After 9/11 horror, a place to soothe
When some think “spa,” they envision a place for wealthy women with nothing but time on their hands. That notion is quickly quashed when walking into Woodhouse Day Spa in Middletown, which offers a winsome and welcoming respite after a long day at the office for both men and women.
Marlabetz Figueroa, is no ordinary spa owner ”“ nor was she planning to become one. The Temple University graduate comes from Manhattan”™s world of banking, where she specialized in immigration and human resources for Citigroup for several years. The job kept her up to her ears in paperwork, credentialing potential employees for its worldwide operations and dealing with the problems human resource personnel deal with every day. “Talk about stress!” exclaimed Figueroa.
“Coming out of college and then working for a law firm that specialized in immigration matters in midtown, it was a dream come true when I got the job with Citigroup and went to work on Wall Street,” says Figueroa in her new luxury spa surroundings. She”™s far from the sound of the bell, the hue and cry of the banking industry and constant shuffle of financial footsteps. A single life-changing event brought Figueroa from the canyons of Wall Street to her own business in the Hudson Valley: September 11.
She had already made the move to Orange county before 9/11, ready for a change from her cramped Brooklyn surroundings and buying a house in Middletown one year before the Twin Towers came crashing down. Figueroa joined the growing ranks of commuters on Metro-North, “where you spend so much time traveling you end up getting to know many people during your daily run. One of the regular riders and I became very good friends and we all got to know each other to some degree. You”™d notice if someone was not on board that day.
“I used to get in extra early on regular intervals to have breakfast with my supervisor. We were friends as well as colleagues. We”™d meet early in one of the conference rooms and talk about work and office goals in a relaxed way.” Their particular meeting place had picture window directly facing the Twin Towers. “That Tuesday, I arrived at 7:00am. I usually didn”™t get into the office until 8:30. We had finished breakfast and were sitting going over the day”™s schedule when the first plane hit.”
From the 34th-floor offices at 7 World Trade Center, Figueroa said the first thing she did, after the immediate shock, was to call her mother. “I didn”™t know if I was going to come out of it alive. I saw the people jumping from the windows. It was surreal. People in my office were walking around numb, almost zombie-like. We were all in a state of shock.” Â
Figueroa and her Citigroup co-workers quickly regained their sense of survival and scrambled from the building. She joined the running exodus of people escaping the eventual collapse of the twin structures that symbolized New York”™s financial prowess.
“I met up with someone I knew, and we walked to Penn Station. It was shut down. We sat there trying to figure out how to get home … then continued walking to Grand Central Station. I kept wondering if I would be able to get out of the city and what else might happen.” By the time they reached 42nd Street, the terminal had just re-opened, and a conductor told Figueroa to run to catch a train getting ready to leave for Beacon. She finally made it home that night, “but my friend from the train, he was in the Towers. He didn”™t make it home.”
Citigroup re-grouped quickly, moving its staff up to Herald Square, but eventually moving back down to the Wall Street area. “Everyone kept reassuring us we would be safe, and Citigroup found space on a lower floor of a building on Water Street so we”™d feel more secure and able to get out easily if something happened. But every time I boarded the train to go to work, I couldn”™t stop thinking of the people who were no longer there riding every day with me. Not just my friend … many ”˜regulars”™ were gone, too. The smell and the daily reminder of what I saw never left me. I just couldn”™t shake it off.”
That was when Figueroa started looking into entrepreneurial opportunities and spotted Woodhouse Day Spa, based in Victoria, Texas. “They had just opened a second franchise in Pennsylvania, and I watched their progress carefully and studied the business model, deciding if it was right for me.”
After two years of keeping tabs on the growing franchise, Figueroa decided to take the plunge. “I sold my house to use some of the equity to buy the franchise.” Financing the makeover to create the 4,000-square-foot luxury spa, however, became a stumbling block. “Despite my good track record as an employee in the world of finance, a good money manager and having a business plan, I couldn”™t find a bank willing to give me a second look,” she said.
Figueroa”™s guardian angel came in the form of Barbara Boggan, vice president of corporate sales in Provident Bank”™s Montebello headquarters. “She (Boggan) took the time to sit down with me and go over my business plan … kept reassuring me and walked me through the process.” Figueroa got her loan application approved. “Provident has been wonderful to me. Other banks didn”™t even bother to look at my business plan. But they (Provident) took the time and thought I was worth taking a chance on. They do go the extra mile to help women business owners.”
From Boggan”™s perspective, Figueroa was “the kind of person who is a pleasure to work with. She had all her ducks in a row … from her meticulous paperwork, business plan and the enthusiasm she had for the business franchise she had chosen after carefully considering all the prospective sole proprietorships she could invest her time, money and effort into.”
Neither Boggan nor Provident would be disappointed to see how the bank”™s investment is doing. Figueroa turned the she leases on Crystal Run Road into a stylish showplace. “There are 25 Woodhouse Day Spa franchises in the US right now,” said Figueroa. “We have high standards and only offer the best.” And Figueroa isn”™t making a shallow boast: the quality shows in the décor, treatment and amenities she and her staff offer her growing clientele.
By 5 p.m. on a blustery Thursday evening, Figueroa”™s door was opening non-stop with both men and women coming in from a day at the office to “re-group and get rejuvenated,” said a smiling Figueroa. “And they do, too. We offer everything from massages to mineral baths and Vichy showers, pedicures, seaweed wrap, facials and treatments that really help business people and household engineers relax and enjoy a wonderful experience in a beautiful atmosphere.”
Figueroa says while she misses the excitement of city living at times, she loves the beauty of the Hudson Valley. “There is “nothing like owning your own business … and the Hudson Valley offers the opportunity to accomplish that goal. I was fortunate to find a great franchise, a great location and a great bank to help me make my dream come true.”
In December, Figeuroa celebrated a milestone: her first year as a business owner. As if on cue, Dayspa magazine named Woodhouse “one of the best day spa chains in America” that same month.
Figueroa is elated that her business growing; and while she is happy to be working in peaceful, beautiful surroundings far from the canyons of “The Street,” the tragedy of September 11 is something she lives with every day. “I think of the friend I lost often and of his family, and of all the families and friends, husbands and wives who are gone. My brother has served in Iraq, so I also know it feels to have loved ones fighting in this war. We have grown very comfortable here and I think sometimes people tend to forget what happened that day. For me, it”™s not possible.”
Perhaps that”™s why the woman from the world of banking found the spa business so attractive. “There is nothing like coming in and getting treated like a queen or king after a tough day at the office.” For Figueroa, making it home on September 11 certainly fell into the “tough day at the office” category.
To learn more, visit www.middletown.woodhousespas.com.