Nightmare Eviction Turns Into Dream Come True For Christy Lee

By John Voket

About a year-and-a-half ago, Christie Lee and her husband, Mark, were on top of the world. The Korean-born couple was living the American dream as proprietors of two successful nail salons in Monroe and Newtown.

Although the couple was managing the profitable enterprises boasting a solid customer base streaming into both locations, the Lees decided to take a huge financial leap expending more than $60,000 to do a “floor to ceiling renovation” of the space they leased at Sand Hill Plaza.

Scant weeks after the remodeling at the Newtown location was completed, a nondescript registered letter arrived notifying Ms Lee that her lease was being terminated to make room for a renovation to the shopping center. Suddenly, her world was turned upside down.

“We had saved for years to have enough to do the kind of quality renovations we wanted at the Newtown store. And then we were out,” she said looking back on the experience. In the subsequent weeks she recalls searching desperately for space elsewhere in Newtown that would provide the room she needed, without putting herself in proximity to other nail salons.

Some good news came when she finally secured space in a neighboring building, but again, as she was on the verge of occupying she received word that a nail salon was not a permitted use for the new location. While this news knocked the couple back to square one, they never lost hope that everything would work out in the end.

And indeed it has.

The Lees recently celebrated the sale of their Monroe nail salon and the occupancy and expansion of their business to a location in nearby Southbury. Miré Spa & Nail, at 800 Main Street South, has only been open for a few weeks, but according to Ms Lee, they are seeing an unprecedented level of business.

“So many of our good customers from Newtown have already come in for a treatment, or just to wish us well,” she said. “But we are also seeing new customers from Sandy Hook, Southbury, Roxbury, Middlebury, even Shelton!”

Ms Lee said she never wanted to leave Newtown, but the proximity at the new location is as good as it gets.

“We spent seven years building a business in Newtown, so we’re glad to be as close as possible here,” she said.

While the Lee’s had long-term designs on eventually open a full-service spa, the eviction from Sand Hill Plaza and the opportunity to sell the Monroe business was not unlike an alignment of the planets that helped motivate the couple to jump-start their plans.

“After we had just paid so much money to renovate in Newtown, we thought it would be five years before we would be ready to look at opening a spa,” Ms Lee said. “But once things started happening, we knew we had to take the risk and open this place.”

Much like outfitting the former Newtown location, Miré was custom designed from the shelves and fixtures, to each individually flavored massage room, to the oversized pedicure chairs, to decorative sculptures dotting the countertops to the soothing waterfall occupying an entire wall in the rear of the new space.

“We’re still working on a few things, getting some product lines in for our customers, but we were just very inspired to create a space that sets us apart from other spas in the region,” Ms Lee said.

While Miré Spa & Nail already offers a wide variety of services, and an experienced staff of mainly cosmopolitan New York specialists on staff, Ms Lee said there is plenty of room for expansion based on the individual ideas and needs of her clients.

“We’ve already got eight pedicure stations, eight nail stations, three full private massage rooms,” she said. “And we’re about to add facials and other new services to fill the space. We currently have a staff of nine, but we have enough business to keep 15 busy going into the spring.”

Having grown from a 1,000 to a 3,000-square-foot location, the Lees were challenged but never overwhelmed because of the many opportunities the new space provided.

“Our motto is ‘luxury redefined,’ and we’re excited to reacquaint ourselves with all our old friends from Newtown,” she said.

Miré not only offers a wide variety of services, but each one provides clients an opportunity to build “Spa Reward” points towards future services. Rewards range from an eyebrow waxing for 150 points to a “Weekend Getaway,” which includes an overnight stay at the Water’s Edge Resort, dinner and breakfast for 4,000 points. The classic pedicure starts at $25 and there are similar services for men and couples, even a child’s pedicure for kids age 10 and under.

The combination services start at just $50 for the “Beauty Package,” which includes a classic manicure, pedicure, eyebrow waxing, and 10-minute chair massage. The $130 men’s rejuvenation package offers a 50-minute Swedish massage, facial mask, buff manicure and sports pedicure, while the $200 bridal package has every service a bride to be could want on the morning of her special day including a luxurious diva manicure, full waxing treatments, and a 50-minute hot stone massage.

“And every 50-minute massage comes with a complimentary facial mask treatment,” Ms Lee added.

For more information, to obtain a gift certificate, or to set up an appointment at Miré Spa & Nail, call 264-1090.