Linden to hold day for ‘pop-up’ businesses
In an effort to chip away at a high vacancy rate around the historic courthouse square, Linden Main Street will try a new approach to business recruitment, according to Main Street Manager Allie Anderson.
During the week following Thanksgiving, visitors and residents will find Linden’s typically quiet downtown square alive with temporary “pop-up shops” in vacant buildings.
“The goal of Pop-Up Week is pretty simple. We have empty buildings where we need businesses, so we are giving entrepreneurs a chance to try out a business idea and test the market in hopes that one of them will take the leap and open a permanent location in our downtown,” Anderson said.
The event will kick off American Express’s Small Business Saturday, Nov. 25, a celebration of small and local businesses across the country following Black Friday, Anderson explained.
“We want to attract anyone who has an idea for a new business that they want to test out, or who may already have a successful business in another town and want to look at expanding and opening another location.”
Linden Main Street is partnering with businesses and organizations to offer seven special deals to the first pop-up shop to sign a permanent lease in the Main Street district after Pop-Up Week. Here are the seven:
Six months’ free water and sewer service from the city of Linden;
Trash pick-up from Sanitation Solutions;
Fiberoptic internet service plus free installation from Etex Communications; Energy audit from SWEPCO; One-year membership with the Linden Area Chamber of Commerce with a ribbon-cutting event;
In-depth business consultation with the Northeast Texas Small Business Development Center;
One free ad in the local newspaper, the Cass County Sun.
Applications will be available for download at lindenmainstreet.org and lindentexas.org and may be emailed to lindenmainstreet@outlook.com or lindencity@outlook.com, or mailed to P.O. Box 419, Linden, TX 75563.
Linden was one of two towns accepted into the Texas Main Street Program in January. Main Street is a volunteer-driven downtown revitalization program that uses historic preservation as a tool for economic development in communities across the country.