Iowa City Ped Mall to Host Pop-Up Shops for the Holidays

The upcoming shopping season has been celebrated in Iowa City with a Downtown Holiday Market, but on this, the third annual outing, the Iowa City Downtown District is doing something a little bit different. This year, three temporary structures will be built in Black Hawk Mini Park that will feature a variety of pop-up shops.

In an article from Little Village Magazine, ICDD’s director of operations Betsy Potter says that this new way for people to shop for that perfect gift will be innovative and fun. "We’re always trying to find unique experiences that we can offer to people," Potter said. One big difference between this year's market is that it will stay open for five weeks instead on the one day venture the previous two years were.

One main reason for the use of temporary shelters was the difficulty with weather. Potter said that since the weather was so unpredictable, they needed a better solution than just a tent. “Building temporary pop-up shops is a fast-growing trend around the country," Potter continued. "People use anything from shipping containers to geometric domes, as different ways to create pop-up shops. We thought we should put an Iowa City twist on this, if we were going to do it.”

What can we expect? Little Village Magazine goes into detail about how the structures were picked and what to look for when they do open:

ICDD solicited proposals from local architects, and the winning submission came from Sanjay Jani of Akar Architecture.
The three pop-up shops will be rented by downtown retailers for a minimum period of three days. A different collection of retailers will be in the shops each week, according to Potter.
There will also be special events in the pop-ups.

You can see an artists rendering of what the structures will look like in a video below provided by AKAR ARchiTecture.

There's still a little ways to go, as temporary structures are not allowed by law in the ped mall, but the ICDD is hoping that law will be changed as soon as a week before the structures are to be built.