WINTER PARK, Fla. – A local business owner is planning to open a showroom in Winter Park for artists who are now looking for a new location after the Artegon Marketplace closes next week.
The mall owners said in a statement last week they are taking the property in a new direction. The mall is closing on Jan. 26, leaving artists and business owners two weeks to find a new location.
Many businesses have already shut down their stores and locked up. News 6 saw some stores holding "Mall Closing" sales on Thursday.
Shannon Youngs is hoping she can help the artists who are being displaced. She is planning to open a showroom in an empty office building in Winter Park.
"I felt really bad for the artists over there," Youngs said.
Youngs will call the showroom "The World Bazaar." She said the building will be colorful and there will be awnings decorating the outside. She also has plans to have edible plants lining the walkway.
She said it will look and feel like an outdoor market, even on the inside.
"With tapestries on the ceiling, each of the individual, what were office spaces, will look like small little store fronts," Youngs said.
Youngs said her friends are vendors at Artegon and she felt the need to help when she heard of the news of the mall closing.
She wants this space to be a place where artists cans show their work and run their businesses.
"We have some painters and sculptors that are talking about going in on a space together. We have a fashion designer from South America. We have an individual who makes wares from alpaca furs," she said.
Youngs added that she thinks the artists will have more success in the Winter Park area.
"International Drive is kinda where you go when you want to be flung on a slingshot or take a picture of yourself next to a shop that looks like a wizard," she said. "This is a classier area. I think the patrons that are in this area are more fit for these types of clients."
She's getting results and keeping creativity alive.
"If we can get this together, then it will work out for everybody."
The showroom is located at 1280 Palmetto Avenue. Youngs plans to open in March and eventually expand to add more space.
Anyone interested in learning more is asked to contact Billy Eubank at dynamovoltage@gmail.com.
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