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Outside The Box, the open-air retail development built from shipping containers in Cotter’s River District, is looking for businesses to fill its suites. The project, known as OTB, broke ground in January and is run by state Rep. Jason Nazarenko, R-Cotter, through his company Potter Block Properties.
Two of the development’s suites are available, according to OTB. Each measures 320 square feet and includes electricity, WiFi and a year-round mini-split heating and cooling unit. Rents run $550 a month, or $650 for a suite that includes water access.
Nazarenko has said the development aims to give local entrepreneurs an affordable place to test a storefront. OTB said it would consider a range of concepts and pointed to a boutique clothing shop or a store selling locally made goods as examples. Applications are available on the project’s website.
The nine-unit development drew some reservations when Nazarenko presented it earlier this year. City Councilman Joe Bass, whose property neighbors the site, said he did not want to look out his windows at “the backs and the roofs of all of that.”
Even Nazarenko’s wife, Kammi, who designed the layout, said the container concept gave her pause at first. “When Jason told me he wanted to put containers there, my jaw dropped because that is not what I ever envisioned for Cotter,” she said at the time, before defending the design as a fit for the town.
The development sits in the Cotter River District, the entertainment district the city created in 2024 to draw visitors and new business downtown. OTB is one of several projects Nazarenko has pursued in the area, including a planned taproom and pizzeria.
