A business has plans for the Sansone Floral building on Ashland Avenue and it doesn’t involve cats.
In the window of the pink building is a sign reading, “Coming Soon Floyd’s Feline Obedience,” along with a website address listed. If you visit the website, you’ll see a cat video, learn more about the building and that it’s actually Ad Astra Running that’s planning to open a store there later this year.
J. Jenkins, along with Grant Catloth, is Co-Owner of Ad Astra Running. Jenkins said the idea for the cat campaign came from his partner, Mike.
“We had heard that word was starting to leak out in St. Joe that we were coming, so we wanted to get out in front of that so we could introduce ourselves to the community,” Jenkins said. “But we thought that would be a fun way to let people know that Ad Astra was coming to St. Joe.”
Ad Astra has a location in Lawrence, Kansas, and Jenkins said they wanted to bring Ad Astra to St. Joseph because they have connections to the area and learned of a need.
“We know a lot of people in the area, either in St. Joe or right around it, that have been coming to Lawrence to see us to support us over here and get help finding the right pair of shoes and anything else they might need to get running,” Jenkins said. “So we knew people there and knew that they didn’t have the sort of store or necessarily the community focus that we have here in Lawrence so we wanted to bring that there.”
Jenkins said there’s no specific opening date yet. They’re currently in the stages of getting necessary work done on the building.
“When we found out that building was available, that really accelerated our plans to open in St. Joe,” Jenkins said. “We have been open in Lawrence just a year and a half and weren’t necessarily thinking, ‘Wow, it’s time to open a second store,’ but we’ve had so many people that have said, that would be the perfect location for a running store, it’s right on the running path and that’s where people who are already running, they’ll park on that street… So when we found out that building was available, it just seemed like an opportunity was presenting itself to us.”
Jenkins said with the history of the building and its well-known pink color, they are considering ways to maintain its legacy while they prepare the building for opening. Jenkins said they’re excited to bring Ad Astra Running to St. Joseph and get involved in the community.
“Our focus is all about community, serving the community and adding to it, developing the community, specifically the running community of course, but the entire community. If we relied just on runners as customers, we wouldn’t be open a month, because there’s at least as many people who come in that are just after comfortable shoes that fit,” Jenkins said. “I think sometimes people get thrown by the name Ad Astra Running, they’ll think, ‘Oh I’m not a runner,’ but we really want to be a store for everyone where they can come get help getting the shoes or the apparel, the accessories, whatever they need so they can be their best selves, they can get out and be active.”
Jenkins said the goal is to open sometime during the summer when people are more active and getting ready for cross country or training for fall races.