Ararat Rural City is changing the way entrepreneurs can get their foot in the door under a new initiative set to transform vacant spaces into curated pop-up stores.
Council’s Pop-Up Grants are designed to re-energise the municipality’s quieter pockets by breathing new life into underutilised spaces and vacant shopfronts, while giving businesses a funding boost of up to $2,500 to get started.
Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Harrison said the program gives business owners the opportunity to access vacant retail spaces on a short-term arrangement in time for the busiest retail period of the year.
“Ararat Rural City is no doubt a region on the move; we have a diverse economy and Ararat CBD is home to hundreds of established and emerging businesses,” Dr Harrison said.
“This initiative enables entrepreneurs and artisans to easily test their business ideas, relocate a business to Ararat, or take a home-based business to a main street presence.
“For a business operator, this Pop-Up Program provides a flexible response to commercial arrangements for using a vacant space on a short-term lease in the run-up to the holidays. This means less risk and resources spent on overheads and more time spent on growing your business.”
“Moreover, we are supporting and empowering business operators across all sectors to open up shop in our municipality,” he continued.
“Council staff will ensure new operators get the information they need to get set up – we’re here to transform how we do business in Ararat.”
For those who are eligible, the Pop-Up Grants program will see funding available of up to $2,500 per business provided in two payments.
Council urges anyone thinking about opening a pop-up shop to get in touch with our Economic and Development team by filling out a short online application on our website: www.ararat.vic.gov.au