Southland entrepreneurs in industries ranging from tea to screenprinting to skincare gathered Wednesday to learn more about an upcoming development in South Holland: A collection of 10 tiny storefronts, to be rented out inexpensively in eight-month increments.
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The goal of the project, The SoHo Shops at Town Center, is to give small business owners a cheaper and easier way to try out the experience of operating a brick-and-mortar storefront.
“We just make it so that somebody who’s doing pop-up markets, or flea markets, or selling on Etsy, things like that, can test out a storefront, can see what it’s like to have a physical storefront, at a much lower cost of entry,” said Patrick Greenacre, cofounder of KPGS Consulting.
KPGS is working with the village of South Holland on the project.
The shops will all be on the same plot, forming an outdoor shopping mall to be open on weekends from May through December. Construction is already underway on the site. The planned opening date for the first group of businesses is May 1 of next year.
There are other similar retail incubator projects across the Chicago area, including three opened by KPGS Consulting in Berwyn and Brookfield.
“Nothing like this has ever made its way to the Southland,” said Jarell Blakey, South Holland’s economic development and special projects manager. “So us being the first in the region to do it will be game-changing.”
Greenacre said that KPGS’s other incubators have seen about a 30% rate of participants eventually transitioning to permanent physical storefronts, though he also said that success looks different for everyone.
Applications are currently open. The application period ends on Jan. 5. Applications will then be reviewed by a review panel and finalist applicants selected for in-person interviews before the final 10 business owners are selected. The application can be found at www.southhollandshops.com.
One of the interested business owners at Wednesday’s info session was Ashleigh Robinson, an aesthetician with a sugar cookie business who hopes to one day open a bakery.
“Being a new mom, I want to spend more time with my family, so starting more of a home-based business versus being in the salon all day is definitely a transition that I’m looking to make,” Robinson said. “So I’m excited about the opportunity just to see if this is something that I can actually pull off.”
The project is part of an ongoing downtown redevelopment project in South Holland, and business owners from across the area are encouraged to apply.
“It’s going to be a regional attraction,” said Will Neibert, assistant to South Holland’s village administrator. “It’s not just going to be local South Holland residents.”
There are some restrictions. The location will not have running water, meaning no onsite food preparation. The shops will only be open during the weekends, to accommodate participants with day jobs, but vendors will be required to have their shops open for those weekend hours, which will run from late morning to evening on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
“Businesses who are interested in applying need to submit a business plan. Basically, we don’t care if that business plan is 45 pages with spreadsheets and images and AI renderings, or if it’s handwritten,” Greenacre said. “We just want to make sure that the people who are applying are actually committed and have some sense of what they’re doing.”
The cost of participation is $4,600, with half paid up front and the remainder paid as a $325 monthly rent over the course of the program. Each business owner will have to host at least one event during the eight-month program, with can be anything from an art show to a new fall product line.
Business owners will have a lot of leeway when it comes to arranging and decorating their own spaces, though those spaces aren’t large: just 12 by 16 feet.
Another of the interested business owners at Wednesday’s event was Develyn Poindexter, who runs a business printing designs on shirts and hats. She said she definitely plans on applying.
“I want to actually see if I can handle it,” Poindexter said.
The next informational session will be at 6 p.m. Nov. 19 at Heritage House in South Holland.
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