Wodonga's former Choppertown cafe and garage building becomes home to bikes and beauty treatment

The prominent Thomas Mitchell Drive building which was converted from a garage to the custom culture store Choppertown, comprising a workshop, cafe, barber shop and retail clothing outlet, is starting afresh with a beauty treatment business, Brow Couture by Sandy, and a cycle sales and repair shop.

Sandy Szabolics has relocated Brow Couture by Sandy to Wodonga after eight years in Albury and Brendan Washington has moved his cycle shop further along Thomas Mitchell Drive after being located near the High Street roundabout.

"We live in Wodonga, grew up in Wodonga and always wanted to relocate the business to Wodonga," Ms Szabolics said.

"Everyone knows the position here.

"It's close to the city centre without being in High Street and eventually will be a great little precinct when a coffee shop, cafe gets up and running."

Mrs Szabolics has a diploma of cosmetic tattooing and works alongside her sister, Connie Bond, and two other brow and lash artists, Emily Foreman and Tara Laramee with the building refurbished to include two treatment rooms and a waiting room.

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The business has clients from as far afield as Wagga, Shepparton and Leeton.

Mr Washington had been at his previous Thomas Mitchell Drive site for five years and is co-sharing the new tenancy with his wife Anna, who is a naturopath.

"We had outgrew that building," he said.

"We haven't stopped since March last year when COVID began.

"(Cycling) took off worldwide and we had our busiest year ever last year."

The building was constructed in the 1950s by Frank Nusser and operated as Tallangatta Road Motors before being sold to Pat Toole later in the decade.

It was then home to Zienert Motors, which was founded by Doug and Thelma Zeinert, before being taken over by Bill Scammell and Barry Richardson in the late 1970s.

The building has been purchased by Mrs Szabolics and her family with AW Commercial the leasing agents.

"It is another example of owner occupiers in a low interest rate environment wanting to buy their own property," AW Commercial co-owner Scott Mann said.

"We're continuing to see a lot of city-based investors de-risking from city-based assets and looking to regional areas like Albury-Wodonga."

Mr Mann said a cafe would complement the two other businesses.

The operators of Choppertown had applied to Wodonga Council to convert the workshop section of the business into a licenced cafe restaurant in mid-2019.

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