Category: Business

Downtown Kansas City, Kan.’s first pop-up shop will open on Friday evening for a public reception.

The .POP! Shop (pronounced dot pop shop), a fine arts gallery, will open with an exhibit and reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, July 10, at 731 Minnesota Ave. There is no admission charge. The public is invited.

The shop carries fine arts and handmade items. Eight artists and seven creators of handmade jewelry and other items have their works on display at the shop.

The owner of the gallery reached out to the Downtown Shareholders after it issued an invitation for proposals as part of its Pop-up KCK program, according to Downtown Shareholders marketing coordinator, Katy Schamberger.

Downtown Shareholders served as the facilitator, connecting business owners and entrepreneurs with downtown Kansas City, Kan., property owners who had agreed to make space available either at no charge or below market rate, she said. The idea was to give business owners and entrepreneurs an opportunity to test their businesses downtown for a short time, with as little expense to the business owner as possible.

The Downtown Shareholders are hoping new pop-up businesses decide to stay downtown.

Sarah Preu owns this first pop-up shop to open. She is planning to be open through the fall and has expressed interest in staying open past that time as long as business allows, Schamberger said.

Preu, a former Kansas City, Kan., resident, had help from Downtown Shareholders Director Chuck Schlittler and DTS Economic Development Coordinator Daniel Serda, in finding a space. The 731 Minnesota Ave. building is the former Anchor Saving and Loan Building. It has been remodeled and is now owned by Martell+Leon LLC, and offers visibility along Minnesota Avenue.

“As a downtown KCK business, we need to take advantage of the visibility we get from the 7,000 daytime employees in downtown,” Preu said. “Let’s give them unique storefronts to spend their money in. Let’s give them quality goods and services on their lunch breaks and after work. I would love to help control the conversation about downtown KCK and take back the narrative from people who haven’t lived here and don’t know the wonderful, creative people of our community.”

The items to be offered in the shop include fine arts, ceramics, textile arts, prints, jewelry and home goods. Local museum curators were asked to help assemble a group of new and emerging artists. The first art show and reception on July 10 is called “Nice to Meet You.”

“As we’ve seen time and time again in other areas of the metro, a strong arts community is a strong community in general,” Preu said. “Artists are perfect community builders because they manage to do a lot with very little.”

Preu said a percentage of sales will go to www.youthambassadorskc.com, a youth development organization with a chapter in Kansas City, Kan., that focuses on therapeutic arts and writing, among other life skills. The group has done a front window mural for the fine arts gallery, which will act as its sign.

“Downtown Shareholders of Kansas City, Kan., is thrilled that Sarah chose downtown KCK for her endeavor and excited that she and Martell+Leon LLC agreed on terms beneficial to both,” Chuck Schlittler, director of Downtown Shareholders, said. “It demonstrates the welcoming and responsive spirit of our downtown.”

Schamberger said that A Cup on the Hill coffee shop across the street from the gallery will be open from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.

Artists whose works are scheduled to be on display on Friday evening:
Lisa Jacobs Haberstroh – printmaking
Krista Mustain – textiles
Joha Bisone – painting
Genevieve Casey – photography
Sarah Smith – painting, mixed media
Stacey Cook – textiles, mixed media
John Casey – metal sculpture and handmade guitars
John Hernandez – sculpture
The makers whose work will be on display Friday evening include:
Rakun jewelry
Not for Hipsters
Stuntbaby Handmade
Folded Pigs ceramics
Paper by Kelsey Pike
Stationery by Adriana Luna
Two Tone Press

For more information about the .POP! Shop, visit www.dotpopshop.com.

Kansas Attorney General today announced a settlement with Chase Bank USA N.A. and Chase Bankcard Services Inc. that is expected to return millions of dollars to affected cardholders nationwide.

Schmidt joined with attorneys general in 47 states, the District of Columbia and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in holding Chase accountable for unfair and deceptive business practices committed while collecting on consumer credit card debt.

Specifically, the states and the CFPB allege that Chase used false and inaccurate affidavits while filing lawsuits and obtaining judgments against credit card consumers and that Chase sold credit card accounts to debt buyers with incomplete or inaccurate information.

The agreement requires Chase to significantly reform its credit card debt collection practices in areas of declarations, collections litigation, debt sales and debt buying. Debt buying involves the sale of debt by creditors or other debt owners, often for pennies on the dollar, to buyers who then attempt to collect the debt at full value or sell it to other buyers. Among other reforms, the agreement requires new safeguards to help ensure debt information is accurate, and inaccurate data is corrected, provides additional information to consumers who owe debts, and bars Chase’s debt buyers from reselling consumer debts to other purchasers.

“Chase’s debt collection practices have harmed Kansas consumers,” Schmidt said. “In several instances, Chase commenced collections proceedings based on information that was just plain wrong. This is bad business practice and an affront to consumers, courts, our laws and fairness.”

Chase has agreed to cease all collection efforts on more than 528,000 consumers, including an estimated 844 in Kansas. Chase sued the affected consumers for credit card debts and obtained judgments between January 1, 2009, and June 30, 2014. Chase will notify affected borrowers of the change and will request all three major credit reporting agencies to not report the judgments.

The agreement also ensures that Chase will fulfill $50 million in consumer restitution through a separate 2013 consent order reached with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Chase estimates that so far it has provided $33,000 in restitution to 35 Kansas consumers.

Kansas consumers eligible for restitution or otherwise affected by the terms of this settlement will be contacted directly by Chase. For additional information, contact the attorney general’s consumer protection division at 800-432-2310 or visit the website at www.InYourCornerKansas.org.