Creativity Works at the Shops at Grand Avenue
Like many shopping centers across the nation, The Shops at Grand Avenue (located in downtown Milwaukee) was troubled with large square foot inline vacancy. Spurred on by the shared success story of the Art Space concept at Crestwood Court in St. Louis, Tracy Korpela reached out to the Creative Alliance of Milwaukee to develop a similar opportunity. The Creative Alliance of Milwaukee, already familiar working with the local creative industry, latched on to The Shops at Grand Avenue's desire to fill space. Working together, Creativity Works Here was born.
Best described as "retail space re-invented as a thriving creative eco-system", Creativity Works Here was designed to provide low cost inline mall shop space to local creative and small business owners a place to teach, work, perform, and exhibit their work. In order to spread the word about this concept, The Creative Alliance blasted the opportunity on their website and The Shops at Grand Avenue held an open house to show the available spaces.
Through these combined efforts and in addition to positive local media interest, Tracy and The Shops at Grand Avenue team were able to fill eleven inline spaces in three short months for a combined total of 38,613sf! This is a combination of not only the deals that came about from direct contact through Creativity Works Here, but through word of mouth about this great opportunity.
Check out the interview with our own Tracy Korpela discussing the use of vacant spaces for Creativity Works Here on 89.7, a local Milwaukee public radio station with National affiliates:
http://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/view_news.php?articleid=9317
If your property is faced with occupancy challenges, consider reaching out to your local arts community to fill the space and drive traffic.
Congratulations to The Shops at Grand Avenue!