PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The grand opening of a new space for local crafters, artists, and other creative workers was held Tuesday in the Aroostook Centre Mall, which is seeing a resurgence in tenants.
Crafters Creations, a space where individual crafters and artisans can sell their works, began filling up quickly a couple of weeks after its soft opening on Oct. 5, according to Melissa Valenza, one of four people running the store.
The idea for the store came from a craft fair the Aroostook Centre Mall held Aug. 11-13 called Craft & Creations Craft Fair. Mall owner Dana Cassidy turned the concept into the new store name as a place for crafters to go when they can’t get to other venues like the Caribou Craft Fair.
“It brings a lot of smaller items with a very, very diverse array of inventory that’s extremely unique,” Cassidy said.
Currently, 27 crafters from Fort Kent to Houlton are occupying the space. Crafter’s Creations has 30 spaces and was almost full on grand opening day. The spaces are rented first come, first serve for $100 to $200 a month. They feature a variety of beadwork, paintings, woodwork artisans, jewelry, clothing, and other accessories all homemade by local crafters.
Cassidy funded between $10,000 to $15,000 to get Crafters Creations up and running. The store is being run by Valenza, along with Sue Madore of Sue the Jewelry Lady, Tammy Closson of Back Roads Creations, and Bernice Perry of Perry’s Crafts.
“We wanted more of [the crafters] to be in year-round to see all of their wares,” Valenza said.
One crafter in the store is Lori Lynch from Presque Isle who makes crochet plushies that look like animals and insects. She recently retired from a career working in retail and plans on bringing in more plushies for the store. She also makes dish cloths and bowl cozies.
“I think it’s wonderful that we have a place to be able to put our crafts that we make and it’s all in one place,” Lynch said.
One of the artists is Fort Fairfield resident Jennifer Adrian, who works at the sales and marketing team for Townsquare Media. She creates and sells acrylic and watercolor paintings. Another artist is Anne Hemphill from Presque Isle, who has a variety of painted rocks, watercolors, leather earrings, and bookmarks for sale.
Crafters Creations is part of a business resurgence at the mall. Three more stores are planned to be open withIn the next five to six weeks, which include a new food vendor in the mall’s food court called Mom & Me Pizzeria, Catholic Charities, and Omni Fitness 24/7.
Three truck loads of equipment for Omni Fitness 24/7 came in on Monday, Oct. 30 with the electrical system for the security being installed.
“There’s a lot going on every day in preparation for the new stores and then there’s a couple things in the works,” said Cassidy.
Much of the construction work is being done on Omni Fitness 24/7, Catholic Charities, and Trampoline City. The first load of trampolines are currently being shipped in from China.
Another laundromat located in the mall is called Sudsie II, which is in the process of ordering equipment with the space costing around $1 million, according to Cassidy.
Other stores are expected to begin doing business in the mall soon but Cassidy declined to comment on them at this time.
Cassidy plans on holding store tenant meetings for the 22 current tenants after a few more stores open to figure out what mall hours would work best to align when the stores will be open. In total, the mall can hold around 38 tenants.
