Check out these pop-up retailers inside Jersey City’s 'Container Village’
Posted: Updated:Could pop-up storefronts help revive a Jersey City neighborhood? This is what city officials hope happens thanks to the city’s new “Container Village.”
Officials say that it is a different take on brick-and-mortar storefronts. Retailers are setting up shop inside cargo containers.
“It gives a nice little physical presence to a business like mine that is mainly online,” says Nia Reid-Allen, who sells clothing that she designs.
Reid-Allen’s business is one of four that operate on a formerly unused lot on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Officials say that the idea is to bring shoppers to an economically-challenged area of the city.
"Rents are expensive and a lot of small startups just need a hand up,” says Michele Massey the Jackson Hill Main Street Special Improvement District, an organization created to help rebuild the business district of this area of Jersey City.
Another business operating in “Container Village” belongs to Tara Stafford, who sells home furnishing – many of which are crafted in Ghana.
"Some of us actually are thinking of trying to spin this off and get a more permanent space,” she says.
New mom Alyza Brevard-Rodriguez is a Navy veteran who opened a pop-up satellite location of her spa. She is offering infrared sauna visit discounts to neighborhood residents.
“People buy some of the products that we have here and then we also have a masseuse who comes on-site as well also at a reduced rate,” she says.
Each of the businesses gets to operate in the location for two months, rent-free. City officials say that they hope that the no-cost storefronts will be a positive step for the neighborhood, which is an area where public safety and economic development are an issue.
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