Paralegal-trained Jacqueline L. Moynihan is trying to carve a new business niche in a building that until last year produced stone sculptures and department store props.
The three-story building at 670 W. Hubbard St., which dates to 1869 and may have been a hospital in its early days, is getting a total makeover.
You guessed it: Jacquie, as she is known to friends and business associates, has opened a full-service beauty salon and spa there.
Scouting that Near Northwest Side, or River North, area in August 1998, she recalls, “I liked that building when I first saw it.
“Then I really liked it when the space was available,” says Moynihan, who also runs another business, called Legal Assistants Inc.
Juggling two ventures will take a lot of energy, but Moynihan seems to have that–and more. She will need it, because beauty salons of one sort or another have sprouted all over the place.
Spas and salons are about a $15 billion-a-year business in the United States, with upward of 3,000 spas alone.
Her business–Jacquie Dean Salon and Spa–is just getting off the ground. The first floor of the building, at the corner of Milwaukee, Union and Hubbard, has been completely renovated, and work is being done in stages on the second and third floors, for total space of about 10,000 square feet. Moynihan expects everything to be completed by August.
“I like what Jacquie’s doing there,” says Modesto “Marty” Lucchessi, who with his family until late last year operated North Side Statuary in that building, which the family owns. Moynihan has signed a 15-year lease there.
In her favor is a neighborhood in the River North area that’s certain to grow with new residents, new or rehabbed buildings and new businesses.
Moynihan has done her homework, even checking out nearby Good Dog (457 N. Union Ave.), an obedience school for dogs. The proprietor told her, “If [dog owners] spend as much on themselves as they do on their dogs, you should do OK here.”
The greater Near North area is crawling with beauty care operations, ranging from cheapies to the very pricey.
Moynihan got the name “Dean” from Donald Dean Marion, who designed the interior of Jacquie Dean.
Moynihan is putting in merchandising wrinkles aimed at attracting business and building relationships with her clientele. For example, she lets customers know they can bring their autos to a nearby car wash for “grooming” while they are at the salon.
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“Hopefully, we’ll create an environment where those who walk through the door will feel as if it’s their own secret place for beauty and relaxation,” she says.
In high school, Moynihan was a shampoo girl and later ran a neighborhood hair salon on the Southwest Side.
She eventually went to work on thelitigation support team at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. During her eight years there, she completed a paralegal program at Roosevelt University.
When she saw how much outsourcing for temporary help was involved, she went on her own in 1995 and set up Legal Assistants, which now works for a number of law firms.
To be sure, there are a lot of Jacquie Moynihans out there, who succeed at one business and try another. Or, as she says, “I wanted to roll the dice one more time in something that will make people feel good and be rewarding.”
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