Nov. 3—Hope is the focus of David van Eijl's new downtown Rochester shop gearing up for a Black Friday grand opening.
Van Eijl, who also owns Texteijl printing in Elgin, is opening a retail store related to his printing business under the name of Hope Central in Suite 101 of the small commercial building at 415 S. Broadway. The other half of the center houses Rochester Public Schools' INCubator program.
The concept is that the shop will sell shirts, hats, sweatshirts and more for area nonprofits with 100 percent of those sales going to the nonprofits. A nonprofit third party will manage the finances.
"I print a lot of shirts for different small nonprofits in town. And I got to thinking, why not create a retail space for them," said Van Eijl. "It's almost like a consignment shop that takes no commission."
Working with Aikong See, the founder of the Project Hope Movement, van Eijl has already signed up nonprofits including the Community Engagement Response Team, The Landing and Project Legacy among others. Each nonprofit will get its own display with a description of what they do.
He hopes to officially launch the small store for the traditional big shopping weekend of Black Friday and Small Business on Nov. 26 and Nov. 27.
In addition to selling the apparel from the nonprofits, van Eijl plans to offer items that promote Rochester as "the City of Hope."
"We are launching a product line — City of Hope — that will help support the store. I think it's got a great ring to it," he said. "I think the City of Hope does seem like a great potential branding for this city."
And he hopes holiday shoppers will agree.
Biz buzz
It seems a star has fallen.
Starbucks Coffee, which has peddled caffeine in the First Street and Second Avenue corner of the Kahler Grand Hotel for 19 years, shut its doors last month. The space is now empty.
That Starbucks opened there in April 2002.
We're checking with the Kahler team to see what might move in next.
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