Salisbury cigar store construction in doubt

It’s unclear whether plans will go up in smoke to open a cigar shop on the city’s south side now that the owner, ordered in the spring to stop renovations, has a green light to proceed with upgrades at the retail space in the Clairmont Shopping Center. The owner of the proposed Johns Cigars hung a shingle and began renovations on the estimated 1,500 square-foot retail space next to Chipotle Mexican Grill.

The problem was construction of the space was started without a required building permit from the City of Salisbury, said William Holland, director of the City of Salisbury’s Department of Building, Permitting and Inspections. What’s more, the owner, whom management at the shopping owner would not identify, was forced to rip out wooden building materials installed without permission because they failed to meet fire code requirements at the location, Holland said. “They started construction without a permit, and used combustible materials in a non-combustible structure,” Holland said. “We put a stop work order out, and they had to tear out the wood.”

The owner of the cigar shop submitted development plans, but the city delayed the issuance of a building permit to allow time to complete construction at the nearby CVS pharmacy at the southern end of the Clairmont center, Holland said. Pharmacy construction involved a temporary loss of a portion of a fire corridor at the rear of the shopping center to accommodate a drive-thru window. The building department wanted the infrastructure in place and the area cleared before a permit was issued for cigar shop renovations, Holland said. CVS opened last month, and the city is positioned to resume the permitting process for the cigar shop. But Holland hasn’t heard from the cigar shop owner since the stop-work order was issued in the spring.

“The plan is OK, but they have no permit,” he said. “They can come in, but we haven’t had communications with them. They might have gone somewhere else.” Blair Rinnier, a principal at Rinnier Development Corp., which owns the shopping center, said this week that the cigar shop is “still a go,” but did not elaborate. Rinnier did not name the prospective tenant, but said it was a local person. The retail space is the only vacancy at Clairmont, said Rinnier.

“We’re excited to have the CVS, and it is nice to have Clairmont extended to College Avenue,” he said, referring to an expansion that now extends the shopping center to the intersection of South Salisbury Boulevard and College Avenue. Holland said retail centers are trending toward construction with non-combustible materials, like steel and concrete. Clairmont Shopping Center was built in the 1960s, and upgrades must follow the requirement. “That’s getting to be the way to go, using non-combustible materials for safety,” he said.