The empty storefront at 19 Mott Street, between Wo Hop and Hop Kee in the oldest stretch of Manhattan's Chinatown, is about to become a rotating home for first-time shopkeepers, and the neighborhood gets to help choose them. Welcome to Chinatown, the nonprofit running the project, has posted the finalists for its #MadeOnMott storefront residency and opened a public vote that closes Sunday, November 1, 2026.

The tally matters: the organization says each applicant's score is based partly on the number of votes received. Each person may vote once.

Meet the finalists

Three small businesses are on the ballot, each run by makers who have built a following online or at markets but have never had a shop of their own:

  • Sara Yukiko Shop: a selection of vintage and designer clothing, books and collectibles, alongside original designs by the artist Sara Yukiko.
  • Kintsugi Print Studio: Helen Zhang's block-printing studio, which hand-carves prints drawn from East Asian folk art and personal stories, and runs workshops where participants make prints of their own.
  • Inner Child: a New York design studio making home decor and accessories with a playful streak, built on traditional, generational craft techniques.

Profiles of each finalist, with links to their Instagram accounts, are posted on the #MadeOnMott page of the Welcome to Chinatown website, along with the voting button.

How the residency works

#MadeOnMott hands a fully built-out, move-in-ready storefront to an entrepreneur for three months at a time, with subsidized rent, so a business can test a physical shop before committing to a long lease. The space is about 550 square feet. Residents also get access to Welcome to Chinatown's advisors for mentorship and capital, introductions to landlords for a future lease and a network of other founders.

The program is open to product and retail businesses, including packaged food and drink brands, as long as the goods are shelf stable and made elsewhere, since the space has no commercial kitchen.

By November 9, 2026, the nonprofit plans to choose four residents, one for each slot in the first year:

  • January 5 to April 4, 2027
  • April 19 to July 19, 2027
  • August 2 to November 1, 2027
  • November 15, 2027 to February 15, 2028

Placement will depend on the season and the type of business. That means a resident shopping on Mott Street next winter could find a new storefront there, and a different one each season after that.

Why 19 Mott Street

Welcome to Chinatown describes the incubator as the neighborhood's first. The renovation of 19 Mott Street is funded through a New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant awarded to the group in 2026, and the plan is for the space to stay a permanent rotating pop-up rather than a one-time project.

The address sits in a block with deep roots. The organization's own timeline for the street notes that a Chinese immigrant opened a cigar shop on Mott Street in 1858, the start of what grew into Chinatown; that Wing on Wo opened at 26 Mott Street in 1890 and is the neighborhood's longest-running business; and that Wo Hop opened at 17 Mott Street in 1938. Hop Kee followed on Mott in 1968.

Who is behind it

Welcome to Chinatown began in March 2020 as a grassroots effort by Jennifer Tam and Vic Lee, both longtime Chinatown residents, who set out to help local businesses stay open during the early weeks of the pandemic. It has since grown into a nonprofit focused on small business support and community projects in the neighborhood, and runs a seasonal holiday market and its Hub coworking space.

How to vote

Visit the #MadeOnMott page at welcometochinatown.com, read the three profiles, and click the vote button before the end of Sunday, November 1. While you are in the neighborhood, 19 Mott Street is a short walk from the Canal Street station (6, J, Z, N, Q, R and W trains) and from Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall (4, 5 and 6), near Chatham Square at the south end of Mott Street.

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