New retail ideas pop up downtown

SANDPOINT – They call it “pop-up” retailing and in cities across the U.S., it’s becoming a hot national trend. The concept makes especially good sense from an economic development standpoint, since it allows entrepreneurs and start-up businesses to test new product ideas without the initial burden of carrying a building lease or keeping a large inventory on hand.

        According to Mark Rivers, a consultant with Boise-based Brix & Co. who works with the group Sandpoint Forward to develop ways to create downtown vitality, pop-up retailing has emerged as a new spin on the traditional business incubator idea.

 “This is the minor league baseball team of major league storefront merchants,” he said. “The Sandpoint twist is about celebrating local products and the people who make and sell them.”

  A four-day event, which starts on Thursday evening, is being marketed under the name “Genuine Sandpoint – Marché Downtown” and will introduce the artwork, wares and services of about 30 local participants while also giving a sneak peek at the renovations going on inside the former Belwood’s Furniture building on Cedar Street.

   “The Genuine Sandpoint brand applies to all of us – coffee makers, wineries, brewers and a lot of other different purveyors,” said Pend d’Oreille Winery President Steve Meyer, who co-owns the winery and the Belwood’s building with his wife, Julie. “It’s a launching pad for the ‘localvore’ concept year-round, not just at the Farmer’s Market.”

   When the DSBA approached the couple about hosting the first event in the classic brick structure across from the winery, the combination of a vacant retail space and an eager batch of new business people who want to fill part of it – albeit only for a few days – clicked nicely.

    “So one plus one plus one equals five, in this case,” Rivers said.

        DSBA Manager Marcy Timblin said the pop-up approach is particularly helpful for start-up ventures.

        “They have nothing to lose,” she said. “It’s a way to test a product idea without any risk.”

      For others, the temporary selling space can be a way to put a face with artwork or other goods and commodities that might already be available but in need of more visibility.

    “A lot of people have their product in stores downtown, but this is their opportunity to share their zeal face-to-face,” Timblin said.

    Among the retailers taking part in this first outing will be local designers, artists, meat producers, jelly makers, ski manufacturers, publishers and coffee roasters, Meyer listed. The DSBA purposely chose the shoulder season, as a way to “give a shot in the arm to artists, artisans and young businesses,” Meyer pointed out.

    “And it’s a showcase for them – a window to the marketplace,” he said.

    Flinging the window open could provide a boost for start-up businesses that might later find success as downtown merchants, Rivers explained.

     “The legacy of entrepreneurship is in the DNA of Sandpoint,” he said. “We need to do everything we can to see that flourish.”

     A big part of infusing downtown with a new level of vitality will involve finding ways to fill vacant retail locations – something that’s high on the DSBA priority list. This week’s maiden voyage for pop-up retailing could offer a bridge strategy, if not an outright solution, to creating higher occupancy counts.

 “Hopefully, downtown business owners who have vacancies will take notice, because we want this to keep going,” Meyer said.

        Within days of the pop-up retailers moving out, the Belwood’s building will no longer be a suitable location for sellers, since interior renovation work will move into high gear going into the spring and summer. Visitors to Genuine Sandpoint – Marché Downtown will get a preview of things to come inside the structure, which once housed a street-level mercantile and was home to the St. James Hotel upstairs.

  The Meyers currently are in the process of having plaster removed from the original brick walls, as well as stripping out later additions such as mezzanines and dividing walls to restore the building to its earlier grandeur as part of what will be a LEED-certified green building project.

  “We’ve rolled back 80 years and I think people will enjoy getting a peek at it,” Steve Meyer said. “We’re doing it as a LEED project to bring it into the 21st Century and get it ready for the next 100 years.”

  Beyond hosting this week’s retail function, the owners have no concrete plans as far as longer-term design and final use for the historic downtown building.

      “That’s all still in play,” said Meyer. “But let me just say that maybe one of these budding entrepreneurs – or a collection of them – would make an awesome tenant when we’re done.”

     An opening night celebration for Genuine Sandpoint – Marché Downtown will be held this Thursday from 5-8 p.m. The 30 pop-up retailers will be open Friday and Saturday from noon-6 p.m. and Sunday from noon-5 p.m.

       “And then it will be Brigadoon,” Meyer said. “It will all go away until the next time we do this.”

        For more information on downtown economic development efforts visit: www.downtownsandpoint.com or www.sandpointforward.com.