Longtime Route 1 business Wills Decorating has purchased the landmark TESST building in downtown Hyattsville and will move its store there next year.
Extensive interior renovations on the long-empty building began today, co-owner Michael Richards told the Hyattsville Wire.
He said the interior decorating store will move into 5,000 square feet on the first floor of the TESST building by the spring of 2020. Another 5,000 square feet on the second floor will be leased for professional offices with floor-to-ceiling windows and a view of the kinetic mural on Franklin’s.
The renovations will be a huge boost for downtown Hyattsville, which is undergoing a renaissance with locally owned businesses like Tanglewood Works, Vigilante Coffee, Arrow Bicycle and Sangfroid Distilling; the nonprofit Maryland Milestones and Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center; and proposals for more shops and apartments nearby.
From 1957 to 1998, the building at 5122 Baltimore Ave. was home to the TESST College of Technology, a for-profit vocational school. Since then it’s gone through a succession of owners who hoped to redevelop it for commercial use.
In the past, the size of the building has proven too much for would-be redevelopers. But Richards said that was a plus, since the store needs several thousand square feet to display various flooring options, paint and the largest wallpaper selection in the D.C. area.
Richards and his sister, Valerie Kavelack, have been looking to move Will’s Decorating from its current home at 10508 Baltimore Ave. in Beltsville for several years in order to be closer to Northeast D.C. while remaining nearby for existing customers in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, but couldn’t find a space big enough.
“We love the vibe of the Arts District and wanted to really be part of the community,” he told the Hyattsville Wire. “We loved the idea of being in Hyattsville and wanted to be there for many years.”
Richards’ grandfather, William Schneider, opened up Will’s Hardware in 1965, at the present location of Will’s Decorating in Beltsville, after moving from Liverpool, England. His daughter, Coralie Richards, later started selling drapes and wallpaper as a pop-up store inside Will’s the store, and the decorating business proved so popular, it moved to its own location next to the hardware store. The hardware side closed in the late 1990s, and their focus since then has been on the decorating side.
The business has already been involved with Hyattsville, donating paint used in the mural on the bridge behind Franklin’s and in the Fight the Blight public art along the Route 1 corridor.
