We were thrilled to welcome more than 40 enthusiastic people on the blustery evening of March 27th at Artisans at Work:
- Meet others interested in revitalizing Danforth East
- Become familiar with the pop-up shop project successes and challenges
- Learn about pop-up project models around the world
- Plan the next phase of this project!
The crowd included residents, local business owners, landlords, community organizations, potential pop-up tenants and other supporters of the project. If you missed it, check out the PowerPoint presentation online for photos, to learn more about project successes/challenges and to find out about the models in use around the world.
The Models
Participants discussed three models being used with success around the world to implement pop-up projects and added one more of their own creation. Then everyone voted on the model they felt would be most effective in this neighbourhood. The model that won by an overwhelming majority was the ongoing, incremental increase model:
- Up to 6 months of month-long rolling leases (or until the space is leased)
- Tenants pay landlord a fixed amount to cover costs/utilities
- Each month, tenants increase their rental payments by increments, until they are paying full rent
During the brainstorming, a suggestion was made to base incremental rent increases on a percentage of a tenant’s retail sales. This system provides the possibility of additional growing rent to the landlord and is fair to the tenant (their rent increases as their sales increase). DECA has been experimenting successfully with a similar model and now has direction to finalize the details. Next steps: the Landlord Working Group (see below) can begin asking more landlords to get on board and the new tenant application can be posted on the website by April 30th.
Three Working Groups
Three groups have formed to help make this a success. If you are interested in being a part of this exciting project, please consider signing up to participate in one of the following working groups.
What’s your passion?
- Recruiting Landlords Working Group – contact Gay
- Recruiting Tenants Working Group – contact TBA (maybe you?)
- Planning and Promoting a Big Launch Event – contact Tina
There’s lots to do over the next three months! The landlord group is looking at ways to entice more of the 16-18 landlords with empty storefronts to get on board. The tenant group is working out ways to recruit the best tenants, as well as the application and interview process. The big launch event group is brainstorming ideas, making preparations, selecting a name for the event, considering affordability and potential partners in June. Join in by emailing the group co-ordinator; they’ll fill you in and invite you to the next meeting. Expect working groups to meet about once every two weeks over the next three months.
Wanna be part of a cleaning/painting crew? There will be lots of opportunities to volunteer coming up as we recruit more landlords! Stay tuned.
Interested in a retail pop-up shop opportunity? The new tenant application will be posted to the website by April 30th.