The Bay Area’s 44 BART stations will soon have new retail services for commuters traveling on the regional train network.
SRS Real Estate Partners is partnering with Blinq, a new service that will debut in BART stations to offer curated retail and concierge services in the BART concourses.Besides the Blinq retail component, which will be in the form of modular pods, BART is seeking tenants for more permanent retail spaces, starting at 100 square feet, at each of the BART stations.
Blinq will combine a mobile app service with the pods to offer people the ability to run errands — such as dropping off and picking up laundry — access discounts on retail and events, and simply shop products and services.
It has partnered with local companies such as EO, a Marin County-based cosmetics maker, dry-cleaning service Greener Cleaners, headphone and speaker maker Sol Republic, and Grubmarket, which sells organic food.
The pods are designed to be modular, said a Blinq spokesperson. There are two retail spaces in the pods that have shelving and storage that can be moved around and customized according to a tenant’s needs.
Blinq has an exclusive agreement with BART to operate the shops, vending and concierge services that will launch first at the downtown San Francisco Embarcadero and Montgomery BART stations — as early as next week — and at five more stations in the next several months, before it expands to the other BART stops in the area.
SRS is working to identify tenants for the permanent retail spaces at the stations. It did not say specifically what kind of retailers it is seeking, but said it’s reaching out to both national and local businesses that may want to expand or relocate. Those spaces could be open to tenants in early 2016, with opening dates for the public beginning mid-2016.
“With this mix of new services, shops and amenities Blinq and SRS will offer at BART stations, people will be able to take back five minutes of their day,” said Blinq CEO Alexis Wong in a statement given to the Business Times. “Our interconnected network is accessible to millions of people, who will be able take care of everyday needs, experience products and services, or discover local happenings. We think this combination of experiences, shopping, and community is the future of the metro hub.”
The total retail square footage varies at the stations from 600 square-feet at the Union City BART station to as large as 2,172 total square-feet at the Castro Valley station.
The retail news comes as BART ridership is higher than ever. Downtown San Francisco stations are particularly affected by the job growth in the region, as riders pack into East Bay trains and arrive for work at the Embarcadero and Montgomery stations daily. BART has more than 400,000 riders daily.
The new retail plan will offer more retail inside BART stations as the agency makes a move toward planning for more offices and denser mixed-use projects over retail and housing in the areas around BART stations.