photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The former Scotch dry cleaning store at 1029 New Hampshire St. is pictured in August 2023. Next door, in the picture brick building, Maceli's Banquet Hall & Catering plans to expand into the space.

For the first time in more than 115 years, Lawrence doesn’t have a dry cleaning store in its downtown.

The Lawrence-based dry cleaning firm Scotch Fabric Care Services closed its lone downtown Lawrence location a couple of weeks ago to make way for an expansion of the Maceli’s Banquet Hall that is next door to the Scotch facility at 1029 New Hampshire St.

Scott Shmalberg, president of Scotch Fabric Care Services, told me the company sold the space at 1029 New Hampshire St. — which also included the company’s corporate offices, in addition to the store — to Maceli’s about three years ago. Scotch then began leasing the space from Maceli’s, but as the lease now expires, Scotch is moving on.

Its corporate headquarters space will move across the street to the building that previously housed Lawrence Municipal Court at 1008 New Hampshire St. Shmalberg said the company, although it owns other downtown real estate, decided not to open a new store in downtown. Instead, it will serve Lawrence with its three existing locations — two on the Sixth Street corridor and one on West 23rd Street.

The family-owned company has had a store in downtown Lawrence since 1905. Then known as Lawrence Steam Laundry, the company was located near Sixth and New Hampshire streets, across the way from the former Journal-World offices, Shmalberg said.

The company has had a few other downtown locations through the years, but the 1029 New Hampshire spot was a longtime home for the company in its own right. Scotch had been at that spot since 1965, Shmalberg said.

The decision to no longer have a shop in downtown wasn’t overly difficult. The pandemic saw to that, Shmalberg said.

“The downtown store and the downtown business climate definitely have been diminished post-COVID,” Shmalberg said. “There are not a whole lot of suits and ties being worn in downtown Lawrence.”

Apparently not even chips and salsa on practically every corner in downtown has been enough to make up for the post-pandemic changes that have gripped the dry cleaning industry. (If you are confused, you’ve never seen me eat chips and salsa, which likely means I’ve never had to ask you whether you have a spare shirt.)

He estimated that business was down by about 50% at the downtown location, compared to pre-COVID levels.

Shmalberg said the post-pandemic environment has had a couple of trends that have been difficult for dry cleaners. First, fewer people have returned to an office environment full-time, which means fewer people are wearing traditional, professional office attire that has been a staple of dry cleaners. Second, more and more people who have returned to the office have adopted a casual dress code.

“People who used to wear a suit and tie are now wearing golf shirts and pants,” he said.

(If that is casual, what do we call what we were wearing beneath the desk on a Zoom call? Don’t answer. You are on mute anyway.)

As for the decision to sell the real estate to Maceli’s a few years ago, Shmalberg said the timing simply was right. Maceli’s was previously a tenant of the Shmalbergs, and they knew that Maceli’s was eager to expand its banquet, event and catering business. More on that expansion in a moment.

In terms of what’s next for Scotch Fabric Care Services, Shmalberg said the company still has a strong future in the community.

“We are not planning on going out of business,” he said. “We are just adjusting to changing demographics.”

In addition to its Lawrence operations, the company continues to operate five drying cleaning shops in Topeka.

•••

I know, you want to know what Maceli’s has planned for the space. Well, it seems fitting that part of the former Scotch store may be serving scotch in the near future.

Owner Steve Maceli told me he plans to expand Maceli’s current “bistro room,” — which is the smaller of the two event spaces in his building — into the former dry cleaning shop space. With the extra space in the bistro room, he plans to install a permanent bar and pub area.

Maceli said he thinks the space will allow for smaller, more frequent events at the Maceli’s facility, 1031 New Hampshire St. He expects the pub — which he said will have an older, traditional look with tall, grand ceilings — to host cocktail parties for businesses and other organizations that want to have small networking or recognition events.

Maceli is going to remove the second-floor office space above the dry cleaning shop in order to have those tall ceilings, he said. But he plans to use the second floor space in the back of the building, which currently houses offices. Maceli said he’ll knock out a wall to expand the mezzanine seating available in Maceli’s main event room. He estimated that will increase capacity of the main room by about 100 seats.

The expanded mezzanine should be open by Thanksgiving, he said. Work on the bar and pub space will be more extensive and likely won’t start until January, he said.

Just like in the dry cleaning business, the event and banquet business has changed post-pandemic. For Maceli, he said it has highlighted the need to grow. He said keeping part-time employees became more difficult, so he has focused on a growth strategy that allows him to employ full-time workers. He now has 14 full-time employees for the downtown location, and the Arterra Event Gallery that he purchased about two years ago in west Lawrence.

“I realized you are either increasing in sales and staff or you are decreasing,” Maceli said. “This idea of plateauing is a myth.”