Times Herald-Record

Foundry 42 earns award for experience-centered retail

PORT JERVIS - Cooper Boone received the first Renaissance Retailer Award at the 68th annual Retailer Excellence Awards for creating a “retail “experience” in a brick and mortar store with his Foundry 42 on Front Street in Port Jervis.

“He was chosen because he created a store that is a creative concept blend with all of what, who and why we love under one roof — gatherings, private events, entertainment and carefully curated products, including furniture he makes,” said Amy Loewenberg, buyer relations manager for Emerald Expositions, the awarding organization, purveyor of 55 trade shows. “Capturing attention is harder and harder. He represents the retail renaissance.”

Boone was given the award at NY NOW, a trade show for home, lifestyle, handmade and gift products, with 5,000 exhibitors and 26,000 attendees, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Boone is a buyer there, and buyers come from around the world, Loewenberg said.

“The retail renaissance movement is an experiential movement, elevating what you experience in a brick and mortar store, what makes you want to go to a store and be faithful to a brand,” she said. “E-commerce retail is important, but 80 percent of purchases are in brick and mortar stores, where relationships with people and products are important. We provide people with tools for evolution in the retail industry.”

Ten other retailers received acknowledgment as “Ten to Watch,” Loewenberg said, noting that, based in New York City, she had been “aware” of Boone and Foundry 42. She called Boone with the news.

“I thought it was a prank call,” he said of the call he received in Atlanta a month ago.

Boone opened Foundry 42 in November 2016, but he said, “I had my eye on Port Jervis for 20 years. It didn’t make sense that the city wasn’t prospering, with its history, train line access, and reasonable property prices.”

The timing of his purchase of 42 Front St. resulted from a period when he was beginning to be a little “stir crazy,” he said. Previously, he was a child psychologist for 24 years, then a country singer and songwriter. He still writes songs.

But after his first year of being a father to twin girls, he said, “I wanted to be engaged in something. I was looking for my next act. Most would have looked at 42 Front and turned around, but I see through walls. It had good structure and original tin ceilings that could be restored.” He tore out eight layers of linoleum, carpet and paint to get to the maple floors.

“I wanted an environment where people wanted to stay, hang out and connect. The trifecta of my brain is food, design and events. I had done all this before, but not all at once,” he said.

Popular events, he said, have included the Hocus Pocus Ball, a Halloween costume event; and Buddy the Elf story time, where Boone is Buddy, reading a story to children, who then decorate cookies. Coming up this month is Unicorn Week, in which Boone appears as a unicorn, and a Hollywood makeup artist makes unicorns of others, who make unicorn dream-catchers and cookies.

His “Cooking with Cooper” event for children is always sold out, he says, and he recently did a live segment of it on a TV show, “Good Day Atlanta.” He said he got an email from a mother about how the class eased her 11-year-old son “out of his shell.”

Boone attributed the change to “social skill building” in the class. He teaches table manners, how to shake hands, make eye contact and behave in restaurants.

“Food is great at disarming strangers. My parents were huge foodies,” said Boone, who grew up in . “I’m still on a learning curve, listening to customers and being flexible. We didn’t have many kids’ events at first. Now we have lots.”

More recently, at his Girls Night Out, he noticed a long line by the tarot card reader. “I said, ‘Look. That’s crazy.’” So coming up are three “Paranormal Suppers.”