T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — The Oliver Beene Designs team, along with the Chamber ambassadors and Marshalltown Central Business District Executive Director Deb Millizer, cut the ribbon on the new location at 214 E. Main St. on Saturday morning.

Life happens.

That’s what Rhonda Braudis said about the chaotic year she and her wife Lora, who co-own Oliver Beene Designs together, have had after moving from the Meadow Lane Mall to the Marshalltown Mall back in February only to be shut down earlier this month at the order of the fire marshal due to the mall ownership group’s nonpayment of utility bills.

All’s well that ends well, however, and the popular local home goods store celebrated finding its “final destination” downtown at 214 E. Main St. on Saturday morning with a ribbon cutting and open house just before the Holiday Stroll held later in the day.

Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO John Hall commended the Oliver Beene team for their resiliency and pointed to it as a constant theme in the community.

“Being an outsider to Marshalltown and only being here a couple of years, I had heard the word resiliency getting tossed around quite a bit, and it felt like a great thing to say,” Hall said. “But to see that in action has been truly remarkable.”

Hall also noted how quickly they made the turnaround happen, essentially moving into the new space within a span of two weeks. Rhonda Braudis added a few more words on how excited they are to move to their long term home.

“This is truly our final destination. When we think about community, we really think about Marshalltown and Marshall County, and we could not do this, we could’ve not even attempted to have this completed without the community, without our friends, without our OBD family,” she said. “These ladies have just whipped it up, and let me tell you what, if it wasn’t for them, we would not have been able to do this and get it completed. I really have to say that when people are looking for a community, you have to look for a community like this because this is where it’s at.”

After the ribbon was cut, Rhonda Braudis, who also serves as the director of the Marshall County 911 Communications Commission, took some time to reflect on the whirlwind year she’s had.

“Life happens. Roadblocks hit. What you do is you counter, overcome, look to your community. You have support,” she said. “It doesn’t matter. All I know is we are in our final destination. This is an amazing spot, and I’m so excited to finally be on Main Street because they’ve been trying to get us here for years.”

And of course, for Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) Executive Director Deb Millizer, the move is an exciting opportunity to add more vitality to the downtown area.

“I think with the fact that we now have five boutiques in the Main Street area, that just makes us stronger as a destination,” she said. “I think we are community over competition, and I know the other boutiques are very excited to have Oliver Beene here… They will be cross promoting each other, I know that they will be.”

Oliver Beene Designs is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.