With three new tenants on the way, Jones421 marketplace is almost full
Dec. 27, 2018
All but one of the marketplace spaces in the Jones421 Building downtown are leased with the coming arrivals of a bakery, children’s clothing and toy shop, and a healthy food business.
Shelia Hazard, who developed the building with her husband, Jeff, and is leasing the commercial space, said she’s working to bring a wood-fired pizza shop into the final space. But there are still hurdles to clear with building codes. If that lease doesn’t happen, she said she has three businesses on a waiting list.
The first shops moved into the North Phillips Avenue project that’s a combination of historic redeveloped space and new construction in early January. The upper three floors are condominiums.
Hazard is especially pleased with the “incubator aspect” of the marketplace.
“It’s already proving itself, and we immediately fill the spaces,” she said. Earlier this year, Game Chest moved into a larger space, and Sharing the Dream filled its space. Now, MK Threads Boutique is growing into a larger space in the building, and Intoxibakes will fill the 500-square-foot shop that the women’s clothing shop leased in August.
“We have definitely outgrown it,” said Kelly Grovijahn, who owns the boutique with Melanie Huston.
The new space will have 1,200 square feet. “We’ll start carrying a little more plus sizes and shoes,” Grovijahn said. MK Threads markets itself as “adorable and affordable” and tries to reach “a little bit of every market. We have moms who come in with their daughters, and they both find things,” she said.
For five months, MK Threads will sublease 400 square feet of its space to Corduroy & Pixie Dust, a children’s clothing and toy shop in Dell Rapids that is expanding to one of the vacant slots in the marketplace.
Owner Heather Ness said it’s a great opportunity for both businesses. While her 500-plus-square-foot space is being built out, she’ll get to see which mix of merchandise works, and MK Threads won’t have to immediately grow its inventory. Grovijahn agreed, noting that it’s a slow retail season until warmer weather returns.
Ness opened her Dell Rapids store in September 2017 and moved to a larger building in May. She carries many brands that are unique or limited in the area, including LazyOne, Minoti, Babaluno and Ashley & Olivia.
She envisions the Sioux Falls shop as being “more of an eclectic boutique,” with shoppers buying an item because it’s “cool.” The Dell Rapids store is “really family-oriented,” with more of the purchases being “necessary items.”
Ness was drawn to Jones421 after Hazard invited her to have a pop-up shop during a holiday shopping event in November. She said she likes the fact that many of the marketplace shops are run by women.
“I feel that there’s a good vibe and connection down there. They support each other, and I like that.”
She’s excited about all of the development on the north end of downtown, including the Levitt Shell that will start hosting outdoor concerts this summer just across the street.
While she said her husband was hesitant about expanding the business, “I told him we’d be fools not to do it” because of the growth that’s coming.
Grovijahn also is expecting more traffic.
“Once that Levitt Shell comes, it will be a whole new game.”
The third new tenant for the marketplace is a healthy food business that has signed a lease but won’t open for two or three months, Hazard said. She declined to name it, saying the owner wants to announce the venture.
