"Before, we never had a face to the owners," said Rose Ann Jordison, whose shop Ivy Rose sold out of a rented booth at 11101 University Avenue. "They tried to run it like a corporation. Well, these people that are in here, they don't want to work for a corporation."
Jordison was talking about Painted Tree Boutiques, the national vendor-marketplace chain that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April and closed its locations across the country, including the one in Clive. She's talking about it in the past tense because she's back in the same building, selling out of the same kind of booth, under a name that didn't exist five months ago: Eleven101 Collective.
That's the part worth sitting with. The building didn't get demolished or leased to a new national chain looking for Iowa square footage. Knapp Properties, the real estate company that owns 11101 University Avenue, spent the summer deciding whether to find another outside operator to run a marketplace inside its own building, and then didn't. It became the operator itself. For a company that develops and manages commercial property for a living, that's a new line of business entirely, and it's the reason vendors like Jordison came back.
What Actually Happened in April
More than 300 small businesses were renting booths at the Clive Painted Tree when the bankruptcy hit. The closure came as a surprise to many of them. Jenni King, owner of Simply Stella Rose, had booths in six Painted Tree locations across several states and cleared all of them out within days. "We scrambled within three days," she told WHO 13. "It took a lot of teamwork and family to help, and friends, to help get everything out."
Painted Tree's model let small businesses rent booth space at rates well under what a standalone storefront would cost, which suited sellers who wanted a retail presence without the overhead of running their own shop. When the chain closed, the transition was a real financial strain for many of those vendors. Costa has said he was told some sellers did not receive proceeds from certain sales made near the end, an account relayed secondhand.
Why Knapp Properties Didn't Just Find a New Tenant
Knapp Properties' first instinct was conventional: find another retail operator willing to lease the space and relaunch a similar concept. According to Knapp Properties CEO Chris Costa, that search didn't produce the right fit, so the company decided to run the marketplace itself, something it had never done in its history as a developer.
"This is something that we think we can handle and do a pretty good job with," Costa said.
The company hired the original manager and assistant manager from Painted Tree, giving the relaunch operational continuity even as ownership changed hands entirely. It also updated several systems vendors rely on. The point-of-sale system was refreshed to better track how sellers receive their funds. Cameras were upgraded so sellers can check in on their booths remotely. A new kiosk system helps shoppers find specific vendors inside the space. None of that is dramatic on its own. Together, it shows a landlord investing in the tools vendors use every day.
"Ours will be localized and we'll be making a decision at the store level instead of at a global level," Costa said.
The Math on Who Came Back
Of the roughly 300 vendors displaced in April, about 200 had signed on for Eleven101 Collective's soft opening by July 28, according to Costa. That's a meaningful return rate given how recently those vendors had to pack up their booths.
Eleven101 Collective takes its name from the building's own street number, a small signal that this is meant to read as local rather than franchised. The soft opening ran Thursday, July 30, and Friday, July 31, from noon to 6 p.m., with vendors still moving in as regular hours began. Since August 1, the marketplace has operated Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Applications for new vendor booths are still open, so the roster hasn't finished settling.
What's Different on the Shelves
Eleven101 Collective describes itself as a curated space for local makers, artisans, and vintage finds, which tracks with what shoppers found at Painted Tree. The meaningful change isn't the merchandise category, it's who answers the phone when something goes wrong. Jordison put it plainly: she thinks local ownership will lead to better communication and problem solving. Costa's framing matches hers almost word for word, just from the other side of the counter: decisions made at the store level, not filtered through a corporate office states away.
That alignment between what a longtime vendor wanted and what the new operator promised is unusual. Most retail turnarounds involve some tension between what tenants ask for and what ownership is willing to spend on. Here, the requests were specific (payment tracking, communication, local accountability) and the fixes match them directly.
If You're Headed Back
The formal grand opening, with a ribbon cutting hosted by the Clive Chamber of Commerce, is scheduled for October 8. That's roughly ten weeks after the marketplace was already open for business, which says something about how this reopening was sequenced. Knapp Properties got the doors open fast for returning customers first, then built toward a public celebration once the vendor roster and systems had time to settle in. If you're planning to stop by for the ribbon cutting or just to see who's back, the address is still 11101 University Avenue in Clive, the same spot Painted Tree occupied before it closed in April.
For anyone who had a favorite booth before April, the fastest way to check if it's back is still a walk through the space itself. Vendor lineups shift as new applications come in, and the roster in October may look different from the one at the July soft opening.
The Part That Isn't About Retail
Buildings change hands and change concepts constantly. What's less common is a property owner deciding that the only way to rebuild trust with a group of small businesses is to stop being a landlord in the traditional sense and become the operator standing behind the counter. Knapp Properties didn't just find a replacement tenant for 11101 University Avenue. It decided to take on the operation directly, with local decision making at the store level.
Roughly two-thirds of the original vendor base had signed on for the soft opening within about three months of the April closure.
If you're curious about what's happening around Clive beyond the boutique aisles, from new construction to established neighborhoods worth a second look, Megan Mitchum + CO has spent years watching this community's small businesses and its housing stock grow up together. Stop by Eleven101 Collective, say hello to the vendors who came back, and reach out anytime you want a local read on what else is changing around University Avenue.
