{"id":372931,"date":"2026-06-24T12:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/372931\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T12:07:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:07:21","slug":"new-returning-san-jose-pop-up-shops-open-downtown-offering-local-handmade-crafts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/372931\/","title":{"rendered":"New, returning San Jose pop-up shops open downtown offering local handmade crafts"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT MAY HAVE BEEN vastly overshadowed in news accounts by last week\u2019s World Cup<\/a> event, but for a small group of San Jose retailers, the big news was the Grand Re-opening of their three shops known as <\/p>\n

The shops on the San Pedro Street pedestrian walkway had been closed for about a year while the city-owned garage they occupy underwent renovations, including a new paint job, in preparation for an LED art installation to be mounted on its facade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moment business development director Audrey Yeung said the San Pedro location was the organization\u2019s first artist pop-up in 2018, and that it\u2019s good to be back open in time for the World Cup festivities. The three shops are right beside the artificial lawn-covered San Pedro pedestrian walkway, where the city has installed large temporary screens so residents can watch the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the changes, from pre-pandemic to post-lockdown, so we\u2019re just happy to have the space again,\u201d Yeung said. \u201cWe\u2019ll stay open for as long as we possibly can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The construction isn\u2019t completely finished \u2014 the colorful metal bars and LED components haven\u2019t been installed yet \u2014 with final completion set for August 2027, according to the city\u2019s project website. Yeung said the city greenlit the reopening for at least six months, but the construction timeline is still fluid, so it\u2019s possible the shops will have to close again in the future.<\/p>\n

\"ACustomers shop the wares of Yours Truly, Mary Anne, a recently reopened pop-up shop on Friday, June 12, 2026 in downtown San Jose, Calif. (B. Sakura Cannestra via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

The pop-up shops feature new and returning businesses, including Yours Truly, Mary Anne, a mental wellness-focused stationery shop which was previously open in the same San Pedro location for about three months in 2025 before shuttering for construction. Mary Anne Batayola, the business\u2019 owner and designer, said she\u2019s excited to have another opportunity in the space. The previous three months was her first time having a brick and mortar location, and she said she learned many lessons about capacity and feasibility that she hopes to build on now that she\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen can you say you have two chances at something in the same space, to take all that you\u2019ve learned that first time and implement it this time around,\u201d Batayola said. \u201cIt\u2019s kinda crazy to me, I\u2019m very grateful for that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A(L) Mary Anne Batayola, owner and designer of Yours Truly, Mary Anne, chats with a customer at her newly reopened storefront in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Friday, June 12, 2026. (B. Sakura Cannestra via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

Another pop-up is Sue\u00f1os, a Latina-owned artisan collective store that was previously at Moment\u2019s Paseo de San Antonio location near San Jose State University for almost two years. Sandra Contreras, co-owner of Sue\u00f1os and owner of Cositas Contreras, said their previous location gave them the opportunity to reach a broader audience and build a following, and that it\u2019s exciting to be in San Pedro, which is a busier location.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of those fans have followed Sue\u00f1os to their new location. San Jose resident Naomi Cortez said she visited San Pedro Square for the shop\u2019s grand opening, as she\u2019s been a fan of their variety of handmade crafts for a few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was dining at the Fab a couple years ago on the Paseo, and this store was right next to it, and I immediately fell in love,\u201d Cortez said. \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of the festivals, the art and wine festivals, for the booths that you won\u2019t see every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expanding pop-ups<\/p>\n

San Jose District 3 City Councilmember Anthony Tordillos, whose district covers all of San Jose\u2019s three Moment pop-up locations, said he\u2019s excited and encouraged by the program\u2019s expansions. He said he often hears questions about retail vacancies, so the pop-up strategy presented by Moment helps to revitalize parts of the city that would otherwise be empty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great way to move quickly into a space that\u2019s maybe been struggling with retail vacancies and reactivate the area,\u201d Tordillos said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A(L) San Jose District 3 Councilmember Anthony Tordillos speaks at the grand reopening of Moment San Pedro\u2019s artist pop-up shops in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Friday, June 12, 2026. (B. Sakura Cannestra\/ Bay City News)<\/p>\n

Nate LeBlanc, business development manager at the San Jose Downtown Association, echoed that sentiment. He said the recently-closed Moment pop-up shops at Paseo de San Antonio generated so much foot traffic that it helped one location finalize a new long-term retail tenant.<\/p>\n

Retail vacancies have been a lasting problem since 2020 across the entire Bay Area and revitalization strategies have been causing many to focus on growing entertainment and engagement spaces rather than relying on office workers. Other cities have even begun pursuing pop-up strategies, such as San Francisco\u2019s \u201cVacant to Vibrant\u201d program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the pop-up shop owners, a long-term lease and bigger space is the ultimate goal as well. The third retailer is Farts and Crafts Club, a collective of San Jose local artists founded by Wren, owner of Petty Party. This is the first time they\u2019ve had a brick and mortar location, but they hope to one day open a permanent storefront alongside a makerspace for budding creators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"A
\nLeft: Customers chat with the owners of Farts And Crafts Collective on June 12, 2026, a newly opened artisan pop-up shop in downtown San Jose. Right: Wren, founder of the Farts And Crafts Collective, restocks the collective\u2019s newly opened storefront in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Friday, June 12, 2026.\u00a0 (B. Sakura Cannestra via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started the online community, it really felt like something was missing for me in San Jose<\/a> because I know there\u2019s so many artists here,\u201d Wren said. \u201cIt feels like a great place to connect and help people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the pop-up shops\u2019 grand reopening, LeBlanc looked over the dozens of people sitting on San Pedro Street\u2019s artificial lawn to watch Canada play Bosnia and Herzegovina, and noted how the downtown\u2019s identity has changed. What used to be considered a slow neighborhood, \u201csuburban and sprawling,\u201d was growing into a vibrant entertainment district.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany hundreds of people have been working on this for years. When you\u2019re in the middle of it, it\u2019s hard to see progress,\u201d LeBlanc said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more thrilled to see all this stuff, all these slow iterative processes finally show some fruition, and for us to see more people down here having fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IT MAY HAVE BEEN vastly overshadowed in news accounts by last week\u2019s World Cup event, but for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[112902,110854,19155,4978,383,7391,3956,151186,9913,88,90,89,69955,198,5393],"class_list":["post-372931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-anthony-tordillos","tag-business-development","tag-business-owners","tag-downtown-san-jose","tag-economy","tag-local-businesses","tag-markets","tag-moment-san-pedro","tag-pop-ups","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-pedro-square","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}