Downtown Norfolk Council received the highly coveted Pinnacle Award from the International Downtown Association (IDA) for its first retail incubator, Selden Market. The Pinnacle Award represents the most creative and inspiring innovations in the industry.
IDA recognizes outstanding improvements to downtown by the work of dedicated individuals around the globe through the annual Downtown Achievement Awards. These exceptional projects highlight organizational advances in a variety of categories and stages of completion. The application process runs from February to March, and winners are announced at the annual conference and tradeshow in the fall.
Selden Market serves as Downtown Norfolk’s first retail incubator for new and emerging businesses. Opening in October 2017, Selden Market creates a constantly changing environment with diverse storefront tenants and pop-up businesses that operate on daily to yearly lease schedules. The goal of the market is to stimulate street-level activity with low rent, short-term leases, business education and mentorship to help businesses shape their model, learn from each other and build community in a low-risk environment.
Selden Market launched with 12 retail tenants and more than 20 pop-up businesses. Since opening, the market has garnered more than 14 million media impressions and more than $224,000 in earned media value. In the first year, the market gave over 100 pop-up businesses a platform to test their retail model, had 17 storefronts and hosted 62 events highlighting original and creative programming for visitors and consumers.