CHARLES TOWN – A new retail space, called “The Spotlight on Main” opened its doors to the public for the first time on Saturday, playing host to an art show put together by local girl scouts.
Mara Bauserman, who also owns Corner Connection just down the street, opened the space as an option for vendors or event organizers who are looking to rent a space in downtown Charles Town. The storefront is located at 199 W. Washington Street.
Differing from the 200-capacity event space at Corner Connection, The Spotlight on Main gives organizers a smaller, less expensive space right on Charles Town’s central street.
“When somebody needs this space as a pro bono or a less expensive opportunity, we haven’t had that to offer,” Bauserman said. “So now this expands our offerings for less than 40 person events or gatherings.”
“Now we can work with the organizations, having the ability to pivot on meeting size.” Bauserman added.
The space can also be used as a home for vendors, entrepreneurs or small businesses looking to get their foot in the door in Charles Town, and test the market to see if it would be a good place to open up their own store nearby.
“I could totally see somebody like that having their own shop, but you kind of need to test the market first. We’d love to have people as vendors testing the market or using the space and doing their own pop up shop for two weekends a month or anything like that,” Bauserman said. “Maybe you’re trying to see if downtown Charles Town is a great space for your business and you want to do just like a little one week trial of that or you know, a bakery that you bake from home and you want to do a weekend bake sale, any of those things.”
At Corner Connection, Bauserman has offered space for pop-up vendor’s before, but only in their courtyard during certain seasons. The new space gives users a storefront, in addition to protection from the weather year-round.
To launch the new space, Bauserman lined the walls with art made by local girl scouts as part of Girl Scouts World Thinking Day, where scouts around the world do activities to honor their communities, revolving around special themes. This year’s theme was “Our Story: Reflecting the symbolism and values of our Movement.”
Bauserman says going forwards, she hopes the space can serve the community for things like the art show, while serving as an incubator for other small businesses looking to get their foot in the door in downtown Charles Town.
