The 76ers and Comcast Spectacor reveal the pop-up businesses coming to East Market

Next week, the row of storefronts on the 900 block of Market owned by Comcast and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment will begin hosting six locally owned small businesses for the summer.

Beginning May 6, the offerings will range from water ice to a record store that offers immersive listening experiences. The pop-ups will be in place throughout the summer’s 250th anniversary festivities.

Dubbed Meantime on Market, the initiative is being implemented by the Center City District and Interface Studio Architects (ISA), a locally based design firm that has created a nonprofit arm — called Meantime — which seeks to pair empty retail space with small businesses for free.

“This is about creating opportunity, supporting local entrepreneurs, and showing the world the very best of Philadelphia,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement.

The six businesses are:

920 Market: Known as the place to get caffeinated in South Philadelphia’s Bok Building, Two Persons Coffee will also operate a cafe at the eastern end of the row in what used to be a cash-for-gold store.

922 Market: Almost Famous, a vintage clothing store, fashion brand, and art space, will host panel discussions and other events, as a city news release says, “reflecting the brand’s Black-owned, women-centered ethos as it continues to operate without a permanent home.”

924 Market: Vintage furniture and design store Rarify, which has its main operation at 735 Bainbridge St., will operate a gallery space. The focus will be on Philadelphia- and Pennsylvania-designed furniture, crafts, and interior design.

926 Market: Clubfriends Radio & Records is an expansion of Alexa Colas’ 2025 DesignPhiladelphia installation “I Turned My Living Room Into a Record Store.” Although records will be for sale, Colas has moved her own furniture into the building — including a wraparound coach — so people can listen to music together. A city news release says that programming is being “developed in partnership with the Free Library’s music department and curator of exhibitions.”

932-934 Market: Art Philly “will create a hub for creative exchange, convening artists, storytellers, and community members with Jos Duncan-Asé’s Love Lab, an initiative from Love Now Media, a Philadelphia-based multimedia production company focused on empathy-centered journalism and storytelling.”

938 Market: At the western end of the row, West Philadelphia’s Siddiq’s Water Ice — located at 264 S. 60th St. — will provide seasonally appropriate refreshment. The purveyor of real fruit infused dessert will neighbor some of the few remaining businesses on this strip, including a Popeye’s and Panda Express.

ISA’s Meantime has been sprucing up the buildings on this block of Market in recent weeks, including the structure that until last year housed Addiction Medicine & Health Advocates methadone clinic at 928 E. Market St.

Workers have been painting the lower portions of the buildings black and adorning them with white icons of items like coffee mugs, clothing hangers, and piles of books. A mural will be added to the upper reaches of the buildings in the coming weeks.

Meantime’s model includes providing furniture as well as permitting support for small businesses and start-ups, and that’s what they are doing here, too.

“We are taking a whole block in such a sensitive area like this and putting six different curated uses in here for Philly, by Philly,” said Brian Phillips, founder of ISA. “We don’t always have this kind of access to such a prominent high street location.”

Phillips said that as his team has been working on the buildings in recent weeks, they have seen an East Market Street that doesn’t always match the negative perceptions of the corridor.

Although this area is often described as a failed corner of Center City, the sidewalks still bustle during the day.

“Whenever I’m out here, there’s really a lot of action, a lot of people around,” Phillips said. “There’s a fundamental critique [of East Market], which I think is a little bit not right.”

Phillips also hopes that Meantime on Market will increase his nonprofit’s visibility.

As the retail sector has contracted with the rise of e-commerce, many buildings in the city have vacant spaces on their ground floors, even when they have dozens or hundreds of apartments above.

Meantime hopes to convince more property owners to partner with them to create temporary spaces for new business owners, who will generate foot traffic and interest even if they cannot afford traditional rents, which are often unrealistic for small entrepreneurs.

Meantime has helped launch storefronts on Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia.

“You’re not going to get anything from us financially, but we have seen some indication that places do look more appealing to traditional, longer term tenants if there’s something going on,” Phillips said. “Brown paper over the windows or for rent sign and an empty space sends the signal, ‘Why isn’t there somebody in here?’”

Meantime on Market is made possible by a $1.85 million grant from the city’s Department of Commerce and implemented by business advocacy group Center City District. The six businesses will be in place until July 29.

Parker’s administration is beautifying East Market with tree plantings and new street lighting as part of her larger push to re-energize the corridor.

A car-free street day is planned on the block in “early summer 2026,” and performances by local artists are planned.

The nearby Lit Brothers building is also hosting a pop-up exhibition “highlighting Philadelphia’s historic hosting of the 1876 World’s Fair” through November.