Tim Rohan, owner of T. Rohan Interior Design for 27 years, is consolidating his business to the second floor of his building. He plans to rent out the first floor.

Rohan owns three buildings on Manchester Road, in Maplewood. Charm Boutique and Vom Fass are his tenants.

“I’m 55 now and my game plan was at some point I would start shrinking down,” he said. “The economy is pushing it a little earlier than I expected. I’m going to move upstairs, and do the same thing and just make more money – have less overhead.”

He said a national company is coming in to look at the first-floor space for a restaurant.

“They’d remove all the architecture, the fire place, the windows, the French doors, the columns, cover over the herringbone floors and turn it into a generic white store,” he said.

“We don’t know if it’s real yet, we’ll see,” he said. “I would like to think it would make a wonderful wine bar.”

Rohan said the city of Maplewood has hired a real estate agent to work with the building owners to fill some of the empty spaces, “which is the first smart thing I’ve seen Maplewood do in a long time.”

Rohan said the agent has brought some people by to look at the space.

“I hope we find somebody nice and tasteful with an interesting product to rent the space but you never know,” he said.

“It would make a beautiful boutique art gallery, but they haven’t approached us.”