Colby Abbot Pop-up Stores are Open for Business

Although, the renovation of the first floor of Colby Abbot, located at 759 N. Milwaukee St., building is taking a little longer than expected, the change is a welcome improvement to Milwaukee St.  Over the weekend the four pop-up stores taking part in the Milwaukee Holiday Lights Festival Retail Emporium began opening up.  The emporium was put together by Deanna Inniss, in her, now former, role as the downtown retail recruiter for Business Improvement District  21.  It was put together to jump start new retail outlets in downtown Milwaukee, and bring life back to long vacant store fronts.

The new stores have a mixture of products that include fine-art, gift items, wrapping paper, and clothing.  Katie Gingrass Gallery and Blutstein Brondino Fine Arts, are both familiar names in the Milwaukee art scene, and are sharing a space on Mason St.  Broadway Paper, anchors the corner, and as anyone who has visited the Third Ward store knows, offers everything paper.  On Milwaukee, St.  SHOP, which sell class women’s clothing, and Wafrique Crafts, which sells handcrafted African clothing for women and men, round out the other two retail slots.