Do Business

RE:Store

The first round of RE:Store is in the books! This summer, RE:Store welcomed seven small businesses to formerly vacant storefronts throughout Lower Manhattan, providing entrepreneurs with the opportunity to pop up in one of New York City’s most dynamic neighborhoods.

The Downtown Alliance and a selection committee chose participants from a pool of over 360 applicants based on experience, community buzz, and local retail needs. The program helped support these businesses as they activated their storefronts throughout the summer, building a new community downtown featuring unique retail concepts and creative programming that extended beyond peak business hours.

The program’s success led three tenants to extend their stays:

  • Plus BKLYN (2 Broadway) through year-end
    • Tuesday – Saturday: 11 a.m.– 7 p.m.
    • (Closed Sunday and Monday)
  • Element Brooklyn (192 Front St.) through year-end
    • Wednesday – Friday: 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.
    • Saturday – Sunday: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
    • (Closed Monday and Tuesday)
  • Brooklyn Craft Company (225 Broadway) through October 
    • Tuesday – Friday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
    • Saturday: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
    • (Closed Sunday and Monday)

 

Stay tuned for more information on what’s next…

The inaugural RE:Store participants included:

Element Brooklyn: Gallery of Scent (192 Front St.)

The sustainable luxury home goods brand that manufactures and sells soaps, candles, diffusers, body care, hair care and cleaning products will open “Element Brooklyn’s Gallery of Scent.” At this summer pop-up, fragrance comes alive through interactive scent exploration, hands-on candle-making and Element’s signature sustainable refillery. Still open!

HOURS: Wednesday – Friday: 12 p.m. – 7 p.m. Saturday – Sunday: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday.


The Numero Group NYC Pop-Up (186 Front St.)

The legendary archival record label will present “the Numero Group NYC Pop Up,” where it will sell its definitive box sets, vinyl reissues, CDs tapes and more. Founded in 2003 by Rob Sevier and Ken Shipley, for over two decades Numero has been mining the 20th century for sonic curios, packaging and contextualizing their discoveries for a new generation of listeners. Now closed.

New York Food Stories by Kitchen Arts & Letters (111 Broadway)

“New York Food Stories by Kitchen Arts & Letters” is a pop-up bookstore dedicated to food and drink, in this case focused on New York’s extraordinary culinary traditions. Kitchen Arts & Letters demonstrates the remarkable blend of different cuisines and heritages that New York City showcases by offering a diverse selection of books and related merchandise. Now closed.

Dimorae Home and Francis’ World: Living With Art (190 Front St.)

Conceived as a collaborative shop, the activation presents a curated way of living where art, design, and everyday objects come together. Visitors will be invited to explore hand-printed artworks, stationery, tableware, and home goods within thoughtfully designed interior vignettes that reflect the shared aesthetic of both brands. Now closed.

 

Plus BKLYN: Bigger in Manhattan (2 Broadway)

A curated boutique specializing in secondhand and vintage plus-size fashion (sizes 12+). Plus BKLYN offers bold, trend-forward styles and creates an inclusive, community-driven space for people often left out of traditional retail. Still open!

HOURS: Tuesday – Saturday: 11 a.m.– 7 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday.

The inaugural RE:Store participants included:

Brooklyn Craft Company’s Summer in the City (225 Broadway)

The modern craft supply shop and DIY workshop space will open its pop-up “Brooklyn Craft Company’s Summer in the City.” The store will stock a carefully curated selection of DIY supplies for all making needs, including yarn, fabric, notions, kits, crafty gifts and more. Still open!

HOURS: Tuesday – Friday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Saturday: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Take a look at our map below to help you find all the shops in the neighborhood:

A black-and-white illustrated street map of Lower Manhattan, New York, showing streets from Tribeca down to The Battery, with six numbered red stars marking "Re:Store" pop-up locations. On the right, a key titled "Re:Store Locations" in red lists the locations corresponding to each numbered star: Star 1: New York Food Stories by Kitchen Arts & Letters at 111 Broadway Star 2: The Numero Group NYC Pop-Up at 186 Front St Star 3: Element Brooklyn: Gallery of Scent at 192 Front St Star 4: Dimorae Home and Francis' World: Living With Art at 190 Front St Star 5: Plus BKLYN: Bigger in Manhattan at 2 Broadway Star 6: Brooklyn Craft Company's Summer in the City at 225 Broadway. Stars 2, 3, and 4 are clustered closely together near The Seaport on Front Street, while Stars 1, 5, and 6 are spaced along Broadway.

