News Photo by Julie Riddle From left, siblings Baillie James, Mollie Allen, and Griffin James strike a pose in downtown Alpena recently as Baillie James’s son, Trooper, 1, looks on.

ALPENA — Building a better community is all in the family, say a trio of siblings immersed in the retail world of Alpena’s downtown shopping district.

Working together and separately, brother Griffin James and sisters Baillie James and Mollie Allen operate four different downtown storefronts, providing shopping and dining visitors and residents say they want.

Successfully investing themselves in so much local business without tension over the holiday ham requires communication, supportiveness, and everyone knowing their role, the siblings say.

“I’ve just learned how great our community is,” said Allen, extolling the pluses of deep involvement in Alpena’s business life. “They want good for their people. They want good for their businesses. And they do what they can to support that.”

Along with another brother, Mac Allen, who, with his wife, owns the Huron Veterinary Clinic in Rogers City, the siblings garnered their entrepreneurial spirit from their parents, Kevin and Peggy James.

“My mom is proud of me,” said Allen, co-owner of Cabin Creek Coffee with her parents for the past 15 years and also co-owner of The Local Basket Case with her significant other, Gary Compeau.

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The siblings point to their parents’ encouragement and example as the impetus for their separate decisions to delve into Alpena’s retail business world.

Their dad “knows everybody,” Baillie James said, and he, like their mom, taught their kids to take chances, learning by trial and error and working hard to make good things happen, her sister said.

Their parents are the unseen force, Baillie James said, behind the success of the new downtown shop she co-owns with Allen, the children’s clothing store Sweet Baby James.

She couldn’t keep the store serving the public without her parents’ willingness to help with unglamourous chores like replacing light bulbs and taking out the garbage, she said.

Family supportiveness has been the backbone of all the siblings’ businesses.

Separately, the three praised each other’s commitment to the community and willingness to work hard.

They lean on each other and offer support and encouragement, but have learned separation of responsibilities helps prevent tension at family dinners, everyone focusing on what needs to be done and what they do best in their business lives.

At Sweet Baby James, that means Allen handles the numbers while Baillie James arranges the displays.

“She doesn’t like doing that stuff, anyway, so it works out well,” Baillie James said.

If a community sees a family working hard toward a common cause, such a mindset may well become contagious, said Griffin James, owner of Cedar and Threads, which opened downtown in June.

After running The Local Basket Case store in East Tawas for eight years, Griffin James opened his Alpena shop to fill a void he saw in local shopping options.

The baby clothing store, too, offers something not found elsewhere in the city, Baillie James said. She considered opening a store downstate, where she lived until recently, but such stores already existed there.

Visitors to Alpena know what they want to find downtown, she said, and the James siblings say they try to meet those needs.

All three siblings say customers tell them they like the growth coming downtown, with several new shops opening in the past year.

FIfteen years ago, when Cabin Creek opened, many downtown storefronts sat vacant, but the area has filled with life in recent years, Allen said, predicting new growth will continue.

Though downtown has room for more entrepreneurs to set up shop and open doors to eager customers, it will always retain its small-town charm, the siblings hope.

“When you walk into stores, you know the salesperson,” Allen said. “The person in the coffee shop knows what coffee you get. Part of what makes Alpena Alpena is that it still has a small-town feel as it’s getting bigger.”

Griffin James said residents’ support of the community’s major industries and efforts to provide new housing options bring business and workers into downtown shops, allowing them to continue to flourish.

“For small businesses to thrive, we need people to have jobs,” he said. “We need people to have homes. We need people to be comfortable here.”

New hotels planned in the downtown area in coming years will help the city meet the needs of its visitors, Allen said. Customers have told her they want to visit longer but can’t find a place to stay.

Shoppers at the baby clothes store say they would like a place to eat breakfast downtown, perhaps a void some other enterprising resident could fill, Baillie James said.

In the meantime, the siblings will keep supporting each other, sharing ideas, and enjoying their work as they separately, and together, make Alpena better.

“We love each other and we support each other,” Baillie James said. “That’s kind of what makes us special. When it comes down to it, we’re family.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.