In New York, unused subway spaces opened up for pop-up stores

Listings site Storefront is collaborating with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to open up unused subway facilities as pop-up booths.

Renting retail space in downtown Manhattan is often well out of the budgets of fledgling startups and small businesses needing a temporary home for their products and services. However, Storefront — a listings site that connects startups with available properties — is now collaborating with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to open up unused subway facilities as pop-up booths.

The platform already connects entrepreneurs and creatives with existing space for their business and art projects in both New York and San Francisco. But the site has now struck up a deal with the New York MTA, which currently owns several unused commercial spaces located inside the city’s underground stations. Consisting of market booths and other retail spaces within the subway system, the spaces — ranging from around 80 sq ft to 1,000 sq ft — are unique in terms of setting and also benefit from the natural footfall of the busy stations. Rather than leave them to go unused, the MTA has so far put seven sites up for rent on Storefront and hopes to raise some revenue out of the deal.

We recently saw the Netherlands’ national NS rail company set up the Lost & Found pop-up store at Amsterdam Central Station, where goods upcycled from unclaimed items were sold. Are there other ways to embrace innovative retail opportunities in unusual locations such as these?