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Pop-up shops help fill empty spaces downtown

The city is bringing downtown back to life by filling empty storefronts with pop-up shops to encourage investment and give entrepreneurs a chance.

If you’ve been in the downtown area recently, you may have noticed several empty, and rundown storefronts. But the city is putting those to good use by allowing businesses to pop into those spaces.

The Center City Development and Operations Department with the city is doing their part to revitalize the area.

“This was formerly a vacant storefront and now it’s filled with three different shops, all locally owned,” said Kelly Saunders with Open San Antonio, an initiative to turn old and vacant storefronts into new and creative temporary retail locations. “It’s nice to have something that’s so eye-catching as you walk down the street, it makes you want to come in and spend time downtown.”

It’s the city’s way of pitching the downtown area as a vibrant, urban space ready for businesses to invest in long-term.

“It’s bringing people downtown, bringing people out shopping, and helping support our local business owners,” Saunders said.

For retailers and local entrepreneurs, it’s also a chance to lease a spot downtown at low or no cost.

Lauren Gonzalez is running her shop, Socorro Society, out of one of the open locations on Houston Street.

“The opportunity to pop up and have a storefront is really unprecedented for small business owners like ourselves. It would take a lot to sign a lease and have all those commitments,” said Gonzalez, whose shop along with other retailers, offers styles true to San Antonio. “The thing I get from people from out of town is how colorful everything is. We really represent San Antonio, in particular, the colors, floral patterns are very hot here. So we have summer clothing and tank tops and dresses.”

Lauren says it’s the perfect mix of clientele, between residents new to the downtown area and tourists who visit from out of town.

“Where we’re at is a good mix of local and tourists,” she said. “The feedback is usually, ‘I can’t find things like this at home.’ I think they really like to take a piece away from San Antonio.”

It’s all a way to make downtown San Antonio pop.

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