Darryl Harris, owner of Moods Music in Little Five Points, looks forward to Record Store Day every year.
“It’s a day of celebration of what I love to do, sell records,” he said. “There aren’t that many independent record stores left and to be one of them is special.”
Moods Music, open for 24 years, is an Atlanta staple. Located on Euclid Avenue in the heart of the hip neighborhood known for its indie stores, Harris’s business stands out by specializing in vinyl and CDs from Neo Soul, Afro-Cuban, and Acid Jazz artists — music people can’t buy anywhere else.
Harris, a former DJ, also carefully curates the R&B, Dance, Funk and Reggae selections.
“I am more of a specialty store, a little bit more eclectic, than most record stores,” he said. “I just felt Little Five was a perfect fit.”
Harris, 63, is now venturing beyond L5P. He plans to open Crates, a new record store, on Hotel Row at 215 Mitchell St. in South Downtown. He signed a lease last week and is looking at an August or September opening date.
Harris said he was intrigued by what he saw Newport RE was doing in South Downtown and on Hotel Row while driving around the area. The neighborhood vibe he saw happening would be the perfect match for his next record store.
“I would always just peek my head in the different storefronts, and the light bulb just went off,” he said. “I’m excited about what it’s going to become.”
One year ago, he met April Stammel. At the time, Stammel was with Newport RE, a German real estate company with a plan to revitalize 10 blocks of South Downtown.
In July, just a few months after they met, Newport announced it was selling its entire South Downtown portfolio to Atlanta-based Braden Fellman Group. The deal fell through and many of Newport’s properties went into foreclosure.
In December, entrepreneurs Jon Birdsong and David Cummings, the founders of Atlanta Tech Village in Buckhead, announced they were buying Newport’s entire South Downtown portfolio of 53 buildings and more than six acres of parking lots.
Their venture is known as South Downtown Atlanta where they envision creating a district for entrepreneurs and startups.
“Darrell has been really patient,” Stammel said, now head of Marketing & Community Engagement for South Downtown Atlanta. “He definitely stuck through the transition and kept tabs on the progress. When the new buyers came in, we championed Crates and what Darryl was bringing to the neighborhood, and they embraced it full force.”
Newport did complete the renovation of Hotel Row on Mitchell Street before its vision collapsed. Thai restaurant TydeTate Kitchen opened last year, the first tenant of Hotel Row. This month, Spiller Park Coffee opened.
Moods Music sells mostly new vinyl as well as CDs, turntables, books, art. Crates will be a place for used vinyl only, where people can search through, yes, crates of albums and sell some of their own records.
It will also sell home goods, turntables, and other merchandise similar to what is available at the Little Five Points store.
“I take pride in making a store a little bit more unique. My store [Moods Music] looks like no other record store — I’ve always wanted to be different,” he said.
Crates will have a similar aesthetic as Moods Music, Harris said, with a warm, welcoming vibe so people feel like home when they walk through the door.
“And I love the brick wall of the new space,” Harris said. “That brick wall is everything to me, and I can’t wait to get in there, work my magic.”
Stammel said entrepreneurs like Harris, TydeTate and Spiller Coffee are what will make South Downtown a success, like the success Harris has enjoyed in L5P.
“He planted here and he grew here,” Stammel said of Harris and Moods Music
“Twenty-four years ago, he started a business, he opened a record store, he was an entrepreneur.,” she said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do in South Downtown with these tenants who are linking arms with us and becoming partners with and see what the neighborhood’s going to become.”
Harris said he believes in what is happening in South Downtown. He looks forward to celebrating Record Store Day in L5P and South Downtown next year. And he plans to be on Hotel Row for more than 20 years, also.
“I see the vision,” he said. “Being a part of the revitalization of Downtown — I want to be a part of that.”
For Record Store Day, Harris has an all-day party planned in the back courtyard of Moods Music at 1131 Euclid Ave. with live DJs, vendors and a food truck.
The party begins at noon, but the store opens at 10:30 a.m. for record collectors to shop for new vinyl, including special LPs released on Record Store Day.