Storefront Transformations

Element Brooklyn: Gallery of Scent

A wide shot of a spacious, completely empty commercial retail or gallery space with bare, worn concrete flooring and white walls. In the center of the room, a short dark wood or black wooden ramp with a matching vertical slat railing connects two slightly different floor levels. Long, thin fluorescent strip lights are mounted across the white ceiling. Large glass windows and an open doorway on the left look out onto a city street with a glimpse of parked vehicles and a building outside.
Before
Interior of a brightly lit boutique retail store named "ELEMENT BROOKLYN" with a warm, earth-toned beige and wood color palette. On the left, a customer wearing a blue-and-white striped t-shirt browses a wooden counter lined with candles displayed under clear glass cloches. In the background, a store employee stands behind a checkout counter with a laptop. The right wall features a long wooden refill station with multiple silver spigots underneath oval wall cutouts, alongside small floating wooden shelves displaying colorful glass candle holders and bottled products.
After

Andrew Nicol

Element Brooklyn

RE:Store let us test a retail concept without betting the company on a five-year lease, and what we’ve learned has reshaped how we think about our business. Because the space was bigger than anything we’d have taken on our own, and in the dynamic and bustling Seaport neighborhood, we were inspired to do something more ambitious than a regular retail store.

Ellie Chamberland

senior vice president, marketing, Seaport Entertainment Group

We were proud to be part of the RE:Store pilot, hosting three businesses in the Seaport this summer. Vacant storefronts are a missed opportunity, both for the businesses that could use the space and for the neighborhood around them, and this program gave us a practical way to close that gap. Each retailer brought something different to the mix, and together they added real energy and foot traffic to the area — exactly the kind of activation we’d like to see more of as the neighborhood continues to grow.

Dimorae Home & Francis’ World: Living With Art

A dimly lit, vacant commercial kitchen or café interior undergoing a transition. The space features white tiled walls, a dark ceiling with security cameras, and an L-shaped service counter with bright orange trim. The back wall includes black kitchen cabinets adorned with a large red spherical graphic, next to a black-painted alcove over a sink. On the left side of the room, tall accent doors or panels are painted with a pixelated gradient pattern in shades of hot pink and light pink.
Before
A brightly lit, vibrant boutique or community market space with white tiled walls and a light floor. In the center sits a wooden dining table draped with a red runner, a sign reading "THE HÄRT SPACE," red carnations, and a small blue stool underneath. Yellow plastic crates filled with colorful patterned plates rest on a bench nearby. A wide variety of brightly colored, patterned textiles hang neatly along the back wall, below a clothesline pinning up art prints. To the left, a small kitchenette area with a sink features shelves filled with woven baskets, plants, and framed pictures.
After

Francesca Furian

Francis’ World

Being part of the RE:Store program has been an incredibly rewarding experience and a meaningful opportunity to grow both as a business and personally. Preparing for and running a brick-and-mortar space, activating it through exhibitions and workshops, and learning firsthand about the dynamics of retail have been challenging, but have also opened my eyes to the incredible possibilities New York has to offer.

Giulia Dal Cerro

Dimorae Home

As a small business that had never had its own storefront, this was an incredible opportunity to test myself, meet customers in person, and see firsthand how people responded to my tableware collection.

The Numero Group NYC Pop-Up

A completely vacant, stark commercial room with dark charcoal gray carpeting and scuffed white walls. The dropped ceiling features standard grid tiles, recessed lighting, and circular ventilation vents. A frosted glass window wall stands at the far end of the narrow room, casting soft, diffused daylight across the empty space.
Before
A vibrant, well-organized pop-up record and clothing store. Large, custom wooden bins filled with vinyl records dominate the foreground and center, labeled with genre tags like "QUEER," "KARATE," and "DUSTER." Spherical white paper lantern lamps hang from the ceiling. The right wall features double-tiered clothing racks packed with t-shirts and hoodies, while the left wall displays a tall white shelving unit stacked with baseball caps.
After

Ken Shipley

The Numero Group

We turned a former discount ticketing outlet into a record store and asked neighbors, New Yorkers and tourists alike to ponder an alternate history of popular music — they did much more than that. A branding opportunity like no other.

