Mace’s Place Young retail entrepreneur finds success on MDI

Editor’s Note: This is one in an occasional series of articles on young business leaders and their decision to live and work in Maine.

BAR HARBOR – Growing up in Bar Harbor and spending summers waiting tables, Danielle Mace knew what tourists wanted.

And Mace knew what she wanted – to live in Bar Harbor indefinitely. In 1997, at age 24, she and her boyfriend purchased the modest, aging building at 240 Main St. and got to work – renovating, rebuilding and seeing it through its evolution from a summer rental home to a consignment shop to a popular women’s clothing boutique, Macey’s.

“I definitely think she’s filling a niche on the island,” Julie Veilleux, president of the Bar Harbor Merchant’s Association and owner of the Widow Panes stores, said Friday. “Danielle is a great gal. She certainly is ambitious.”

Mace represents the young, native Mainer the state is trying to retain with programs such as Realize! Maine, a social networking organization, and Opportunity Maine, which gives tax credits for college loan repayment.

While her family and work have made her want to stay in Maine, Mace said she has seen about half of her class at Mount Desert Island High School leave the state. Her brother lives in Portland because he simply does not see any work opportunities on the island, she said.

After graduating from high school in 1991, Mace took a few college business courses at the University of Maine and then decided to return to her hometown to keep her job as a waitress at Jordan’s Restaurant and save money. In the winter, when Jordan’s closed, she would go to Florida to wait tables and work on a boat that sailed between Naples and Key West.

Mace and her longtime boyfriend, Dean Paine, decided to purchase the house on Main Street from his father, David, the owner of Jordan’s. Mace began working for David Paine at age 15. She credits him with teaching her business savvy.

“I saw what was happening on this end of the street and I just knew that I needed to utilize the property,” Mace said in a recent interview, referring to the restaurants, galleries and shops that had spread up the hill through the center of town. “It was a great investment.”

Mace and Dean Paine got to work renovating the 1890s house themselves, then began renting it summers. Mace eventually decided she wanted to move on from waitressing and decided to turn the rental house into a business.

“Somewhere in me I knew I was probably not going to work for somebody else for the rest my life,” Mace said.

An avid resale shopper, Mace and an aunt each contributed $1,000 and started a consignment shop together in Mace’s house, calling it Macey’s. They filled the small rooms of the first floor with used and sample clothing and opened for business.

After a year, Mace’s aunt chose a new career and left the shop. From 2000 to 2003, Mace ran Macey’s on her own but found the slim profit margin discouraging. In 2003, she and Dean resolved to tear down and rebuild on the property so that she could open a larger shop and sell new clothing.

It had taken almost two years of negotiating with the town to come up with a design that would appease both owners and planning officials, but in May 2004 Macey’s reopened on the first floor of the new, three-story building. Mace and Paine live on the second and third floors in a sprawling, sunny apartment.

Mace has found much more success with her new store, which closes every January and reopens in April. Last year, when the Bar Harbor Merchant’s Association opened with the goal of promoting shops that are open beyond the summer months, Mace quickly got involved.

“People just assume Bar Harbor shuts down [after summer ends], and really it’s not the case,” Mace said.

The seasonal, sometimes capricious, nature of business is Mace’s biggest challenge, she said.

“This business runs on sun, and when it rains you think, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got all this inventory,'” Mace said. “There’s a lot of sleepless nights, but it’s a lot of fun.”