Swicegood Music has spent the majority of its nearly seven decades in business on College Street in Beaumont.
When it relocated from the original downtown location, Swicegood and a 24-hour pig stand diner were the only businesses on the road.
It’s a scene difficult to imagine now, as Baptist Hospital and other health care offices fill the roadway, along with an H-E-B grocery store, pharmacies, endless fast food options, restaurants, gas stations and more fill the heavily-trafficked corridor.
The growth spurt brought in commercial realtors looking for more opportunities for developers and, as a result, multiple purchase offers to Swicegood Music owner Kurt Killion.
He’d always said no, even after Swicegood flooded during Tropical Depression Imelda.
“We were only closed a few days and could still do out-the-door sales for simple items like strings or reeds while cleaning up,” Killion said, adding, that inside, “it wasn’t pretty with a bare concrete floor and walls missing up a couple feet.”
But it was the very commercial growth on College Street itself that made Killion seriously consider his latest sale offer, now over a year ago.
The glut of traffic on the roadway, especially at lunchtime when popular drive-thrus like Chick-fil-A could tie up a whole lane of traffic flow, made getting in and out of the store more problematic.
And there was a growing issue with unhoused people staying in the area, most of whom Killion and employees had gotten to know over time.
“As a person, you feel for them, but as a business owner, it wasn’t good. Some customers were afraid to come in (if a homeless person was sleeping out front or hanging around),” he said.
When he’d arrive to find a person sleeping outside the storefront, he’d tell them they had to leave,…