Sandwiched between a crop of stores in the prime strip mall across from Old Main on Lincoln Avenue, new vintage store Marrakech offers students merchandise ranging from chic contemporary fashions to imported and casual clothing.

Owners Chuck and Connie Schwartz deliberated quite a bit before buying out the commercial space previously occupied by The Other Side, a boutique gift shop. Schwartz emphasized the decision to open Marrakech (pronounced Mara-cash-ink) was not by far a split-second one.

“We thought about it for about a year,” he said.

The couple, which also owns and operates two other Marrakech stores in Champaign and West Lafayette, Ind. opted to purchase the space after Chuck Schwartz toured the area and weighed the benefits of operating a business in Charleston.

“I saw a lot of people traveling down Lincoln Avenue,” Schwartz said. “I talked to a realtor who told me about this place. I said ‘from what I see … this looks like a really good location.'”

One might wonder why the Schwartzes would consider opening a business in Charleston, which has seen plenty of store closings along Lincoln Avenue in the past few years, including fast food chains Hardees and Long John Silvers. Although not all businesses may be easily thriving in Charleston, Schwartz doesn’t have worries about his new store.

“If you’re the only store in town (offering certain items), you’re going to get most of the business,” he said.

Charleston’s smaller population was one of the things the Schwartz said was alluring as well.

“We had been thinking about it for a while and the West Lafayette store is doing OK, not great though. We thought we would try a smaller market where there is not as much competition,” he said.

What may be baffling to many students is the unorthodox name of the apparel store, which targets young female shoppers more so than males, Schwartz said. Marrakech originated in Champaign, and it got its name from the former owners who were of Pakistani descent, he said.

Schwartz said when he purchased the store the name stuck.The previous owners named the business Marrakech after a town in Morocco, he said.

Originally, the couple was anticipating opening the shop in August, but because the location had been vacated for some time, they decided to open the business March 27.

“Everything just evolved,” Schwartz said. “We have some new stuff from the West Lafayette and Champaign stores. I didn’t spend a lot of money. Everything was very inexpensive.”

Schwartz said he also had the luxury of having his brother-in-law install the dressing rooms at the location for a discounted price.

“It is amazing how it has come along,” he said. And although Schwartz doesn’t have the space to display all the items he would prefer in the tight space, he said it is a perfect size for his business.

Schwartz, a native of Champaign, whose grandfather spearheaded the store Kaufman’s in Champaign before selling it in 1968, sees a bright a future ahead for his clothing store.

“This is the kind of store where word of mouth is how people find out about it,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of lookers.This community doesn’t have this kind of stuff.”

In the longterm, Schwartz said he, ideally, would like to sell the Charleston business, perhaps in five or six months, and retain a 20 percent ownership of the operation while still doing all the troubleshooting work. This would include providing the store with its merchandise and taking care of various things involved with the behind-the-scene aspects of the store.

For now, however, the Schwartzes, along with store manager Cindy Jones, are taking things in stride and enjoying the fruits of their labor.