All-Star Festivities Prompted Some New Uses For Old Downtown Spaces

The All-Star Game filled the coffers of a number of familiar downtown restaurants and hotels over the past week. But a number of entrepreneurs also set up temporary venues in some unexpected locations.

For instance, an empty Euclid Avenue storefront found new life thanks to the Midsummer Classic. Marcie Gilmore stood behind a bar on some prime real estate at East Ninth and Euclid and explained.

"This is a vacant space currently, which we're looking to lease and working on some deals right now," she said. "And in the interim, we just decided to do a pop-up bar for the festivities going on in town."

Further down the street, the Corner Alley bar and bowling alley temporarily changed its identity to a private hangout for visiting baseball players.

And the influx of baseball fans downtown prompted the Columbus-based Homage sports apparel company to try a pop-up shop on East Fourth Street. Christian Conaway opened it this past Friday to a global clientele.

"All kinds of people from Japan, a couple from Mexico last night, all kinds of South American countries, picking up some stuff," he said.

Christain Conaway opened a pop-up branch of the Columbus-based Homage apparel shop for just a few days in downtown Cleveland. [David C. Barnett / ideastream]

But as downtown real estate continues to boom, it's probably going to become more of a challenge for such pop-up opportunities to pop.