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Date: 7/14/2021
LONGMEADOW– Over the past few years, a new kind of retail has sprouted up in plazas and parking lots, selling merchandise, food and services – but only for a little while. Pop-up businesses are everywhere. In Longmeadow, an ever-changing line-up of temporary retail establishments has made for a perpetually fresh shopping experience.
“We’ve done a lot of pop-ups over the past five years,” including weekly farmers’ markets in the summer, said Longmeadow Shops/Grove Property Fund Marketing Manager Melissa Pevay. Upcoming pop-ups include Speed & Sprocket Cycle Works, which runs a biweekly pop-up bike shop; the Storrs Library, which will have pop-up storytimes there on July 22 and, on Dec. 5, there will be a “Holiday Stroll” farmers’ market selling seasonal products.
While many pop-ups are in place for just a couple of months, some have long-term agreements. Lululemon, for example, will run its pop-up in Longmeadow until January 2022.
“Some of our parking lot pop-ups have become permanent residents,” Pevay said. Batch Ice Cream is one of those businesses. It ran an ice cream truck seasonally in the parking lot for two years before it made the jump to an inside pop-up this past winter. It now has a permanent home in one of the Longmeadow Shops’s storefronts.
In an article from State House News Service, Mike Kelleher, Federal Reality's vice president of specialty leasing, said roughly 75 percent are people looking to try out new concepts without committing to a permanent brick and mortar location.
For the Longmeadow Shops, Pevay said, pop-ups serve the purpose of filling empty storefronts when they’re in-between tenants. “Last Christmas, we would have had two vacancies,” without the pop-ups, she said. Another benefit is that “it just adds some different excitement. It brings different people to our shops,” she said.
The shopping center reaches out to some businesses when it sees an opportunity. With the farmers’ market and Batch Ice Cream, she said, “People just wanted them here. It’s always fun when people request something and you can make it happen.”
While Pevay said the plaza is open to hosting a wide array of pop-ups, there are general guidelines. One rule, for example, is that the plaza doesn’t accept pop-ups that would compete with its permanent businesses.
The storefronts at the Longmeadow Shops are currently full, but the parking lot still offers opportunities for businesses who want something short-term.
“As for the parking lot, we’re always looking for something new and different,” Pevay said. The Shops can accommodate most parking lot pop-ups. In the past, the plaza ran a hose to a mobile pet grooming van and food trucks have hooked up to street power.
Businesses interested in staging a pop-up at the Longmeadow Shops can contact Grove Property Fund Regional Property Manager Steve Walker at 567-0098 or swalker@grovepropertyfund.com