Sundance Square reaches out to small businesses as it remakes downtown Fort Worth
Sundance Square will give local entrepreneurs a chance at a break on rent in a bid to fill storefronts and reshape the look and feel of the 37-square-block business and entertainment district.
It’s seeking applications from entrepreneurs and artisans interested in a retail storefront downtown for its “Next Big Idea” program.
Small business owners who are selected will also receive marketing and design consulting and potential access to seed money for their space build-out, according to the application.
The program is Sundance Square’s response to the many closings that hit the district during the COVID-19 pandemic. A July 2021 Star-Telegram survey found roughly a third of ground floor businesses downtown either closed or remained vacant.
That 30% figure was in line with a lot of American downtowns, according to Bill Fulton, director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
Metro areas that relied heavily on office space were hit the hardest. A May 2021 study from the Brookings Institute found only roughly 17% of office space in Dallas-Fort Worth was occupied.
The Next Big Idea aims to change that, Sundance Square spokesperson Bryan Eppstein said. The program will start with support for three to seven stores. The application deadline is April 18.
A pilot program involving O’Keefe Jewelers, Urban Plantology, Coleccion Mexicana, and Union Station has been a success, Sundance Square said.
“Any leasing and marketing efforts that lead to well performing stores in Sundance Square would be beneficial to downtown,” Andy Taft, president of the nonprofit business advocacy organization Downtown Fort Worth Inc., wrote in an email.
“The return of energy and activity in Sundance Square is important to all of Fort Worth,” Taft wrote.
‘They’re open to this kind of business’
Cary O’Keefe Meiners had been making jewelry and glass sculptures of torsos at Fort Works Art when she crossed paths with Sasha Bass, who co-owns Sundance Square with her husband Ed Bass.
Bass, impressed with her craftsmanship, invited Meiners to try opening a store in Sundance Square with the assurance that if it didn’t work out, Meiners could walk away with no strings attached.
So Meiners opened her store at the southeast corner of Main and East Fourth streets in October 2020, under a one-year trial that allowed her to walk away if the arrangement didn’t work out.
“She said let’s try it out, and I am so grateful because without her I wouldn’t have had the courage to do this myself,” Meiners said.
It’s a similar story for Miguel Martin, a paper mâché artist who owns Colección Mexicana, a studio celebrating Mexican folk art.
Martin met Bass through his work with the Dia de los Muertos collective in Dallas. Martin said Bass has invited him to show his art in the square for the past three years.
“I never thought this area would have stores like mine, but now they’re open to this kind of business,” Martin said.
Participating businesses will also get mentoring and marketing support from a committee made up of Sundance Square officials and the business owners who participated in the pilot program, Eppstein said.
Help could range from marketing to logistics to help with inventory and design, he said.
Meiners described getting mentoring help from Bass herself, which she said helped her develop more confidence as a business owner.
Chances for success
Mentoring and marketing support could be useful to these startup companies, said Cameron Cushman, who heads up innovation ecosystems for the University of North Texas Health Science Center business incubator.
However, he cautioned that a lot of real-estate companies looking to start these kinds of incubator-style programs will make big promises about resources, but not have the goods to back it up.
“It depends on what they can actually follow through on,” Cushman said.
Getting the right mentors will also be key, said Tamara Payne, founder and CEO of Ensemble, a business community and co-working space. She doesn’t believe that Sundance’s committee of department heads will be able to provide the kind of mentoring to make these businesses successful.
“Running a big conglomerate with unlimited funds, and being an entrepreneur are two totally different things,” she said.
She also questioned Sundance’s motivation given its limited participation in Fort Worth’s entrepreneurial community. She pointed specifically to Sundance not participating in the city’s annual Global Entrepreneurship Week or participating in TCU’s Values and Venture’s competition.
“So now to step into an arena because they want to fill their offices, because they have so much open space, it shocks me, instead of taking their money and pouring it into the people who are already doing this,” Payne said.
Eppstein noted the Bass family’s long history of supporting Fort Worth’s business community and pointed out that Sasha Bass sits on TCU’s Board of Trustees.
Fine Line Diversified Development, an investment company owned by Ed and Sasha Bass, donated $15,000 worth of goods and services to the 2019 Global Entrepreneurship Week, according to emails provided by Sundance Square Management.
However, Cushman, who also serves as the sponsorship chair for Global Entrepreneurship Week, confirmed they have not participated since.
Removing barriers to entry such as reduced rent and guaranteeing increased exposure is incredibly beneficial, said District 7 council member Leornard Firestone, himself a successful entrepreneur who started Firestone & Roberson Distilling in 2010.
“If that gets taken off the table and you can introduce your product to a wider audience, it’s a huge advantage,” Firestone said.
Business incubators increase the likelihood of business success, according to Rodney D’Souza, managing director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at TCU’s Neeley School of Business.
“Companies that go through an incubator program have about a 45% success rate over those that don’t,” D’Souza said. Most new companies have about a 40% chance of success, so an incubator downtown will improve those odds dramatically, he said.
It also has benefits for the community, because it creates jobs and brings a new and diverse audience downtown, D’Souza said.
“It seems like a great opportunity for local businesses,” said council member Elizabeth Beck, who’s district includes downtown Fort Worth. She singled out Urban Plantology saying she’s decorated her home with a lot of their plants.
“You never know what small business is going to become the next big thing,” Beck said. “So to the extent we can help mine those jewels in that community, I think it’s a positive for Fort Worth.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 11:35 AM.
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