The brick and mortar location of the Space Store on Market Street has closed its doors, but owner Craig Fuller has big plans for the future of the retail store and its former space.
Fuller, who also owns Firecrown Media and FreightWaves, opened the retail store in an empty space in the FreightWaves headquarters in November 2024 after Firecown purchased the Space Store, an e-commerce site dedicated to space merchandise, earlier that year.
“It did well very early on,” Fuller said by phone, “but some of the novelty, I think, of brick and mortar sort of wore off a bit.”
FreightWaves, a company that provides data for the trucking and logistics industry, has a streaming TV network that now films in a studio inside the company’s headquarters. Fuller intends to redesign the former Space Store storefront as a street-level studio to film an immersive, freight-themed morning show he plans to launch in April.
“Our goal is to create a morning show experience like the ‘Today Show’ or ‘Good Morning America,’ but for freight,” Fuller said. “Obviously, Chattanooga is a huge leader in transportation logistics. FreightWaves is the largest media network dedicated to it, and this gives us a chance to really feature the city and create a different kind of experience than what it looks like in a closed studio.”
The two-hour show will film every morning and feature guests from around the country who are connected to the logistics industry, he said.
Over the past year, the City Center district of downtown where the former Space Store storefront is located has lost several retail businesses, including Taco Mac and Sticky Fingers.
“Every city experiences business openings and closings,” Emily Mack, president of downtown economic development nonprofit River City Co., said in an email. “The great news for Chattanooga is that our downtown continues to be a place of net positive business openings.
(READ MORE: Downtown Chattanooga group hires consultant to recruit retailers)
Recent retail business openings in the City Center include Sweet E’s Baby & Children’s Boutique, Monkee’s of Chattanooga clothing store, Kitchen Collection, Atmosphere coffee shop and bar and Kendra Scott jewelry.
Set to open soon in the area is the Japanese tapas restaurant Torikaya, Pedal and Pour bar, and The Vault and the Iris rooftop bar at the Waymark Hotel.
For now, customers can continue to shop the Space Store’s wide selection of space merchandise online.
But Fuller said he eventually will open another brick-and-mortar retail space for the Space Store inside the Motion Museum, a transportation-themed museum he plans to open at the former Cabela’s store in Fort Oglethorpe.
Contact business reporter Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.
