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Outside the Box, the shopping plaza built from shipping containers in Cotter’s River District, will hold its grand opening from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, with every one of its 10 suites filled.
The event, billed as a “Grand Unboxing,” will take place at 132 Combs Ave. It will include live music, food and drinks, vendor showcases, a ribbon cutting, activities and giveaways, according to a news release from developer Jason Nazarenko.
The opening comes eight months after Nazarenko, a state representative and CEO of Potter Block Properties, first laid out the plan for the Cotter City Council. At that January meeting, he projected the plaza would open in late spring or early summer.
The businesses set to open Sept. 26 are Momentum Coffee, Ozark Fork & Cork, White River Thrift & Gift, Rivertown Gallery, White River Sweet Station, Current & Co. Salon, Refined Clothier & Etc., Southern Rose Homestead, The Lunch Box and The Trout Tank, according to the project’s website.
That mix is close to what Nazarenko told the council he wanted. He said then that visitors staying in Cotter’s short-term rentals kept asking for more to do, and he listed eateries, salons, art studios, bakeries and artisan shops as the kinds of tenants he hoped to land.
“I’ve heard multiple times from some men that come to fish, and they tell me, if we had a few of these things, I could come more, because I could bring my wife,” Nazarenko said in January.
“This project is about more than shipping containers,” Nazarenko said in the release. “It’s about creating opportunities. Outside the Box immediately gives multiple entrepreneurs the opportunity to bring their ideas to life in Cotter, while creating a destination that residents and visitors can enjoy.”
Each suite offers about 320 square feet of finished, turnkey space with electricity, Wi-Fi and a mini-split heating and cooling unit. When two suites were still open in June, rents ran $550 a month, or $650 for a unit with water access.
The plaza uses a mix of 20-foot and 40-foot containers arranged in a quilt square pattern designed by Kammi Nazarenko. The single-level layout includes a small stage on the west side for live music, outdoor seating and shared restrooms. The plan presented in January called for nine units; the finished plaza has 10.
The project did not arrive without friction. When Nazarenko presented it in January, the site had already been graded, and City Councilwoman Carolyn Gill pressed him on why the project had not gone through planning and zoning first. Councilman Joe Bass, whose property neighbors the site, said he did not want to look out his kitchen window at “the backs and the roofs of all of that.”
Residents split too. One called the containers “a really bad fit” for a historic district, while a real estate agent speaking for a downtown property owner called them “pretty hideous.” Councilwomen Mertice Kray and Ang Pereira backed the design, and Mayor Mac Caradine said Nazarenko had met the city’s building and zoning requirements.
Kammi Nazarenko admitted at the time that the container idea made her jaw drop. She argued the couple’s research turned up no other small-scale shopping plaza built this way. “You’re actually part of history making for Cotter,” she told the council.
She struck the same note in the release. She said the couple wanted something “that would catch people’s attention and give entrepreneurs a chance to become part of Cotter’s future.”
The plaza sits in the Cotter River District, the entertainment district the city created in 2024 to draw visitors and new business downtown. Nazarenko has said that designation opens up options for live music and events in the plaza’s central space. He has pointed to the Black Box development in Maine as proof that container retail with short-term leases can help new business owners test an idea without taking on a traditional commercial lease.
Nazarenko, R-Cotter, represents House District 4 and is an Army veteran and Cotter High School graduate who returned to his hometown about six years ago. He is president of the Cotter-Gassville Chamber of Commerce and serves on the city’s planning and zoning commission. Potter Block Properties also operates short-term rentals in Cotter and is planning a taproom and pizzeria.
Nazarenko said in January he intended to be selective about tenants, requiring business plans and curating the mix to avoid, as he put it, “garbage from your garage.”
Residents of Cotter and surrounding communities are invited to the Sept. 26 event. More information is available at outsidetheboxcotter.com.
