Three new downtown businesses are preparing to host grand openings in conjunction with the May 9 Urban Nights event in downtown Dayton.
- Catapult Creative, 131 N. Ludlow St. (Talbott Tower): Catapult Creative provides marketing, advertising, branding, design, web development, video and online services. They have helped grow small- to medium-sized businesses and organizations through branding, expressive design and communication expertise. Though Catapult is a recent venture for the four founding partners, combined they have over 20 years of experience in branding, advertising and marketing.
- Confetti, 42 W. Fifth St. (Ludlow Place): Confetti is a modern stationery and card boutique. The shop will offer contemporary and vintage-style cards, stationery, upscale party supplies and decor, and small gifts. In addition to the retail component, Confetti will offer workshops for party-related topics, such as card marking, do-it-yourself décor, holiday wrapping, calligraphy and more. Customers also may host small parties and events in the space.
- Studio Meco, 46 W. Fifth St. (Ludlow Place): Studio Meco will feature art by Melody Cole Gates and a small, select group of local artists. The gallery will feature mostly African American figuratives, portraits, landscapes, florals, abstracts and typography in various media such as paintings, drawings, sculpture, jewelry and pottery. Studio Meco also plans to produce professional fine art prints, greeting cards, calendars, journals, coffee mugs, screen print T-shirts and tote bags for special occasions.
The new shops are part of the sixth phase of the Pop-Up Project, part of an initiative to fill downtown storefronts called Activated Spaces. This program builds success of the first five phases of the Pop-Up Project, launched in November 2011, to provide potential business owners the opportunity for shorter leases at below-market rates as a way for them to jump-start their businesses and contribute to the vibrancy of downtown Dayton. Since it was started, the project has launched 14 shops (11 of which are still open), filled 13,113 square feet of previously vacant space and created 30 jobs. Unique to this round of Pop-Up Shops is Catapult Creative, which is the first Pop-Up Office Space project. “The Pop-Up Shop program was so successful for the retail shops that we quickly ran out of move-in-ready, street-level spaces,” explained Pop-Up project leader, Elise Huelskamp. “Now we are including vacant, move-in-ready office space in downtown Dayton. We’re confident Activated Spaces can showcase the available amenities and potential for business owners to ‘do their thing downtown’ alongside hundreds of other businesses.”
Pop-Up Shops from the previous phases of the project include Beaute Box, 116 W. Fifth St.; Vintage Barber Shop, 110 W. Fifth St.; Peace on Fifth, 234 Dutoit St.; All Pilates, 27 S. Saint Clair St.; and two stores at 16 Brown St., Spice Paradise and Hicks’ Barber Shop & Shave Parlor. In addition, two shops have expanded to new locations at least twice the size of their original Pop-Up Shop locations: American π, 41 S. St. Clair St., and Sew Dayton, 261 Wayne Ave.
The Pop-Up Project is driven by volunteers from the young professional organizations Generation Dayton and UpDayton with support from the Downtown Dayton Partnership, the City of Dayton, the City of Dayton Neighborhood Mini-Grant program and community volunteers. Activated Spaces is part of the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan, a strategic blueprint for the future of downtown.
Visit www.activatedspaces.org or e-mail [email protected] for more information about Activated Spaces.
