McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes launch more retailers into stores of their own

McHenry is set to see two more downtown retail stores open in early 2025, both recent tenants of the Riverwalk Shoppes.

Jessica Stetson of The Pieceful Project and Lori Fisher of Preserved Peculiarities announced that their stores will move to locations on Green Street and Riverside Drive, respectively.

Another “tiny shop” graduate, Edge Designs, is set to open a brick-and-mortar store in January at the intersection of Routes 31 and 176 in Crystal Lake.

The three store owners join The Bumble Bread Co.‘s Danny Springer in announcing new locations after their May-to-December season in McHenry’s Riverwalk Shoppes.

The so-called tiny shops were designed as retail incubators, giving small-business owners the chance to “try before they buy” or, in many cases, before they lease a retail store on their own.

After the incubator’s first season in 2023, three of the shop owners – Lumber & Twine, Mad Soyentist Candles and Hair Flextensions – joined forces to open Shop 3430, at 3430 Elm St. Carol Chrisman opened skateboard and clothing shop Trend Cellars at 1326 Riverside Drive after a season at the tiny shops, too.

The retail expansion is what McHenry hoped for when the Riverwalk Shoppes were built, McHenry Mayor Wayne Jett said.

“This just goes to show what happens when you have great partners and progress in the downtown area, and the tiny shops specifically. We’re heading in the right direction and look forward to having these businesses in brick and mortar,” said Jett, who’s facing a challenge to his April reelection bid from City Council member Chris Bassi.

The McHenry Pieceful Project store joins a Cary location that opened in July.

It was filling out the Riverwalk Shoppes application the previous October that made Stetson realize her idea of a store selling Legos, puzzles and board games – and giving customers a place to play some of those games – would work. That led Stetson to opening a store at 27 Jandus Road in Cary during her season at the McHenry shops.

The McHenry Pieceful Project’s new home at 1118 N. Green St. will be next door to the new Bumble Bread Co. shop at 1114 N. Green St.

“We had been scouting buildings forever” in McHenry, Stetson said, and had really hoped to find a storefront on Green Street. The location, in the same strip as Buddyz Pizzeria and down the street from McHenry High School’s lower campus, “is a great spot for us,” Stetson said.

Like the Cary store, Stetson plans to offer space that allows groups, or parents and children, to come in for tabletop gaming. What else the McHenry store could offer is up to customers.

“We have a specific focus and a brand focus, but we are open to new ideas and our McHenry customers bringing us things that they would like to see integrated,” Stetson said. “I want to build it for the community, and the community buy-in helps me out.”

She plans to open the new location by March 1.

“I want to build it for the community, and the community buy-in helps me out.”

—  Jessica Stetson, owner of the Pieceful Project stores

Fisher, at Preserved Peculiarities, was encouraged by friends at McHenry’s houseplant emporium, Verdant Sol. Her new location, at 1312 N. Riverside Drive, is right next to Crystal Lume, one of McHenry County’s metaphysical stores.

Preserved Peculiarities specializes in oddities including mounted birds and insects and repurposed and salvaged animal mounts. Fisher also dabbles in the “witchy,” she said – making the new location just about perfect.

“With Verdant Sol and Crystal Lume, we share a lot of the same customers,” Fisher said. “They are matching stores with matching energy. We are all friends, and I can’t wait to do the things and host the events” together.

Her opening date is a bit more fluid. The space most recently was a small engine-repair shop, “so it is a complete gut,” Fisher said. It gives her more than 1,000 square feet to spread out her collection of unique gifts and home decor – and offer space to other artists.

“I have other artists in the shop now, and they are going to come with me,” Fisher said. “We are going to have more artists and more space and more oddities and more weird stuff.”

Furniture store Edge Designs – the fourth tiny shop tenant to relocate this season – is set to open at 5610 S. Route 31 in Crystal Lake. The owner, Crystal Edge, takes in unwanted and thrifted furniture pieces and personally refurnishes them.

The new storefront will have an expanded inventory of her designs, as Edge has more room than the “tiny shop” provided.

“It was a dream I wanted since the beginning,” she said.