Mello Velo makes the move to bigger, more visible space

SYRACUSE — Sara Morris doesn’t mince words. She and Steven Morris opened their bicycle shop because there were no jobs to be had when she graduated from Syracuse University in 2009.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, she says, “it was a terrible economy. You couldn’t get a job — not even a serving job.”

So, Sara and Steven, who had graduated from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in 2007, opened a bike-repair business — and they called it Mello Velo.

For nearly a decade, they operated the shop in rented space on Westcott Street in a Syracuse University neighborhood where they repaired and sold bicycles on the second floor, up a narrow flight of stairs.

On May 1, the couple moved the store into new space, a three-story warehouse they bought in 2015 for $190,000 and refurbished during the past three years. The renovated building, at 790 Canal St. in Syracuse, is painted bright green on the south and north sides, bright red on the west and east sides and is visible from Interstate 690 and Erie Boulevard East.

The new space reflects Sara’s Syracuse degree in industrial and interaction design. A former rag warehouse, the building has been transformed into bright loft-style retail space. Windows were installed. The factory floors were sanded and refinished. Contractors built new stairs — with reclaimed wood for balusters — tying the first floor to retail space on the second floor.

The bicycle retail space is many times what it was on Westcott Street, Sara Morris notes, but the inventory is about the same. Things were crowded together. The new space offers room for shoppers to see the more than 200 bikes from nine brands Mello Velo carries.

It’s an independent shop. While many bicycle stores are focused heavily on one or maybe two brands, stocking shelves with accessories from the same brands, Steven points out that their store can and does choose their product mix. “We can sell what we like.”

What they like are a mix of bikes from well-known names, such as Bianchi and Kona, as well as smaller boutique brands, such as Strider, which makes children’s bikes even for those too young to walk.

Like an open-concept kitchen in a high-end restaurant, Mello Velo’s repair shop is on display for customers. Tires and wheels hang from the ceiling and tools line the walls.

In mid-May, Mello Velo opened a 1,000-square-foot café within the shop. The Morrises tried a café at the Westcott Street location, but couldn’t get the zoning changed to allow them to serve alcohol.

The newly opened café has a full liquor license, Steven says, and a full menu. It has seating for 47 inside and, when the weather is nice, there is a patio with 43 seats.

Getting from Westcott Street to the new location took far longer than the bike-shop owners expected. The Morrises searched for an appropriate industrial building to refurbish and had to settle on the rag warehouse even though it was much bigger than they had wanted. “There wasn’t much else available,” Steven says. However, he notes, “it has cool bones.”

Working with a contractor, they installed windows, tore out walls, put up drywall and even restored some furniture. “I reupholstered that couch,” Sara says, pointing to a piece in the café.

It may go without saying that the Morrises share an interest in bicycles. Steven Morris, 35, worked in bike shops in his native Rochester, starting at the age of 15. He attended SUNY ESF, where he majored in natural resource management.

Sara Morris, 32, completed school work that included studying “bicycle culture” in Syracuse, surveying those who ride. That gave her knowledge that helped her draft the business plan the two used when they approached banks for financing the original business and, later, the new establishment. The couple married in 2011.

Cooperative Federal Credit Union made a $10,000 loan that let them get the original business up and running on Westcott Street. When they bought the building on Canal Street, Community Bank came through with a Small Business Administration (SBA)-backed loan.

Sara also took part in an SBA Emerging Leaders program in 2014, an intense program that offers advanced-management training. She also attended a merchandizing camp in Colorado for people working in the outdoor-recreation field.

Patience was an important asset, the Morrises say they have and needed. When it came time to get funding, “certain banks did not get it,” Sara says. And when they were trying to get government approvals for the building, city officials were frustratingly uncooperative.

“I literally would call every day,” Sara says. “I’ve literally cried on the phone.”

“There was lots of red tape,” says Steven. “Codes changed. Mayors changed. A lot of things got lost.”

Much of dealing with the paperwork fell to Sara. “Sara handles the bulk of the invisible work,” Steven says. “I’m a bike mechanic.”

Visitors to the shop on recent days find Steven working on bicycles while Sara is in and out of the kitchen of the just-opened café. Along with her Syracuse degree and retail training, she has a certificate in professional cooking from the New England Culinary Institute — and used to be a barista at Starbucks.

They expect the enlarged space to increase revenue for the business by at least 20 percent. But the expansion also means they and their 20 employees — six in the bike shop and 14 in the café — won’t be on top of each other as they would have been in what was a crowded upstairs bike shop on Westcott.

“Everybody is much happier,” Steven says.

The two have more plans for the Canal Street building. The top floor is used for storage now, but they plan to convert it to three 1,000-square foot apartments.

They have no intentions of living in one of the apartments. They have a home in the suburbs west of Syracuse. It’s about a 14-mile bicycle commute each way, Steven says. 

“It’s his downtime,” says Sara. “He can clear his mind.”

Encouraging people to embrace biking to work and leaving cars home when they run errands, is part of what Sara and Steven hope to do with Mello Velo. “We’re helping to build a commuter culture,” Steven says.

“We’re hoping to show it’s not just an elite thing,” says Sara.