Michael Fleishman says he thinks his mother and father would be glad that their family is carrying on what they started.
Their legacy lives on.
Fleishman’s Tiny Town, the children’s boutique off Fort Bragg Road, is now serving third- and fourth-generation customers. Fleishman and his two sisters, Marcie Justice and Minda Fleishman, will soon be carrying on that parental legacy in the Highland Centre shopping center on Raeford Road.
Renovations are underway in a portion of the former Stein Mart department store to make way for Tiny Town and a new Ace Hardware store.
In 1951, Herbert and Marilyn Fleishman opened Tiny Town, and it has remained family-owned and -operated since the get-go. The couple had married that same year. Their store had its roots in items for newborns, such as sleepers, rattles, blankets and clothing, that were sold in the Carolinas.
The Fleishman family continues to own and operate the retail store that caters specifically to babies and children.
‘I’m continuing something that they started,” Michael Fleishman said. “They loved their customers. The customers have been more friends than customers.
“My parents are in this building,” Fleishman said. “I see them sitting in the chairs.”
After more than six decades at its current site at 3015 Fort Bragg Road, the new spot will be in one of the city’s oldest shopping centers. Harris Teeter has long anchored Highland Centre. This will mark the fourth location, Fleishman said, in the 72-year history of the children's retailer.
“We're excited about it,” said Fleishman’s sister, Marcie Justice, 61. “We’ve been here a long time. We get it every day: People don’t know we’re here. ‘We drive by every day. We’ve never been in. We didn’t even know you were here.’”
Justice said heavier traffic flow on Raeford Road will be good for business.
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“I think it’s going to be a positive influence for Fayetteville to be over in that area so more people can buy for their children.”
Tiny Town will occupy a commercial space next to Lori's Ace Home & Hardware, which is expected to open this month.
A third new tenant, School Tools, will move from its Robeson Street location near downtown to the east wing of Highland Centre.
New tenants coming to Highland Centre.
Alex Thompson, of the managing group Thompson Properties, said his company is “tickled to death” to have Tiny Town as a tenant at Highland Centre.
“That tenant mix matters for us,” Thompson said. “It’s something we’ve always thought about for other times. I think Tiny Town is going to be perfect in the mix. Good for them and good for us. I think this is going to be really good for the Fleishmans (with) more foot traffic than they might think. I think they’re going to see a whole new clientele that isn’t old Fayetteville.”
Michael Fleishman said it will probably be mid-March before Tiny Town moves.
“We’re going to try to do this as seamlessly as possible,” he said. “It’s a lot to move a business. Fort Bragg Road has been a good home to us for over 60 years.”
FTCC buys Tiny Town property
Meanwhile, the Tiny Town property — which has been expanded twice over the past 60 years — is being sold to Fayetteville Technical Community College.
“We had an offer and sold it,” Fleishman said. “The decision was made to either keep going or retire. I decided to keep going. I can’t just sit home and watch Bobby Flay,” he said of the celebrity television chef.
“If nothing else,” he added, “it keeps my parents’ legacy alive.”
Fleishman, who is 68, said he has mixed feelings about the move. The store has been what he called “home” for the past 30 years of his life.
“From my place, it’s all about a new adventure,” he said. “We are very grateful.”
Like her brother, Justice said the current Fort Bragg Road store holds a lot of memories. But she said she is certain her parents would be happy knowing that their children are carrying Tiny Town into the next generation.
“We're just going to be making new memories,” she said.
For children and babies
“A one-of-a-kind shopping experience,” the store posts on its website. “Visit us soon to find the perfect items for the children and babies in your life.”
Tiny Town specializes in children’s furniture, designer baby clothes and shoes, accessories, toys and baby gifts, but that’s not all a shopper will find there.
The 16,000-square-foot showroom displays Tonka Trucks, dinosaur toys, games, baby dolls, children’s books, wooden trains, cribs, shelves, dressers, toy animals, lamps, shelves, shoes, puzzles, little panda bear toddler ride-on cars, even a children’s scale “Big Wagon” like the ones that crossed the country during in frontier times.
The store also features an in-house photographer, Lisa Marie Thayer, and her studio.
“The largest children’s boutique in North Carolina,” Thayer said with a sense of pride. “There’s nowhere else you can get toys like this. You can’t get toys that will last. The big-box stores don’t carry them.”
Fleishman said Thayer, who has been at Tiny Town for three years, has been a great addition and will move with the store.
Unfortunately, the whimsical wall murals that Thayer describes as Disneyesque can’t be moved. But Fleishman said new ones will be incorporated into the new location.
“There’s going to be a lot that looks like this store,” he said before an extended pause.
“It’s going to be really hard walking out of here for the last time.”
Michael Futch covers Fayetteville and education for CityView. He can be reached at mfutch@cityviewnc.com.
