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WEST LEBANON — After 42 years of supplying the Upper Valley with athletic equipment, Stateline Sports is relocating for more growing room.
Currently located on Bridge Street in West Lebanon, the business is moving about three miles away to 179 Mechanic Street this winter. The building most recently housed Lebanon Plumbing Supply, which closed over a year ago.
Stateline’s move comes after Tracy Pelletier, one of Stateline’s first employees, bought the business on Sept. 22 from co-founder and former owner Jon Damren. They declined to provide the sale price.
As room to grow was on the forefront of Pelletier’s mind for Stateline’s future, he signed the lease for the new location on the same day he purchased the business.
“We’ve maximized every square inch of that building,” said Pelletier, a lifelong Lebanon resident. “It just gives the future so much more to offer.”
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The sale came after about five years of discussions between Damren, now 70, and Pelletier, 56.
“He understands the Upper Valley community,” Damren said of Pelletier. “He knows Stateline Sports well, and he knows all of our employees.”
Most of Stateline’s nine employees have been with the company for more than 20 years.
“I liken Stateline to Cheers,” said Stateline manager Dave Dupree, who has worked at the store for 36 years. “You know, where you walk in, and everybody knows your name.”
The store first opened on Bridge Street in 1983 when Damren and the late Bob Vanier sought to fill a void in the community following the closure of Tommy Keane Sports, a shop the two had worked at on the Lebanon pedestrian mall.
Over the next four decades, the business developed strong connections in the community, doing business across generations.
“I bought my kids’ first skates at Stateline, the same way my parents bought mine,” said Norwich resident Chet Clem, 43, in a telephone interview.
Clem now coaches Hanover youth hockey and “very proudly” carries the Stateline logo on the backs of the team’s jerseys.
After Tropical Storm Irene left 6 feet of water in the basement in 2011, customers in the community rushed to clean up the store — reopening it within two days of the flood.
The 2.6-acre Bridge Street property along the Connecticut River has an assessed value of $850,000, according to city property records. It has been owned by Windsor-based Marie Ann Boisvert estate and Winthrop Townsend since 1966, according to city land records.
The atmosphere of the store, with its largest sections in footwear and hockey equipment, hasn’t changed since Pelletier first worked there for a short period around 1986, he said — other than getting bigger.
A series of side room and basement add-ons over the years led Pelletier to feel that the building had reached the limit of its sprawl.
The new location will be an open single floor, where customers can scan the entire room as soon as they walk in. It will be quieter and easier to access.
“It gives us a little bit more space, (and,) I’d say, a much nicer customer experience,” Pelletier said of the new location.
Although Bridge Street has gathered over three decades of sentimental moments for Dupree, the relocation is exciting for him.
“Knowing that the move is going to allow the store to expand and grow and build for the future, I think, is going to far outweigh any of the sadness of leaving that location,” Dupree said.
During his short stint at Stateline, Pelletier got the idea for Top Stitch Embroidery, which he founded in 1988 and is located on Mascoma Street in Lebanon.
The two companies have collaborated since the inception of Top Stitch, which has done work on embroidery and screen printing uniforms, T-shirts “and whatnot” for teams, schools and organizations, Pelletier said.
“There couldn’t have been a more perfect person to come in,” said Dupree. “Because his business and our business meld together perfectly.”
Customers will continue to go to the store regardless of the move.
“I’ll go to wherever Stateline is,” said Clem.
Kira Balkcom, of Etna, has been shopping about seven years at Stateline for hockey gear for her two daughters, Sabine, 11, and Hazel, 6.
“It’s been super helpful,” Balkcom said as she walked into the store with her daughters on Monday. “They have some guys here that really know what they’re doing in terms of hockey gear.”
The new location is roughly estimated to open in February, as they wait for city permits and electric work for the new building, Pelletier said.
The store will not be closed during the move, as shipments of stock will gradually begin going to the new location.
“There’ll be very little, if any, disruption in business for the customer, other than just having to learn to travel to Mechanic Street instead of Bridge Street,” Dupree said. “People are going to love it, and they’re probably going to wonder why we didn’t do it a long time ago.”
And there’s a plan for the future.
Cody Pelletier, 31, who helps his father run Top Stitch, said he and his brother are hoping take the reins of the businesses after their father.
“The goal is that we would like to take it over and continue running things,” Cody said.
Lukas Dunford is a staff writer at the Valley News. He can be reached at 603-727-3208 and ldunford@vnews.com. More by Lukas Dunford
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