The Block could give up to 100 small businesses a way to establish a presence in Bentonville's trendy — and expensive — downtown.

The “micro-retail” project, which could open early next year, plans to lease 35-square-foot booths for an estimated $500 per month and 16-square-foot booths for $250 per month.

A centralized checkout means the booths could be unstaffed by the vendors who rent them. Outsourced marketing and retail concierge services are also planned for an additional fee.

Co-founders Sam Parks and Ben Bāzis have identified a roughly 10,000-square-foot building for the project a few blocks from the downtown square. They plan to officially announce the location once lease paperwork is finalized in the coming weeks.

Both cofounders both have experience working in tech startups. In that industry, there’s a keen focus on “product market fit” — the point where a product is so aligned with customer needs that it takes off by itself. They may have found it sooner than ever before with The Block.

In the first few days after the website went live, about 40 applications for space at The Block were submitted. Applications require a $50 deposit, which will be returned if the project does not move forward, Parks said.

Applications have come in from artists, bike retailers, clothing and accessory vendors, nonprofits, athletes who sell merchandise, and more.

The header of the application page says “We expect prices to DECREASE as we finalize our plans.” Asked to explain, Parks said they’ve also heard from some larger companies who could help pay for the space and bring down costs for smaller businesses.

“I think it's very realistic to expect the $500 a month to come down as we drum up more interest,” Parks said. “It really is the goal to just keep prices as low as humanly possible.”

There are a few local investors in the project, and the co-founders are interested in speaking with others who might want to get involved.

“This is a purely grassroots run opportunity. So this is local investors, local businesses, local capital, sort of grassroots base. We don't have any corporate involvement,” Parks said.

The idea for The Block came up over beer with a few acquaintances.

“It's just prohibitively expensive for small businesses to have retail space in downtown Bentonville now,” Parks said. “But the life of this community is small businesses. So we just want to enable and lift up small businesses.”

As word has trickled out about the project, “everyone has come out of the woodwork saying, ‘I've been looking for retail space for months or years, in some cases, and it just has never made sense,’” Parks said.