The Downtown State College Improvement District, in partnership with Comet Properties, celebrated the official ribbon cutting for the Calder Way Pop-Up on Thursday.
Calder Way Pop-Up, located at 236 E. Calder Way, is a permanent retail space designed to host a rotating lineup of small businesses, allowing business owners the opportunity to test ideas, launch new products, reach new customers and grow in an area with high foot traffic.
Since its inception last year, the space has hosted 10 vendors so far, each for a few weeks or months at a time, including Town Pride (which evolved into a permanent business next door), Yoga Breath and Sound, Husk and Honey, POSH Vintage and Rooted Farmstead, to name a few. The space is currently hosting Archer Wren, a size-inclusive underwear and swimwear company that utilizes organic and recycled materials.
The concept to turn the space into a rotational pop-up store began with a vacant storefront and has since grown into what the DSCID calls an “incubator space.”
According to Comet Properties, supporting businesses grew from the company’s desire to promote a vibrant downtown by fostering unique offerings that don’t exist elsewhere.
“The Calder Way Pop-up represents a shared commitment by both organizations to support small businesses and drive economic growth,” DSCID retail and commercial business advocate Kendra Kielbasa said in a release. “By lowering barriers and encouraging experimentation, the pop-up allows business owners the opportunity to refine their concepts in a real-world setting. Even for businesses not yet ready for a permanent space, the experience strengthens their business model. It also adds to the growing energy downtown, where a steady rotation of vendors keeps locals and visitors coming back to see what is new.”
Ahead of the ribbon cutting ceremony, Kielbasa along with DSCID executive director Lee Anne Jeffries and Comet Properties CEO Johnathan Friedman spoke to a crowd of community members, business owners and leaders, inside the space.
“This proves that this is a community space,” Kielbasa said. “People come together, they test ideas, they try things out, they launch, they meet customers, and they really try to think through things. How can we make things better? How can we tweak things? How can we learn things, and how do we engage the community? But this also shows that businesses can start here. They can grow here, and they can succeed and thrive here.”
Friedman shared his excitement about the space, while explaining why downtown State College has remained a place for business to thrive and grow since his grandfather opened his first business in the late 1930s.
“We put together our team and really focused on the downtown of what we can do. But throughout that time frame, from 1938 to today, we’ve all always held a sense of stewardship for the community, wanting to help and protect and grow the space,” Friedman said. “When we looked at the space and realized that we can work with great people like at the improvement district, at Continental [Real Estate Management, the building’s property manager], everywhere, we realized that this is a chance for everyone to really have an opportunity to see if they can be successful. That’s what this is about.”
Jeffries’ vision for Calder Way Pop-Up is to provide a guided, community-oriented space for business owners of all facets. She emphasizes the power of “civic pride” and what that does for a community like State College and the Centre Region.
“Pop-up shops are something we talk about often, along with other things like, pop-up art galleries or painting windows, public art. All of those things mean something to a community. It makes people feel welcome,” Jefferies said. “We’re just really excited to be able to do this for the community, and we hope that we continue to fill the space, and that more spaces like this pop up. We have other owners that say, ‘Hey, I want to do that,’ and it’s not easy. But when you have great partners and you have a collaborative energy and you have a vision, and you have a love for your community, things like this can happen.”
For the time being, Calder Way Pop-Up is open four days a week. Summer pop-up hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Archer Wren will be in the space as a pop-up until Saturday, July 26.
