Modern Male eyes storefront for school

Hearing on June 20 could allow barber training at Main Street storefront

A local barbershop with locations across the region has big plans for one of Lansdale’s most visible buildings.

Nick Prosseda, owner of Modern Male Barbershop, is planning for a barbershop training school to be located at 209 W. Main St.

“The goal would be to open up a school, where we can now produce barbers at a capacity that’s a lot more than we’re able to do right now, and also have job placements,” said Prosseda.

“Having four barbershops, sometimes it’s hard to keep the chairs filled. Every few years, we may have one or two senior barbers who rotate, or leave for various reasons. The school would feed other barbershops, and give us the ability to open more,” he said.

Modern Male Barbershop currently has four locations, starting in Sellersville in 2008, then expanding to Quakertown, to Plymouth Meeting in 2014 before closing the next year, then Perkasie in 2016 and Souderton in 2017, according to The Reporter archives. Prosseda made the case to borough council’s Code committee Wednesday that Lansdale — specifically, the building adjacent to Railroad Plaza and once occupied by the Red Lotus Tattoos and Tabora Farms — should be the next.

“We have a (business) plan from 2005, and one of the goals was, in 2017 or 2018, to be in the Lansdale area. We like the fact that the R-5 (rail line) is here, and students can get off the train, or the buses run through here,” he said.

Modern Male currently donates to local charities, provides space for haircut fundraisers, and gives free cuts to those in need at the other locations, and would be able to do more of each at the Lansdale location, according to Prosseda.

“We believe in giving back to the community. People who can’t afford haircuts for whatever reason, or people who lose jobs, get free haircuts until they’re back on their feet,” he said.

The company trains barbers at the other four locations, but state licencing requirements only allow one or two students per location, so a school would create more capacity and students could pay, at least in part, for their training by working in the shops. The apprentice program runs six to nine months, and requires 1,250 hours of work, during normal weekday business hours. Customers willing to try a cut from an apprentice would likely get a lower price, while the student learns by hands-on experience, and local barbershops already in town could

have a steady stream of new employees.

“We do a barter system: they sweep the floors, answer the phones, it’s a tradeoff. They give us their time, we teach them the skill of barbering,” Prosseda said.

Borough Manager John Ernst said, while the barbering use is allowed in the borough’s downtown business overlay district where the site is located, the vocational training portion is not, and would require conditional use approval from borough council.

“Because it has that votech component, the requirement is that it has to go in front of borough council,” Ernst said.

Prosseda said, depending on whether council approves the training use, he is also considering expanding into the adjacent building at 211 W. Main to operate a barbershop similar to his four others.

Two or three instructors would likely rotate through the school each day, with 18 or 20 chairs inside, and classes likely offered mostly during daytime hours. Ernst pointed out that those hours could make the outside of the building, which has been vacant since Red Lotus closed and relocated earlier this year, look very different from the prior occupants.

“There’s a potential that that storefront will be black at night, because there’s no activity happening,” Ernst said.

“As opposed to what we might be used to seeing, an active business with lights on and activity inside, potentially this could be something different than what we’re used to seeing,” he said.

Code committee member and council President Denton Burnell said any member of the public interested

in learning more or asking questions should attend the formal conditional use hearing during council’s June 20 meeting.

“They were very clear about the fact that they try to give back to the community, and this apprenticeship

that’s required to get this certification is pretty significant,” Burnell said.

“We’re going to hear more about that, and hear why they think they should be allowed to do that,” he said.

Lansdale’s borough council

next meets at 7 p.m. on June 20 at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine St.