A newly renovated office and retail building in downtown Shawnee dubbed The Collectivist is now fully leased out with a lineup of small local businesses.

The building was initially purchased in late 2021 along with the new Mother Clucker! restaurant space, formerly Big Bam’s, through the Nieman Rd Dev, LLC, a reinvestment group run by husband-and-wife duo Derrick and Kylie Foster and their business partner Sheryl Vickers.

“We wanted to be a part of the growth in that whole area,” Kylie Foster said of her and her husband’s involvement in these projects.

The focus is on supporting small KC area businesses

• Foster said she hopes the Collectivist building, which has room for 14 tenants, can play a part in helping small local businesses thrive.
• Right now, the building is fully rented out and meeting her vision.
• “Everything’s locally-owned, which we love, and a lot of them are women-owned businesses,” Foster said.

Here’s what’s open at The Collectivist:

• Suds Refillery, a bulk-bin-style soap and cleaning product store
• Spark.KC, a by-appointment jewelry shop
• In His Image Skin & Wellness Studio, a facial and esthetician shop
• Seven Stories, a nonprofit bookstore and art studio run by a teenager and her mom
• Whiskey & Bone, a boutique shop featuring Bohemian-style clothing and handmade jewelry
• A barbershop run by local barber Jordan Gill
• Councilmember Eric Jenkins’ office, which has been in the building for years
• In the downstairs space are offices for Nieman Rd Dev, LLC., real estate broker Select Sites, American Family Insurance, ACME Pest Control, a bulk-bin shopping company called Pantry Goods and JT Davidson Transportation.
• An addiction anonymous counseling group also meets in one of the office spaces in the basement.

Renovating the building cost about $100,000

• It took about six months to renovate the building, which has been converted to allow for retail tenants on the ground level.
• The work went unit by unit as leases ended.
• The exterior has also been painted white with orange accents.
• Foster said their ownership group is working to add a sign this spring for the building that will identify it as The Collectivist shops and office space.

More downtown Shawnee redevelopment news: Plan to remake downtown Shawnee liquor store includes ‘signature’ restaurant