Making the Spaces Work!

Great concepts in brick and mortar retail are popping up! The Playground Coffee Shop, a cafe and event space, sure speaks to the heart in this DNAinfo article. The Shop is a Cafe, a Community Space, and, a Vinyl, Cassette, VHS Tape, and Zine print store created by Zenat Begum who took over her fathers hardware store in the same location…The shop also provides underrepresented artist a place to showcase their work as a gallery, for poetry slams, book events, and performances.

Melissa Joy Manning lost her retail space in Soho so she pulled an “…Airbnb Retail…” as the Real Deal coined it in their article “How the Airbnbs of Retail are Growing in a Pillowy Soft Market” where she rents space to showcase her jewelry from Michelle Varian’s Boutique shop in Soho. Ms. Varian, who found herself often leasing out space she coined “Analog style” didn’t stop there. She’s partnered with Jay Norris of Lifestyle Equities to form “Guesst.co” where a match between need and space meet. Read the full article, on the Real Deal here which includes additional creative retail start-ups…

Proof is in the Pudding. It’s not just these innovators. According to Bisnow, there’s a movement around “Experiential Retail” occurring before our very eyes. Check out this article “Broker Roundtable: The Future of Retail” describing the upside of the the decline of occupied retail space in New York City…

Pop ups, Creatives, and Collaborators now’s your time…