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Steel Style Garage
Steel Style Garage
Contact Information
Full Name: Shannon Yates & Zachary Treanor
Business Name: Steel Style Garage
Website: www.steelstylegarage.com
Address: 23 King Street East, Gananoque ON, K7G 1E8
Phone Number: 613-449-4359
Tell us about yourself! Hobbies? Fun facts? How did you get started?
We love road trips, adventures, and new ideas! We love to support local, cook at home, and experience our 1000 Islands playground whenever we can. We both come from small towns, spent about 10 years in Toronto, made the big leap to Gan in 2010. It's true, build it and they will come. It was all very organic really.....started with a desire to leave the hustle bustle and build something beautiful. We left our Information Technology and Strategic Planning jobs and dove right into the unknown.
Define your business in your own words.
We call the complex AXLEWORKS - our big old limestone building was the head office for Gananoque Spring & Axle back in the day. Axleworks is a collective of smaller businesses which create a vibrant atmosphere for all ages of our community. Shop, Dine, Do Yoga - a good combination of fun. We've kept the design industrial in lieu of the history, and we've built a lot of what you see, with our own hands. Steel Style Garage is the SHOP part of the equation. We carry a wide variety of brand name clothing, fashion for life, that's what we like to call it. We focus on playful everyday apparel which you can dress up or dress down. We also carry locally made jewellery, Canadian made apparel and accessories, and other fun and quirky items that will make you smile.
We provide an experience - for the locals, we can tell them exactly what kind of gift a grandchild, parent or friend might like, because we know our customers. We aren't driven by sales, we are driven by your smiling faces, knowing you feel good in what you are wearing or that you've picked out the most perfect gift. When we choose our inventory for the store, we've always got our local community in mind - we've built relationships and our customers trust us to provide quality goods and attentive service.
What business achievement are you most proud of?
I'm not sure there's just one. In general, we are proud to have created a space that people love, that they return to, that they bring far away friends and family to when visiting, a place that they tell other people they must see. We are proud of the community vibe, and that we contribute to what makes Gananoque such an amazing place. We won't lie, sometimes we stand across the street, stare, and think WOAH, I can't believe we actually pulled this off. We somehow managed to convert this almost 10k of vacant space into something, something awesome.
Why did you choose Gananoque/Leeds and the Thousand Islands to start your business?
It's on two rivers, Gananoque River and the St. Lawrence ( a river that has over 1000 islands in it!! ). We are half way between Toronto and Montreal just off the 401, and also border New York. It's a tiny community which has a lot of history, and beautiful old buildings to salvage. It's a place to escape to - water you can swim in, park islands, private islands, hiking, kayaking, biking trails. Gananoque is close enough to highways, airports and trains, you can get anywhere. Gananoque is also a hub to other surrounding towns - it's home to Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, and Shoppers Drug Mart. The Town already had major attractions like the Gananoque Boat Tours, the Casino, and the Thousand Island Playhouse. There are ample bed and breakfasts, cottage rentals, hotels - lots of beds.
You could however see quite a few empty downtown spaces. Empty space meant opportunity to us. We saw the need for a few key things (a coffeeshop, clothing store, and yoga studio) that would appeal to the local community and tourists. Thankfully so many other creative, like-minded people also believe this town has potential and weren't afraid to fill those empty spaces!! Since we (Axleworks in its entirety) opened in 2010, Gananoque/Leeds and Thousand Islands is also now home to Gananoque Brewery, Thousand Islands Boat Museum, 1000 Islands Helicopter Tours, Skywood Eco Adventure Park, new restaurants, clothing stores, antique shops, art galleries, health and wellness spots (yes smoothies), and a music store.
What words would you use to describe Gananoque/Leeds and the Thousand Islands?
The perfect blend of outdoor adventure, calm of cottage life, local farming, and just the right amount of urban.
Provide a message to your future guests!
Living the Dream - come along for the ride!
Steel Style Garage described in one word: Inspirational
