Inspired by a local student’s graduate thesis on the lack of public streetscape improvement programs in the city of Toronto, plazaPOPS is a community-led, high-impact, and low-cost process of reprograming parking lots into free and accessible gathering spaces.

Acting as a guide, plazaPOPS helps property owners analyze their assets and identify if an activation may help increase the time visitors spend on site, and increase spending at the retail tenants within the center.

While currently local to Canada, the value within the program is the customization available for any city and based on the specific needs of a given center. For example, in centers that include cafes and other fast-casual eateries, plazaPOPS may lean more heavily toward providing additional outdoor dining areas. For more service-oriented centers there may be an opportunity to curate recreational activities, like an art installation, while patrons wait.