From a Table on the Mall to a Storefront in Carytown

Ayla and Firat started with a folding table on the Charlottesville Downtown Mall.

The city permits a limited number of vendors to set up there. A table, a small footprint, and whatever you can carry in and out each day. That is where they began.

They sold jewelry and objects for the home. They sourced everything. Nothing chosen without intention. Even then, there was a point of view.

Firat is Turkish. Ayla is Swedish-American. What they chose, and how they arranged it, reflected that blend of cultures and sensibilities. People noticed.

A few years in, they moved into a narrow storefront on the mall, tucked between Bijou and the antique store next door. It was not a large space, but it did not need to be. They named it Tilla, after their son Attila.

If you have been to the Charlottesville store, you understand it quickly. It is small, but complete. The curation is deliberate. Nothing is there by accident. The space feels considered in a way that is difficult to replicate.

The Richmond Expansion

Last year, they decided to expand to Richmond.

The plan came together with a silent partner, my close friend Ali. Ali is the co-owner, along with his business partner Haldun, of Otto, the Turkish restaurant on the Downtown Mall. At the time, I was representing Ali and Haldun on Otto’s Richmond expansion, so the market and the working relationship were already in place.

Ali had watched Tilla grow over time. He understood what Ayla and Firat were building, and he believed in it.

Ayla and Firat identified a storefront in Carytown. It was a former Keller and George jewelry location, set within a small retail strip. The space was significantly larger than their Charlottesville store, which was the point. Richmond required a different scale.

They approached the listing broker themselves.

Weeks would pass between replies. Sometimes a month. I will not say more about that, but for anyone who has waited on a commercial agent in another market, the picture is familiar. Momentum slows. Decisions drag. Deals stall.

After several of those cycles, Ali asked if I could step in on the Tilla transaction as well. From that point forward, the two Richmond deals ran in parallel. From that point forward, the two Richmond deals ran in parallel.

The Tilla lease took about four months to negotiate.

Lease structure, tenant improvements, rent abatement, and build-out timing. Each piece had to be worked through. The listing side remained a consistent point of friction throughout, but we moved it forward.

We ultimately secured the space, along with three months of rent abatement. That window gave them the time they needed to build the store properly before rent began.

They used all of it.

What Changed and What Didn’t

Those three months went into a full build-out. Not just filling a space, but shaping it. Adjusting layout, flow, and presentation to match how they sell and how people move through the store.

Tilla opened in Carytown about three weeks ago.

The Richmond location is on a different scale than where they started. More square footage, more visibility, more capacity.

What has not changed is how they approach it.

Piece by piece. Customer by customer. The same level of care in what they choose and how they present it.

There is a tendency to look at the final step and treat it as the story. The new storefront. The expansion. The visible outcome.

That is not the part I find most interesting.

The real estate matters. It creates the opportunity for growth.

But it does not create the outcome.

That comes from the years before it. The decisions no one sees. The consistency required to make the next step make sense.

In this case, that work was already done.