(Photo: Downtown Norfolk Council)
NORFOLK, Va. – Vibrant Spaces, an incentive program developed to stimulate street-level business, is opening Selden Market in the fall, the Downtown Norfolk Council announced on Wednesday.
The market will house multiple small business tenants, mentors and kiosks for pop-up businesses.
The market will be housed in Selden Arcade, the historic connector between Slover Library and The Main.
The Downtown Norfolk Council says the program will “stimulate street-level activity with low rents and short-term leases to help businesses shape their model, learn from each other and built community in a low-risk environment.”
“The goals for Selden Market are regular activation, a unique atmosphere and continual transformation,” said Drew Ungvarsky, chairman and CEO and executive creative director of Grow.
The Slover Library Maker Studio will be added to the library’s first floor in the Arcade for people to experiment with all kinds of new technologies, including a sound recording studio, laser cutter and sewing machines.
Downtown Norfolk Council and the Vibrant Spaces committee will accept applications for potential tenants. Applications are available online atwww.seldenmarket.com.
An explosion heavily damaged the Selden Arcade on April 17, 2015.
Investigators found that the origin of the explosion came from outside the building in the main 208 volt power feed to the building’s electrical power switch room.
A contractor had struck that line earlier that morning. According to the Norfolk Fire Marshal’s report, the contractor strike damaged the line, starting a chain of events that led to the catastrophic failure of the electrical system, which caused severe arching and an explosion, also referred to as an arc blast.
The fire in the room lasted only a few seconds and did not trigger the sprinklers in the area, the report said.
