By Mike Fitts
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COLUMBIA -- The effort to bring new retailers downtown has landed its first new shop in a familiar location: the old Capitol Newsstand space.

The Uptown gift boutique will open at 1204 Main St. in mid-October, probably with a soft launch and a later grand opening, said Amy Stone, vice president of retail development for the City Center Partnership. She has been heading the new effort to draw retailers back downtown.

The store’s offerings will include gifts, decor, monogramming and stationery. Stone said owner Martha Studstill is ready to open the store after building her business on the Internet and at the partnership’s Friday outdoor Main Street Marketplace events.

The new store has all the attributes the partnership wanted in an addition to Main Street. Stone said the partnership is looking to add retailers with attractive merchandise that will add something new to the downtown mix; that seem likely to be successful; and that other businesses will want to be near.

Uptown will open next door to the new Dunkin Donuts, which now is expecting to open in mid-November, Stone said.

Growing independent businesses like Studstill’s are more likely to be the ones that venture into downtown retail, Stone said. “National chain types are not the leaders,” she said.