Brooklyn Craft Company’s Summer in the City

A dimly lit, sparse office or meeting room space with sage green carpeting and plain white walls. Several long brown folding tables are paired with rows of white plastic folding chairs, arranged in a classroom style. In the background, two large, black flat-screen monitors stand turned off on wooden consoles in front of large windows.
Before
A brightly lit, bustling craft and fabric supply store with green carpeting and white walls. In the foreground, a large plaid area rug lies on the floor next to rows of colorful fabric bolts organized in pink wooden crates. In the center, stacks of pink crates display yarn, leading toward long shelves overflowing with multi-colored yarn skeins. In the far background, people gather around crafting tables underneath a sign that reads "DROP-IN Crafts."
After

Carolyn Heitmann

Brooklyn Craft Company

The RE:Store program has been an amazing opportunity for Brooklyn Craft Company to test new services and expand our customer base. It is clear that Lower Manhattan residents and workers want to support small, community-oriented businesses, and folks from all over the city have appreciated how easily accessible the location is via public transit.

Mendy Braun

vice president, Braun Management

I’ve been in Lower Manhattan for more than 30 years, and it’s been great to see so many young families move into the neighborhood. I was really happy to have Brooklyn Craft Company at 225 Broadway as a part of the RE:Store program because it was the kind of family-oriented business that could serve and become part of this growing community.

New York Food Stories by Kitchen Arts & Letters

A vacant, historic commercial space with unfinished concrete floors and raw, exposed red brick walls. The focal point is a curved back wall featuring two large, white-trimmed arched window frames and a central doorway with a gold-colored frame, all under construction. The tops of the windows and door are fitted with detailed, arched stained-glass panels. Old iron radiator units sit along the baseboards, and a fluorescent tube light illuminates the empty room from above.
Before
A lively bookstore set inside a historic building with exposed red brick walls. Several light wood display tables are arranged across the room, stacked with neatly organized books. Customers browse the selections, including a man flipping through a book on the left and a woman walking in a blue button-down shirt near the center. Light wood grid shelving units line the walls. The architectural highlights include large, white-trimmed arched windows and a central doorway, all topped with decorative stained-glass panels.
After

Matt Sartwell

Kitchen Arts & Letters

The highlight of our RE:Store experience was being able to host a series of nine talks about New York’s food culture. We were thrilled to feature panelists like Ruth Reichl, Gail Simmons, Julia Moskin, and Eric Kim and to draw attendees who lived a block or two away or who traveled from all the other boroughs.

David Despres

property manager, Trinity Center

Participating in the Downtown Alliance’s pop-up program was a tremendous opportunity to activate our vacant storefront and introduce new visitors to 111 Broadway. The pop-up generated positive energy, increased foot traffic and demonstrated how creative partnerships can bring renewed attention to available spaces while contributing to the vibrancy of downtown Manhattan.

Plus BKLYN: Bigger in Manhattan

An empty retail room with light wood-plank flooring and bare white walls. The grid ceiling is fitted with square fluorescent light panels. At the back of the room, a glass partition wall and door feature frosted privacy film, with an illuminated red "EXIT" sign hanging above the doorway. A low, dark gray built-in bench with three white ventilation grates runs along the base of the glass window wall.
Before
A brightly lit, colorful clothing boutique packed with merchandise. The walls are lined with industrial orange pipe racks displaying a dense variety of dresses and shirts. In the center, a large pink area rug featuring a black leopard print anchors the space. On the rug sits a small orange cubby shelf displaying accessories and a brown armchair. The back of the store features a massive glass storefront window looking out onto a city street, adorned with gold star-shaped balloons and clothing mannequins.
After

Alexis Krase

Plus BKLYN

The RE:Store program helped us see how fast we can actually replicate what we do at Plus BKLYN in a new location: testing a new market, adapting to a different physical space, and understanding how customer needs shift in a new neighborhood, even hours of operation. That’s knowledge we couldn’t have gotten any other way.