A newly opened building in downtown Blacksburg offers not just pumpkin roll lattes and handmade pastries but an opportunity to help local small retail business owners kickstart their entrepreneurial dreams.
The Local, 414 North Main Street, revived the site of the former Cook’s Cleaners business. The building is transformed into a retail incubator space featuring a cafe by Moon Hollow Coffee (a satellite of the brewery on Prices Fork Road) and five 10-by-10-foot storefront stalls and five dedicated wall spaces for emerging entrepreneurs to display their products.
Kelly Finnegan, owner of walking shoe store Pedestrian that’s one of the first five businesses, said The Local provided an opportunity. She left the storefront she had in Woodstock, Georgia, and moved back to Blacksburg last year, she said.
“I was walking in the New River Arts and Fiber and saw a flyer about this, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I would love to have a store,'” she said.
Finnegan said Pedestrian is about providing comfortable, traditional and barefoot-style shoes for walking across Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech campus. She said she was already prepared to leave her remote job as soon as she received a call from Angie Marcolini, the town’s business solutions manager, to begin the interview process.
As Cardinal News has previously reported, the nonprofit Downtown Blacksburg Inc. is leasing The Local building from the town for $1 annually over five years. The town purchased the building a decade ago for $900,000 and used $2.6 million of pandemic relief funds to renovate it. It had sat vacant since the town bought it.
The other stall spaces open in The Local feature The SWVA Shop, which sells Southwest Virginia-themed clothing; The Stray Shop, which offers original cat-themed stickers; Millei Collective, a lifestyle and design shop; and Kinfolk, a curated men’s apparel boutique.
“I think if you have an idea or you’ve been wanting to test an idea, this is the perfect opportunity and perfect space for you to do that safely without committing to a yearly lease or a long-term lease that is going to cost more money than what you would pay here at The Local,” Marcolini said.
Subleasing and licensing fees for stall tenants start at $300 monthly, with more experienced owners required to pay $500 monthly, according to Marcolini.
License terms for the micro businesses start at 60 days, with the option to renew for another month, up to 6 months. They also have two options for their license fee: a commission-only option with 30% of gross sales price for each item sold or a monthly $100 license fee plus commission, which equals 15% of gross sales price for each item sold.
The microbusiness agreement changed from the previously proposed $200 one-year agreement after members of the committee advising the incubator program received feedback from the small business owners they interviewed ahead of the grand opening, Marcolini said.
She added that Allison Geneser, incubator retail operations manager, helped adjust the agreement once she was hired, which led to increased interest.
“All these businesses have done amazingly well with getting their storefronts together,” Geneser said. “They’re very visually appealing, eclectic and curated well.”
The Local will also serve as a host for creative workshops and rental space for public and private events. Daily retail operating hours are from Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
