San Jose revitalizing downtown with pop-up shops

SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose is welcoming several new businesses downtown on a temporary basis.

The city's pop-up retail program aims to revitalize blighted areas, fill vacant storefronts, and give young entrepreneurs a chance to run a shop.

Six brand new businesses have opened up in vacant storefronts on Post Street, selling everything from stationery to stickers. The businesses are all pop-ups.

The owners get to try having a brick-and-mortar location temporarily.

"They presented it to us on a silver platter. They made it so easy, so convenient. The funding and the low-cost barrier to entry. Without that I don't think we would have done this at all," said Eugenie Ooi, who runs Neko-Oi.

And that's the idea: to bring retail and shoppers into areas where there isn't much.

San Jose along with the Downtown Association and a group called Moment, launched the program. Originally, they built their own stalls in a San Pedro Street parking garage.

Now, they're working with landlords that have long-term vacancies.

The goal says Alex Stettinski, CEO of the San Jose Downtown Association, "That other businesses see the activated spaces, and they go to the landlord and say," I want this space. And we will be out within three months."

The mayor says the pop-ups appear to be working.

"What we're doing is taking a liability, which is empty storefronts, dead streets because there's nothing for people to do. And we're getting excited, energetic new young entrepreneurs to start a business. And we're seeing some of them be wildly successful," said Mayor Matt Mahan.

One example is The Tiny Keyboard Shop. Their sales, on a per square foot basis, are reportedly comparable to an Apple Store.

"We just kind of kept bringing in more product. We hired more people. We just kind of grew. And that space became really small for us like literally tiny," said the shop's owner who goes by "Tiny."

The shop outgrew its store in the San Pedro location. On Friday, they launched on Post Street in a bigger space. They're hopeful their customers will follow.

"Just so excited because I think that the opportunity really just gave us the space to grow," said Tiny.

There are now a total of 15 small businesses participating in the program in three downtown locations. So far, three businesses have decided to build permanent brick-and-mortar locations after their pop-up experience.