When Riverside officials first discussed a potential Riverside Shops program in November, they were planning for the project to launch in June 2026. But now, it seems the retail incubator may not launch until later on, with additional locations to be explored.
“We’re in super early stages of planning, and we don’t anticipate this to be an actual, real project [until] 2027,” Finance Director Yvette Zavala told the Landmark. “We’re a smaller village, and it’s not easy for us to ramp it up and put it out there.”
Village trustees discussed the project at a committee of the whole meeting on Jan. 15 before their regular meeting, Zavala said.
“There were a couple follow-up emails some trustees sent, so we decided to put it back on the [committee of whole agenda] to go over it,” she said. “They wanted to review the impact the incubator shops had on the community because it’s a large capital investment, so they wanted to evaluate the return of the investment.”
Documents from the meeting say retail incubator programs, such as the nearby Brookfield Shops that opened last year, create jobs, increase a municipality’s tax revenue, diversify the local economy and lead to a higher success rate for businesses.
According to data from the retail incubator program in McHenry, a city in McHenry County, Illinois, “87% of incubated companies are still in business after five years, and 84% stay in the same area where they started operations.”
Other benefits, according to the documents, include filling vacant storefronts, fostering a sense of place, lowering barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and offering access to mentorship in areas like finances and marketing.
According to the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation, the city’s incubator, which hosts 10 vendors and opened in 2023, earned $500,000 in total sales in its first year and $625,000 in its second year.
In its first year, the Brookfield Shops generated more than $200,000 in sales, Libby Popovic, Brookfield’s community development director, told the Landmark in December.
Zavala said Riverside staff will look beyond the parking lot off East Burlington Street that they had initially identified as a location for the Riverside Shops that could host up to four vendors.
“The only feedback that was given [at the committee of the whole meeting] was for staff to explore all options of incubator spaces, including a brick-and-mortar space like Berwyn Sprout,” she said.
If the program does come to fruition, Zavala said residents can expect to pick the vendors themselves through a jury formed by Riverside’s economic development commission. The Brookfield Shops chose their vendors for the 2025 and 2026 seasons through a similar process.
Patrick Greenacre, one of the retail incubator consultants for the Riverside Shops through KPGS Consulting, said the opening being pushed back is more likely a matter of timing than anything.
“It’s just like anything else. You don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know what you’re fully getting into. I know we’ve had really successful conversations with a lot of villages, and it’s timing on their end, what makes sense,” he said. “It’s more of a high-level, ‘Let’s get this figured out.’”
He put it best with a metaphor.
“We all watch cooking shows, and then we go and try to make that amazing salad or pasta dish, and all of a sudden, our kitchen is filled with flour, and we’re ordering pizza.”
