller skating.
A smaller section of the building has been subdivided, and Gunn is leasing it as well. He had been planning on making it into a small self-storage facility with nine units, but upon learning that self-storage facilities are not permitted along Haywood Road, he’s considering alternatives. He’s planning to have a vision for the other unit by the end of the year, he told me.
At the end of our interview, I tried to get Maisie back to the front of the store, but she had fallen asleep. I picked her up and hauled her back to my car, where she was rewarded with a beef tendon. She fell asleep on the ride home. Answer Dog was just dog tired from her long day of investigation.
Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at [email protected] or message will_hofmann.01 on Signal.
link
More Stories
Sweet Gray Cat Abandoned at Petco Making Biscuits in His Carrier Has People Emotional
Proposed city ordinance would ban sale of dogs, cats in pet stores
Breaking: In major blow to puppy mills, New York ends the sale of puppies in pet stores