Construction is underway at Sivana Salon, with the hopes to have its new addition ready to cater to its expanding clientele by mid February.
Owner Steven Melito, who owns not only the salon but also the building where its located, said Sivana’s neighbor St. James Natural Food was looking to downsize roughly one year ago, prompting him to take the third store in the strip.
“As a businessman and someone who sets goals for myself I’m always looking to expand and to grow,” he said.
Since Melito opened on Lake Avenue in St. James near 7-Eleven and Matt’s Pizza about 18 years ago, first as Melito International and seven years ago changing the name to Sivana, he’s not only taken over one of the two storefronts occupied by the health food store but a defunct video store as well.
With the expansion the salon will have a total of 34 chairs for clientele to have their hair styled, not including the existing chairs with sinks for shampooing. Melito said he is also looking to bring in more stylists with the expansion of Sivana.
Melito dabbled with the idea of becoming a full-service salon and offering more than hair styling with the new addition to Sivana, but ultimately scrapped the idea and decided to stick with strictly hair styling.
While the graffiti and inspirational sayings that adorn the salon walls have been covered or damaged during construction, Melito said customers could expect to see much of the same art they’ve grown accustom to as he confirmed , will be doing more in the new addition.
“I knew Chris for 100 years and I knew he was really artistic, and I collaborated with him, told him what I wanted,” Melito said. “Some of the sayings that were cut out by the construction I could salvage little parts of it. I’m going to sit down with Chris, probably have a couple of beers, and figure out creatively where we’re going to go.”
The construction is almost complete, according to Melito, and he is currently waiting for the rest of the furniture for the addition to be built.
