Tiny shops now go up on McHenry’s Riverside Drive at Miller Point

Under a dreary sky and a cold, drizzling rain Monday, six high school students joined volunteers from Habitat for Humanity of McHenry County to tip walls onto their foundations and hammer roof joists in place.

They are not building houses, but McHenry’s Riverwalk Shoppes.

Once completed, the 10 tiny shops now going up at Miller Point Park are designed to give start-up small business owners a location to sell their wares each year, from May through December.

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McHenry High School student David May installs weather wrap on a tiny shop being constructed Monday, May 1, 2023, at the new McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes at Miller Point Park in McHenry. McHenry High School students joined volunteers from Habitat for Humanity of McHenry County, McHenry Parks and Recreation Department staff, and contractors to build the shops at the site. (Gregory Shaver — gshaver@shawmedia.com/Gregory Shaver for Shaw Media )

They also add another reason for visitors to check out downtown McHenry, Chamber of Commerce President Molly Ostap said.

The Chamber does not have hard numbers on the additional foot traffic the tiny shops could bring.

“Because this is here and the city will use Miller Point Park for events, it will pull traffic here for the shops and events. I think it will raise all of the foot traffic to all of our downtown locations,” Ostap said.

Work on the tiny shops began last fall, when students in Dan Rohman’s construction trade classes at McHenry High School District 156 started building the shop walls.

Employees from McHenry’s Park and Recreation Department picked up sections as they were finished and put them into storage awaiting the spring construction window.

Excavation work at the park began on March 20, the day after McHenry’s ShamROCKS the Fox event, and on Monday, McHenry High School students, city staff and Habitat for Humanity of McHenry County volunteers began putting up the walls and installing the roof joists of the new tiny shops.

Because this is here and the city will use Miller Point Park for events, it will pull traffic here for the shops and events.

—  McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce President Molly Ostap

City staff and the students are not the only ones helping to get the shops ready for the summer. By the time they are done, 16 contractors and “410 different hands ... will have touched this site,” Ostap said.

All of those hands, including the contractors, are volunteering their time. While final numbers are not yet ready, she estimates that $200,000 in labor and in-kind donations has donated to the project.

“We couldn’t have done this without the support of our local contractors,” Ostap said.

One of those donors is Mike Mrachek of Chicago-based Glenstar. He is acting as tiny shop construction manager, coordinating the volunteers and construction tradespeople needed.

He wants to see three shops erected each day between Monday and Wednesday, when the high school students are on site. “Four units were stood up today. If it was really pouring [rain], we would not have that kind of production from everybody,” Mrachek said.

He expects the roofs to be on and shingled by May 11, and the siding on all 10 of them by May 12. Electric and interior treatments should all be finished by May 16, with a soft opening by the second weekend in June.

The chamber would like to see an earlier opening, but they are putting a cushion in “so no one is disappointed,” Ostap said.

The city also plans to add new public bathrooms, a spray pad and a new venue for outdoor music at the site, all of which is expected to be completed by Aug. 24.

Pat Cree is one of the Habitat for Humanity volunteers helping this week. At 74, he is a retired information technology professional who has helped build five houses for the nonprofit since he started volunteering two years ago.

It gives him “hope for the future to see the teenagers who want to be here to help someone other than themselves,” Cree said.

“This is pretty special,” added Rohman, the construction trades teacher. He came out to the site on his lunch break to see how things were coming along.

“This is a pretty special day, even with the weather. They have put a lot of sweat in this, for sure,” Rohman said.

Brian Blau, 17, is a senior who has been working on the project since his junior year. He helped build the first tiny shop prototype last summer and was part of planning sessions before that.

Being part of that planning and construction “has confirmed that this is what I want to do” as a career, Blau said.

Sophomore Kilynn Axelson is the only girl in construction trades – a class she took to prepare her for an interior design career – and also helped build the walls now going up.

“It is a big accomplishment, to see all of the work we have done so far finally pay off,” she said.

Because the workers are all volunteers, the Chamber needed to feed them, too, said Amy Humbracht, its Riverwalk Shoppe coordinator. Of the 15 days volunteers are needed, she has found restaurants to donate the food for 14 of them.

“There is so much support for this project. The community is helping us as much as they can,” Ostap said.