Deadline to apply for space at McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes 2025 season is Friday

A year ago, Jess Stetson spent the first day of November finishing her application to be one of 10 entrepreneurs selected for the McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes 2024 season.

“I submitted it on the last day you could submit,” said Stetson, owner of The Pieceful Project. “On the actual form online, I spent maybe an hour or two” putting the proposal together.

Stetson sells Lego kits, games and puzzles out of her tiny shop at 1202 Riverside Drive. But doing the application encouraged her to keep going. On July 28, she opened a second location at 27 Jandus Road, Cary.

The next round of potential Riverwalk Shoppes tenants now have their chance. The deadline to apply to lease one of the 10 shops is Friday, Nov. 1. Those chosen will be notified at the end of the year, then participate in weekly sessions with the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce that teach the new business owners how to run a retail store.

The new batch of tenants will open their stores in early May and have the spots at 1202 Riverside Drive until the end of the 2025 Christmas shopping season.

The stores, first opened in July 2023, are designed as retail incubator space, allowing small, unique business owners to determine whether they could open a brick-and-mortar storefront in McHenry or the area after an eight-month run at the Riverwalk Shoppes.

It is a way to start your business on a smaller scale.”

—  Carol Chrisman, owner of Trend Cellar in McHenry, on running a Riverwalk Shoppe

Carol Chrisman was one of the first-year vendors. The owner of Black Orchid Boutique on Green Street, Chrisman also operated Trend Cellar, a skate shop and youth clothing store in McHenry, from 1996 to 2011.

When applying that first year, “I wanted to see if there was a want or a need in the area” to bring Trend Cellar back, she said. “It is a way to start your business on a smaller scale.”

It worked for her. Chrisman opened the new Trend Cellar at 1326 Riverside Drive in McHenry on June 20.

Three more tenants from that first year went together to open Shop 3430 at 3430 Elm St. Another three tenants – Bright Nest, The Bumble Bread Company, Vintage Mercantile – had their leases extended for a second season.

Chrisman and Stetson said they didn’t have a business plan ready to go when they filled out the online applications, but they had ideas about what they wanted their stores to be.

“You need to have a vision of what you want to be going forward. Then, if you try it and you are successful, you have to keep going forth and promoting your business,” Chrisman said.

“You need to have well-thought-out ideas” for the businesses, Stetson said.

She noted that the form offers a way to upload a business plan “but if you don’t have one, that is OK, too.”

The McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes application can be found on the McHenry chamber’s website at McHenrychamber.com.