Pop-Ups and Placemaking: How Short-Term Activations Lead to Long-Term Growth
/By John Rufo of Form + Place and Allison Yee of UpNext
Over the holidays, while shopping local, I went into a Needham gift shop, and in chatting about retail and the local business climate, I was surprised to hear the owner was not a fan of pop-ups. It got me thinking about the pop-up format and how there are a lot of different opinions about its roles and results. Though they are a relatively new addition to the retail scene, pop-ups have obviously evolved quickly, in tandem with the dramatically changing retail landscape. I turned to my friend Allison Yee of UpNext, a boutique firm that cultivates pop-up opportunities for both brands and spaces, to shed some light on the subject. Allison shared these insights…
“Before founding UpNext, I oversaw The Street in Chestnut Hill for WS Development. In 2014, I envisioned a unique opportunity for our 400sf vacancy. A former ice cream shop, the space was adorned with mirrored ceiling tiles and orange orb pendant lighting. It was screaming for a minimalist makeover. The property was hungry for a fresh local tenant mix. Shoppers were hungry for baked goods, fresh coffee and high fashion. The Street was readying for major new phases of development. In the meantime, this little jewel box was sitting empty and ignored.
Retail Incubation at The Street
We got the green light to vanilla box the space. Then we set to working lining up a killer rotation of local brands to fill it. These pop-ups were a first for the property, and a relative unknown for the community. OMG! Bagels took a leap of faith as the first occupant of the space. After a successful 6-week run, shoppers wanted to know where their new beloved bagel spot had gone! Despite a little learning curve, the community soon took to the ever-changing storefront. Brands got a chance to test their offerings out in a sought-after market, without any long-term commitment. And the developer found a new way to see what concepts should be added to the mix.
The Bagel Table featuring OMG! Bagels
Fast forward a couple of years and The Bagel Table (serving OMG! Bagels) is now a permanent tenant at The Street a few doors down from their original pop-up space. The property has continued hosting pop-ups with a range of other up and coming brands. Among them, Ronsky’s, Legit Activewear, Fleuri and Casper – have all since secured permanent homes at The Street.”
These successes solidified Allison’s theory that pop-ups play an important role in placemaking. Each activation added energy to the property and excited shoppers with new experiences. In 2018 Allison launched UpNext to expand her vision for pop-ups and innovative retail formats as strategic development and placemaking tools. Allison walked us through a number of UpNext projects to illustrate their multi-faceted role.
Adding Vibrancy to the Village Landscape: The Shop on Washington
UpNext was engaged by Mark Development to activate their Newtonville storefront one block down from the company’s major mixed-use project, in early stage construction at the time.
THE VISION
Design a branded experience to incubate and support local retail
Encourage community engagement
Test varying uses within the Newtonville market
THE IMPLEMENTATION
A series of themed pop-up collectives: Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Back to School
Each collective featured 12-24 local brands at a time
Focus on primarily retail brands, peppered with experiential layers including product personalization, artist collaborations, family photo shoots, and cookie decorating classes
Utilizing data and community input, UpNext iterated on each concept, adding new elements to each activation
THE OUTCOME
UpNext and Mark Development provided a community gathering hub where neighbors were welcome to shop or just come together while enjoying each playfully themed venue with an open environment to share feedback on ideas for the neighborhood. The experiment proved a solid test for brands to see the potential of a new locale, and for the developer to understand the community’s wish list for ongoing use.
Adding Vibrancy to the Village Landscape: Portobello Road (summer pop-up in Brookline Village)
UpNext worked both on behalf of the property owner and the retailer to matchmake between the two parties.
THE VISION
Create an interim use for property owner’s village storefront while it awaited a long-term lease
Secure a prime location for local retailer’s summer sale within range for their existing clientele, while overlapping with a new audience
THE IMPLEMENTATION
Portobello Road transformed the former real estate office filled with historic charm into an on-brand boutique space
Established a three-week destination for existing and new Portobello Road customers
Generated traffic for neighboring restaurants and retailers
THE OUTCOME
As the local property owner’s first foray into pop-ups, they were thrilled to see the energy it added to their neighboring tenants, the new revenue stream it generated, and the potential for future activations. The landlord is currently working with UpNext to activate other vacancies in their retail portfolio. For Portobello Road, it checked all the boxes of what they were looking to accomplish:
Well-matched location and setup that led to a steady flow of business and ideal space for selling off inventory to make room for the new
Test of Brookline as a location for potential future expansion and/or pop-ups
The experiment also peaked Brookline Economic Development’s interest in making the town a welcoming place for pop-ups to do business and opened up an ongoing dialogue in how they can accomplish this.
Activating the Public Realm: Local Retail on the Rose Kennedy Greenway
UpNext partnered with the Greenway Conservancy and Flexetail to cultivate a series of pop-ups and subsequent Winter Market, set alongside Dewey’s Square daily rotation of food trucks.
THE VISION
Utilize mobile retail units to create an amenity in a public space/busy commuter corridor, which allows local brands the opportunity to share their products in a unique venue.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
After taking Dewey Square (The Greenway’s park just outside Boston’s South Station) for a spin a day or two at a time with brands like Sh*t That I Knit and Local Maker, we saw a collective opportunity to create a multi-week market environment for the 2019 holiday season
UpNext curated a rotation of eight local brands, set up in their own branded spaces and Flexetail’s tiny house style retail units
Focused on easy gifting spanning three weeks of peak holiday season in December
THE OUTCOME
This public realm shopping intervention created a sense of place for commuters and opened up an opportunity for local brands to connect with a captive audience. It also set the stage for future engagements as UpNext will be curating four local brands for Valentine’s Day, as the Greenway Conservancy explores expansion opportunities for the 2020 Holiday season!
Dewey Square on the Greenway
So as big box and specialty store chains continue to shutter and be repurposed, direct to consumer (DTC) brands and short-term activations are backfilling vacancies, while new layers of the pop-up world are taking shape. Pop-ups are both a low-risk way for brands to test new markets and concepts while connecting with consumers, and a strategic place-making tool for developers and other property owners. “Meanwhile uses” prevent vacancies from serving as the Achilles heel of communities, and this new layer of retail villages, rotating storefronts and collectives utilizes excess capacity to boost place-making efforts for developers, towns and public realm environments alike. In the end, while some established brick and mortar retailers might feel they are losing market share to these activation efforts, if carefully curated and thoughtfully coordinated with the existing neighborhood uses, pop-ups can lift up a village or retail center and drive new business for storefronts across the board.