At 5330 Martway St., things were quiet at the end of last week — except for the sounds of local makers bringing in armfuls of clothes and home decor, hanging signage and putting other finishing touches on their spaces.
That included Karla and Travis Seigfreid, owners of KT Designs (which offers handmade clothing, accessories and gifts). As they put together shelves and painted walls on Friday, the husband-and-wife duo felt increasingly satisfied to see it all coming together.
After all, KT Designs is one of the businesses that lost a place to offer their goods to the community when multivendor marketplace Painted Tree closed all of its locations earlier this year. This week, the Seigfreids and many more of those vendors will have a dedicated space back.
On Wednesday, new locally owned marketplace 913 Mercantile will open its doors in Mission — with a grand opening event planned for Oct. 17.
913 Mercantile is opening at 5330 Martway St.
- The concept took over a space at the Mission Mart shopping center, just off Nall Avenue and Johnson Drive.
- Antique and consignment mall A Fabulous Find previously occupied the space.
- Once it opens, 913 Mercantile’s regular hours will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
913 Mercantile will house more than 90 vendors
Customers who walk into 913 Mercantile will find a wide variety of items: candles, handmade mugs, custom clothing, even some golf items and pet goods.
“You name it, we probably have it,” said Tyler Bonine, who is opening the venture with his wife, Lindsey Bonine.
Though the store does have some vendors from out of state, roughly 90% of them are local.
“We were really intentional on vendors that we selected and accepted into the store, because we wanted it to be a good mix of vendors,” said Lindsey.
When it came to deciding where in Johnson County to bring 913 Mercantile, the Bonines said Mission stood out as a good choice because of its community-oriented feel.
“The community’s been amazing,” Tyler said. “Every single day, we have four or five people walking through the doors, telling us how excited they are to have something like this here.”
The mission is personal for its owners
The Bonines know what former Painted Tree vendors were going through, because they lived it too. The couple owns custom hat and apparel brand Patch Hats and home decor brand Board and Block Co, both of which had a presence in multiple Painted Tree locations.
When the closures happened, the Bonines had to drive to multiple different states with a U-Haul and pack everything up, an experience that they remember coming as a bit of a shock.
“That was a huge chunk of our income,” Lindsey recalled. “So then we had to figure out, now what are we going to do to support our family and support our dream?”
So when they decided to create a “new home” for vendors like themselves, they knew who to call and who to email. Nicole Fowler, owner of print shop and boutique Fowlen Collections, was one of the people to hear from them.
“It’s nice to know your owners are local and invested in the community, versus somebody who’s out of state and really doesn’t know the community as intimately as they do,” Fowler said.
As she finished preparing her own booth for Wednesday’s opening, Fowler felt a mix of excitement and hope for what’s to come; that includes bringing her own brand into a new market.
“We’ve been mostly on the Missouri side, so we’re excited to put some roots in this community as well,” she said.
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