Page 68 - Lighting Magazine January 2020

Retail Spotlight: Two CiTies
top: Fixtures featuring organic materials and texture are in demand instead of the “brown & curly” Traditional scrollwork of Texan generations past.
LED lighting fixtures and Contemporary looks are becoming increasingly important to Tyler-area homeowners.
the deliveries myself the next morning,” he states. Shane never seriously considered giving up. Op- erating their own businesses is something members of the Hagen family have done for years and he knew from an early age that it was what he wanted for his future, too. “Being put to the fire right out of the gate and with the first few years being so rough, I knew I had to be the best in order to sur- vive. I started reading all the lighting articles I could find so I could learn the decorative and technical aspects of lighting inside and out,” he comments. On the list of things to do was a trip to the Dallas Market, where one of the biggest accounts they
opened with was Craftmade.
It took time to sell off the existing merchandise,
make staff changes, and get the word out there that the lighting store location the community had gone to for years was now essentially completely different.
Impressed by the showroom’s transformation and performance during some incredibly tough economic times, his father approached him in 2011 with this thought: “He said, ‘I want you to buy the business and have your own building,’” Shane recounts. After searching for about one year, he purchased property along a well-traveled road.
The building, which is comprised of a 4,500-sq.- ft. showroom and 11,000-sq.-ft. warehouse, was finished in September 2013. The former Tyler Lighting Gallery did most of its business in retail with homeowners walking in to buy a few things for a room in their home. In order to grow, Shane knew he’d have to become a valued resource to build- ers — and there happened to be a fair amount of housing construction going on just south of Tyler.
“People come here to retire,” Trina notes. “We’ve had customers who’ve moved from California and even Colorado. One of the draws is the good medi- cal community here.”
Shane began attending every local builder func- tion he could find and would jot down the names he’d see on builder signs and call them up. “I just kept calling,” he says of his determination. “By the beginning of the next year, we weren’t being associ- ated with the previous business anymore. People respected us and realized our showroom was com- pletely different.”
Shane also became intrinsically involved with the Tyler builder association and regularly participates in the annual Parade of Homes, which features for 25+ houses on average. “These days we do a lot
64 enLIGHTenment Magazine | January 2020
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