Popuphood: How to Revitalize A Struggling Neighborhood In Six Months
“In September 2011, Dominguez and his friend Sarah Filley, an urban planner, teamed up to create Popuphood, a project that is giving five new retail shops the opportunity to get six months of free rent at previously vacant storefronts on one block in the neighborhood. Dominguez and Filley didn’t have to work too hard to convince the landlord that owns the storefronts to get on board. The spaces had been unoccupied for at least a year, and successful storefronts might stay put past the six month mark. The Oakland Redevelopment Agency, ever hopeful to revitalize downtown, pitched in with a $30,000 grant. And the pair have plenty of creative-minded contacts in the city, so finding tenants wasn’t too difficult.
It’s not as if the idea of pop-up storefronts is new. Cities across the U.S. have been populated in recent years with a slew of pop-up restaurants, stores, and even parks. Popuphood, which officially launched on December 9th, is offering something different: the opportunity to be part of a larger, newborn retail community.”
(Source: fastcoexist.com)
