The Brookfield Shops retail incubator at Progress Park, 9202 Broadway Ave., officially opened Friday, June 6. Featuring six small businesses operated by local owners, the shops will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from now through December.
The vendors include “book-tique” New Book Joy, artisan accessory-makers Organic Jewelry, apothecary Rites of Wellness, cake decorating kit store Frost With Us, fashion boutique Shop Salon & Style House and coffee shop Four Star Handcrafted Coffee.
Each vendor was selected by a jury of local community members earlier this year, and since then, they’ve been working alongside village staff from the community development department to bring their individual stores to life inside 15-feet-by-15-feet sheds.
“The hardest part was trying to fit six sheds, and make them look like shops, on a triangular corner with a ton of traffic at Eight Corners with a fountain,” Libby Popovic, the director of the department, told the Landmark Friday. “The logistics were the hard part, and everyone stepped in. From the engineers to public works, everyone had a hand in all this.”
She chalked up the community turnout — one village trustee estimated offhand there were 200 people in attendance — to Brookfield’s love of events. She said even the village’s consultants for the incubator, who had previously worked on a similar incubator in Berwyn, were impressed.
“I’m never surprised by Brookfield. A lot of outside people say, ‘Wow, this is tremendous. People usually don’t come to these things,’ but Brookfield always comes through,” Village President Michael Garvey said.
Kelly Stevens, one of the operators of the Shop Salon & Style House, said she was wowed by the community’s support for the new businesses.
“The small businesses here on Main Street, everybody has walked over, welcomed us, said, ‘We’re so excited,’” she said. “People came by on Sunday when we were setting up last week, walking their dogs, and they were just like, ‘Oh, we’re so excited. Welcome to the neighborhood!’”
Sherry Imperial, the owner of Frost With Us, said she had made changes based on feedback she received at the shops’ soft opening May 30, when members of the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce were given a tour before the sheds opened to the public.
“I had someone who came in, and they wanted to decorate in store, which was not an option, and now it is,” she said. “I think I made it more welcoming, too, to do that, and I love that, so the instructor’s in!”
Jose Camacho, who owns Four Star Handcrafted Coffee, said he hopes the incubator becomes a staple in the neighborhood.
“I enjoy that people that people like our coffee, our product. It’s one of the main things: If people keep coming, that means we’re doing a good job,” he said. “I don’t want to sell coffee that I would not drink, so we try to do the best we can. Everything we make in here is fresh.”
Mandy Genge, one of the owners of New Book Joy, said she was most looking forward to becoming part of the Brookfield community.
“I’m a reading specialist for little kids, so I can’t wait to start getting some kids activities going here. We’re going to be doing things in the back with story times and kids book clubs,” said Connie Obrochta, another owner.
But it wasn’t all a walk in the park. Stevens said the biggest struggle was getting everything she and her daughter-in-law, Kelly Thompson, had envisioned into the space. Alongside their clothing offerings, they managed to fit a small dressing room in the corner of the shop using a shower curtain attached to a circular rod.
“It was very strategic,” she said. “We wanted to utilize every inch of the shed.”
Lea Afia Bempah, who owns Rites of Wellness, described the shop’s opening as feeling “like an exhale.” She said one struggle has been getting set up with a new point- of-sale system, which she hopes to accomplish by the second weekend. She said setting up the inside of her space was the other big challenge she faced.
“I had friends come in and do it … They did the super heavy stuff,” like installing the shelves she lines with her natural products, Bempah said. “But the rest of it — painting, wallpaper, decorations, curating, even this installation [of plants on the ceiling] — me.”
Nestor Valencia, the owner of Organic Jewelry alongside his wife, Giselle Cortes, said his family had spent many a night at the shed, moving and reorganizing things to best display their jewelry handcrafted from watch pieces and natural materials like orange peels and dried flowers.
Garvey said he’s most excited to see the community support the cohort of new local business owners.
“Maybe they will open a storefront in the village going forward, and then we bring in some new people next year,” he said. “It truly is an incubator program. We hope to get them started, and we hope it works, and then a whole new set of fresh faces, maybe, next year. This is year one of many years, we hope.”
