Today we’d like to introduce you to Kesha & Michael Coniglio.
Hi Kesha & Michael, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Roughly three to four years ago, we started looking into the opening of a venue. We really didn’t know at the time exactly what direction we wanted to take in regards to the building. There are so many options from building ground up or remodeling an existing building. After a tremendous amount of research, we knew a historical building was where our heart yearned to be. Little did we know that a building in our downtown would soon become available. After roughly nine months of negotiations and much effort collaborating with our city, we were able to use the states Revolving Loan Fund as well as other loans and our own finances. We closed on the building New Years Eve 2019 not ever thinking something like Covid would wreck our world. Construction started immediately on our building that dated back to 1945, formally known as Rhodes Furniture. Recently the building was a brewery and had only used roughly 2500 square feet of the entire 13k square ft leaving the other area untouched. Once we toured the space, we instantly could envision the layout even with the use of flashlights. Spaces originally used as offices and payment counters have now been transformed into our warming kitchen and bar.
Removing the top half of the front room wall allowed the original mezzanine to be exposed and luckily the railing was in the building waiting for us. We dreamt of keeping the space with its imperfections but also providing modern day needs. The front room acts as our reception space with concrete floors and brick walls. The cocktail area is large with black and white hex pattern flooring and mustard velvet circular sofas that mimic the 40’s era. The original patina distressed green stairs remain and lead guests upstairs to our ceremony space. The exposed wood rafter ceilings and strategically placed chandeliers that look original to the building beam off the original hardwood flowers that took 4weeks to sand due to amount of glue used when carpet was cool. A shiplap wall was added to divide the ceremony space and mezzanine to create two dedicated spaces for not only weddings but conferences. The mezzanine area has a circular bar and seating area with a vintage mid-century modern fireplace and chic dried moss accent wall. Two dressing rooms and two bathrooms were also added upstairs. Outdoor space is available for use in our Urban Alley with inflatable tufted Chesterfield sofas creating another lounge area for guests. Two more phases remain long-term for the Burrow to be completed.
After six months of construction and Covid, we are here. Everything we prepared for and every financial projection we made was wrong. The fear of losing something we just started was in sight with the shutdown of events. We had to regroup and creatively think of other options that would generate revenue with safety a priority. One being a Merry Market – an upscale shopping experience with makers and merchants and another being Breakfast with Peppy- a Christmas breakfast event with the Elf on the Shelf and a successful regional boutique-style Bridal Expo. The Burrow Warehouse is a blank canvas allowing clients to create the event they had envisioned. We also provide a “Something Burrowed” room that allows our clients the use of décor, furniture, arbors and more FREE of charge. We have now owned the venue for over a year and we do have some weddings on the books but not nearly where we should be. However, we are hopeful life will get back to celebrations of weddings, fundraising events and galas preventing our dream from fizzling out and ending before it has started.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Covid caused construction delays, construction prices to increase and cancellation of events to come to a halt. This caused us to go over budget and for financial projects to be drastically wrong creating obstacles in providing revenue to keep our doors open. Due to not being open in 2019 with financials, we were unable to receive in government help. We fall into a grey area on business ownership where help hasn’t been provided. We previously worked with the Small Business Development Center of West Georgia before and recently. They are looking into grants that maybe in available versus loans that would create more debt for our small new business.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
For years I have owned my own retail stores in Texas, NY and GA while also manufacturing two products. Design has always been important to me from displays, decor, product packaging to doodling at night. I am the Business Development Manager for the U.S Home and Living division of a global mat manufacturing company where I get to use my creative side by deciding new and trendy designs for mats and even get to hand draw designs where some have been sold on Pottery Barn.com I also sell my artwork on my personal website Lovewhimzey.com where many retailers and crafters purchase to make products. For years my latest retail store offered kids birthday parties. Who knew that would begin to shape and prepare me for larger celebrations now. My husband is the Facilities Director at a College and has been in this industry for over 25 years. He helps organize not only school events which include celebrations and graduation but they also have weddings on campus. His expertise in a highly recognizable college has helped greatly in safety and Covid concerns as well as the overall construction and facility upkeep of owning our own event facility. Between the two of us, our background has created so much added value to the event industry.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Having our venue in the heart of the historic downtown has allowed us to be a catalyst in the community. I have always been active in the community my retail store were in but now having a venue in the town I live in has steered my efforts to drive business to our quaint little town on the Chattahoochee River. With our efforts focused here, we hope to draw crowds from Auburn to Atlanta for not only weddings but other events the Burrow will host. Our last name is Coniglio which is rabbit in Italian. After months of trying to figure out a unique name, we toured a building that made us think of a burrow rabbits live in “Voila”. From there, we knew that was a perfect name that represented our last name and was also creative in our long-term marketing efforts.
Contact Info:
- Email: burrowwarehouse@yahoo.com
- Website: burrowwarehouse.com
- Instagram: Burrowwarehouse
- Facebook: facebook.com/burrowwarehouse
Image Credits:
Main- Ivory+Grace Photography
Others- Birds on Wire Photography
Table Image- Taylor Faith Photography
