Lino’s is creating a new indoor box market that brings together small businesses in Loves Park

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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LOVES PARK — Lino’s is creating a new indoor market inspired by the rustic old-world feel of an Italian piazza that will be filled with local businesses that run their shops from inside shipping containers.

The Mercato by Lino’s is a new concept being developed inside a 19,500-square-foot building at 8400 E. Riverside Blvd. The space is filled with 33 shipping containers that will be leased to small businesses with the goal of creating an eating, shopping and co-working destination.

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Along with Lino’s, the first shops planned for the space include Urban Farmgirl, Meg’s Daily Grind, Rockford Art Deli and Craft + Foster.

“They’re going to be busting out of the booths,” said Charlie Schweinler, who leads the third-generation, family-owned restaurant. “It will feel like you’re walking through a European street.”

At the northeast end of the building will be Lino’s new sit-down restaurant with a bar area, dining room and mezzanine seating overlooking the shops. Its connection to The Mercato allows you to order a glass of wine from the restaurant before you stroll through the shops.

The 52-year-old Rockford restaurant expanded into Loves Park in November 2022, when it started serving pizzas from a classic Fauld’s oven inside a 53-foot-long red shipping container on Riverside Boulevard.

Now it’s renovating the building next door, which it purchased in 2021, to fill it with shipping containers that act as mini-shops inside the market. With building material and construction costs high, Schweinler looked for other options to activate the space.

“They’re very creative, forward-thinking and savvy on trying new ideas and trying to push the envelope a little bit,” said Jarrod Hennis, the owner of Rockford Art Deli in downtown Rockford.

The goal is to open by early fall. The indoor shipping container concept first needs approval from Loves Park City Council. It heads to the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals next week to start that process.

“I’ve actually been a huge advocate of shipping containers since I first saw them in London 12 years ago,” Hennis said. “It looks cool, it’s industrial, it’s portable, not permanent. It’s this cool structure that you can make micro-businesses in without huge overhead.”

The Mercato will benefit from the foot traffic of thousands of athletes who come to the nearby Mercyhealth Sportscore Two complex and the Indoor Sports Center. The success of luring tournaments and regular competitions to the area primed Mercato for the opportunity to open, Schweinler said.

“I see from having kids in soccer and being here all the time, just how much traffic and how much is going on in this area,” said Megan Carlson, co-owner of Meg’s Daily Grind, a family-owned shop that has operated since 2001. “There’s going to be different tenants like Urban Farmgirl and Rockford Art Deli … all the different entities can help bring people together, and I just think it’s going to be a really cool atmosphere for all that.”

Meg’s will have a drive-thru as well as being connected to the indoor box market. Lino’s will also have drive-thru services, as well as its sit-down restaurant.

Schweinler hopes to create a local shopping destination with a curated selection of area businesses that serve similar clientele.

“It’s a pretty cool, up-and-coming area and I think something like this can do really, really well if we can do it right,” said Chad Burgess, who owns Craft + Foster with his wife, Melissa.  “When you get brand-aligned retailers I think there’s a synergy that can happen, and I think the area is certainly ready for it.”

Melissa Burgess is a military veteran who started making candles as a therapeutic outlet to process post-traumatic stress disorder. That process led to the birth of Craft + Foster in San Diego in 2015, and now it’s in retailers across the country. The couple moved back to Rockford about five years ago, and is eager to help launch an idea it has seen successful elsewhere.

“We’ve seen a lot of things work that haven’t quite made it yet to the Midwest, and the container park was certainly one of those ideas,” Burgess said. “We know that there’s a lot of untapped potential here.”

Each business, ideally, would draw customers who then shop at the other stores in the market.

“We’re all in it for the same reasons: We want people to shop local, love living here, love touring and traveling here,” Hennis said. “We’re all on the same team, it’s just a lot of people don’t realize that.”

The Mercato is also intended to create a sense of community between small business owners so they can learn from and support each other.

“The whole thing is supposed to be an ecosystem built to help each other,” Schweinler said. “Really it’s to help small businesses begin to understand the importance of a well-designed space, the importance of regular hours.”

Schweinler said it’s an ideal location for businesses looking to establish their first storefront because it eliminates a lot of the overhead costs and allows entrepreneurs to focus on the products or services they do best.

“Small businesses owners often have to wear a lot of different hats,” he said. ““Part of the reason why a lot of small businesses don’t succeed is because they have to be everything at once to be successful.”

The space options for small businesses range from 4-by-10 square-foot to 40-by-8 square-foot shipping containers. There are also 10-by-eight-square-foot corner spaces that will be leased in phase 1.

Loves Park, along with Place Foundry and The Parks Chamber of Commerce started working on a concept for a box market village last year with Lino’s curbside shipping container restaurant serving as a prototype.

The Mercato is a first step toward that vision, and one that brings the concept indoors.

“A lot of people have been anticipating Lino’s doing something,” Loves Park Mayor Greg Jury said. “We’re excited. We think they have a great idea, and I give a lot of credit to Charlie for his vision.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas