Summit Day Spa & Wellness Clinic (423-3888) has been in operation for more than 21 years. A couple year back, owner Susan Alward decided that being in Park Lane Mall just wasn’t the right fit for it anymore. However, their chosen new location, the new office building at the corner of Birmingham and Spring Garden Road, was delayed getting completed. “We were originally supposed to move in August 1,” explains an exasperated-sounding Alward. In the meantime, Summit temporarily set up shop in the former funeral home near the corner of Robie and Quinpool. “We love the space we’ve been in,” she says, especially having free parking. But customers are used to Summit being on Spring Garden, and so it will be again, opening in the new building at civic address 5495 on January 18. It’s actually a smaller space, which suits Alward just fine. “We want to do a stronger focus on the services we do well,” she explains, meaning she’ll be training fewer new people, instead utilizing her experienced staff for skin care, permanent hair removal, makeup and pedicures, as well as working on a new men’s brochure. The brand-new, office-like building should appeal to men more, says Alward. “It’s a more private, more boutique-y kind of environment.”
UPDATE, January 11, 2:40pm
Summit will now open in its new location January 25.
This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2012.