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Washington, DC—Tiny Jewel Box, which already occupies 12,500 square feet, is growing again. The Centurion caught up with CEO Jim Rosenheim, who shared his 2015 expansion plans—all 6,000 square feet of them.

When the Tiny Jewel Box began, the name was fitting. At 100 square feet, it truly was tiny. Then it grew to 450. Then 1,500. Today, it's 12,500 square feet. With the newly planned expansion, the Tiny Jewel Box will be a whopping 20,000 square feet. 

"Every time we expand it's the same comment: the Not-So-Tiny Jewel Box. Our name has gone from being descriptive to being ironic," says Rosenheim with a smile. (Read Centurion's previous profile about Tiny Jewel Box here.)

"We are very excited about this; it's expected to be complete in late fall of this year." Rosenheim has contracted for the former ground floor space that was next door to Tiny Jewel Box. It was left vacant after the current tenant, Burberry, recently relocated. Rosenheim jumped at the opportunity; he had been thinking about expanding. "I own the building to the south. I bought it with the intention of expanding, but it did not afford us enough space. Then Burberry relocated and the space opened up. We're working with the owners on the redesign, since we have to break through a common wall,” he said. Further plans include moving the entrance to the corner which will give the jeweler 90 feet of frontage on both Connecticut and M Streets, a major neighborhood thoroughfare.

Rosenheim's plans include expanding into the former Burberry space (blue awnings) to the left of the Tiny Jewel Box (red awnings, behind the tree). The entrance will eventually be on the corner, shown at left behind the newspaper boxes.

Rosenheim says it will be an interesting sort of store. "I don't like to build conventional kinds of store. We have a few bells, whistles, and twists that we are working on. And we anticipate a big party for our friends and customers when it's done."  Currently, Rosenheim has retail on three floors of his six-story building, with 1,400 square feet on the first floor. His new plan is to have one floor of retail. "We'd like to expand some of our departments, like watches. It will offer all of our jewelry inventory a higher visibility." The former retail floor will be repurposed into operations.

Of course, renovations mean dust and disruption, but Rosenheim is taking all the change in stride. It's "quite a change," he says in an understated way. And about all the work it takes to expand? "It keeps me off the street."