CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some businesses that can’t operate as usual are pivoting in a different direction.
As children prepare to head back to class, the classroom is heading online for many students. Parents are left struggling to help their children learn remotely without a teacher close by.
The Collector's Room in Charlotte's South End is working to be part of the solution.
"When we realized we could no longer operate as a full-service event venue, we thought, 'Why not offer our space?' It's huge," said MarySue Boyle, creative director with Beau Monde Venues. "It's clean. It's open. We have WiFi. We have tables and chairs."
The Collector's Room typically hosts events with up to 300-400 people in the space, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the parties can't have more than 10 people inside.
"We've had to really just rethink how we're doing business and go with the flow as best we can, and just like everyone, keep changing with the times," Boyle said.
That change means switching out fancy soirees for study hall.
The venue announced it will open up a South End Study Hall — a safe, socially distant space for students and their tutors to continue learning at a $150 per student per week.
"Drop them for an, you know, hour block of time up to five-hour block of time," Boyle said. "Everyone can get their work done and come back together and, you know, still be sane and have some semblance of a schedule."
The Collector’s Room is 6,500 square feet of all open space, then satellite spaces give them more than 11,000 square feet.
The space is ideal for pods of three to four students with a tutor, but self-sufficient students are also welcome.
The Collector’s Room will offer high-speed wifi, tables and chairs, safe space, large television screens, and will make use of temperature checks, sanitizer stations, masks when mobile and individual workspaces.
It's just one instance of a Charlotte business adjusting with the times, offering an option for students to continue studying with a change of scenery.
"We're really trying to just do our part and be, be together in this," Boyle said.
There will be a supervisor on-site, but no individual tutors will be provided.