San Antonio Express News | Friday, December 14, 2012
From sellers of piñatas and quinceañera gowns to a barber and wireless Internet service provider, small retailers have found a home to test and grow their business ideas at PicaPica Plaza, a new 130,000-square-foot indoor marketplace on the South Side.
As the shopping center opened Tuesday morning, tenants in one spot swept the hardwood floor they installed to spruce up their first-ever store. Elsewhere, hair stylists rearranged their tools in salons that some said they never imagined they could afford.
The developers behind PicaPica plan to open similar retail concepts across the state and nation, hoping the largely Hispanic communities they target will use the plazas as entrepreneurial incubators.
Since PicaPica — painted in striking red, orange and blue — officially opened for business in an old Wal-Mart store at 910 S.E. Military Drive on Oct. 17, more than 50 small businesses have received sales tax permits to operate there, according to state comptroller records. PicaPica's lead developer, Al Honigblum, estimated the shopping center's current vacancy at 35 percent, with pending leases set to lower that rate to 20 percent.
About 90 percent of the business owners there are Hispanic, and more than 50 percent are first-time business owners, according to the company.
“This gives them a chance to have a real, true business,” Honigblum said. “Most tenants can't afford to be in a mall (and) work on low capital budgets.
“They can expand with us as they're successful,” he added. “Nothing would make us happier if they grow to their fullest and end up leaving PicaPica Plaza.”
SE Military Mercado Ltd., which owns PicaPica, covers the millions of dollars that Honigblum said went into the development by collecting $350 to $500 each month from tenants who must sign a lease of at least six months.
The small retailers do not have to worry about the utility and security bills that come with a traditional brick-and-mortar or shopping mall location.
On Tuesday, several vendors there said they had wanted to start or expand their business for a while but lacked the capital or knowledge to do so. Honigblum said he is in talks with microlenders to help prospective tenants secure loans of up to $10,000 to cover their startup costs.
Also, Imelda Arevalo, PicaPica's general manager, said tenants will soon have the opportunity to franchise their stores across the state.
“We'll probably open three more (plazas) in Texas before moving out of state,” Honigblum explained. Ultimately, “we'd like to be in every state and every city in Texas. ... That's always been a part of our plan.
“Not only is PicaPica an incubator for vendors, it's one for ourselves.”
How quickly Honigblum can expand his own business depends on the plaza's success in the largely Hispanic neighborhood on the South Side.
Honigblum conceded he has encountered some confusion about PicaPica and has tried to dispel perceptions that it's essentially a flea market.
The key difference, he said, is that business owners in PicaPica commit to their ventures full time.
“Our dream is to tap into Hispanic entrepreneurship and give vendors an actual store that they don't have to pack up at the end of the weekend,” Honigblum said. “They have an address to call their own.”
Though some tenants complained that the shopping center often draws customers who want to haggle over prices — as they would in a flea market — Ray Flores said that never happens at his Takedown 210 store.
His business, one of the first in PicaPica, sells licensed sports merchandise such as shirts, watches and more.
“There's no haggling here,” Flores said. “When (customers) see the tag, they know this is the price.”
After years of offering his products at flea markets across the city, he rented four of PicaPica's stalls and spent weeks adding walls, a window and shopping racks. With official retail space, Flores was able to purchase licensed merchandise that wholesalers wouldn't sell to him when he worked at flea markets.
Honigblum said Flores has told him he plans to use his spot at PicaPica as a launching pad to become the next Academy Sports + Outdoors.
“I get the same stuff Academy has now,” he said. “I get stuff that the stores in the mall get.
“I tried as hard as possible to make my spot at the flea markets to look like a store (and) it didn't work,” Flores added. “There are so many advantages when you own the key to your own store.”