Soon-to-be high school grads build tiny shops in McHenry
McHENRY, Ill. (CBS) -- Ten new businesses are getting a big opportunity in northwest suburban McHenry - soon, they will be moving into tiny shops that are being built right now.
As CBS 2's Noel Brennan reported Wednesday, the construction job is also a great learning experience for some young people.
The construction crew building the tiny shops has been hard at work in Miller Point Park. They get high marks from Amy Haumbracht, who is impressed by the progress.
"Oh, excellent. They're moving things left and right," said Haumbracht, manager of the McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes. "This has been three days. I mean, I think they're doing pretty good in three days."
It's a big construction job.
"We're building 10 retail incubator shops. They're going to be tiny," Haumbracht said, "and we're bringing 10 new businesses - retail businesses - to McHenry each and every year. This is our first year."
It's an even bigger class project.
"It's probably the top class project of class projects," said Brian Blau.
Blau is days away from graduation at McHenry Community High School - but there's still plenty of work at McHenry Community High School Construction.
He and his classmates are part of the construction crew, building the McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes.
Carol Chrisman can't wait to move in – and reopen a business she closed years ago.
"It's the Trend Cellar," she said. "It's all skateboarding, clothing - like, things for kids that they haven't had for a while up here."
It is a shop for kids that's being built by kids.
"I think there's a lot of pride in it - just being able to come back here and saying that me and my class built the whole thing up from the ground up, basically," said Blau.
McHenry hopes the tiny shops will lay the foundation it needs for visitors to pour in.
"We all want to make McHenry a destination like Lake Geneva, like Galena," said Haumbracht. "We've got everything here. We've got the river, we've got shops, we've got restaurants, bars all around."
Tiny Shops, and the students that built them, could have an impact beyond measure.
"Most class projects don't go out of the classroom, but this one has," Blau said.
The ten small businesses moving into the tiny shops will have that space for six months. Then, the goal is that they'll move into empty spaces somewhere downtown.
The shops hope to open in mid-June.