Say Hello To Revolving Spaces, The Airbnb Of Pop-Up Retail

Forbes

21 hours ago

Lone Design Club's core team (from left): Lucas Sohl, CCO; Charlotte Fletcher, operations and ... More property director; and Rebecca Morter, CEO and founder.
A more harmonious—and efficient—relationship between retail landlords and their short-term/pop-up tenants is in sight thanks to the latest property technology platform developed by London-based Lone Design Club (LDC), a startup that's been innovating in the retail property market for six years.
The company, led by CEO and founder Rebecca Morter, has quickly morphed from providing pop-ups for busy placemakers, usually retail landlords, to the department-store style concept called Co.Lab for newcomer labels.
That was last year. Some sleepless nights later and LDC is about to debut 'Revolving Spaces', a digital platform that's an evolution of Co.Lab, which the company believes can revolutionize and revitalize commercial retail in malls, retail plazas and parks, and perhaps even local High Streets.
Morter told me in an exclusive interview that she wanted the new service to become the Airbnb of pop-ups. 'When it first came out I was really skeptical about renting a stranger's house, but now we book and don't even think about it. That's how we see ourselves with pop-up spaces.'
The essence of the offer to the landlord is that the scalable proptech SaaS platform can unlock the value of underutilized assets across retail, mixed-use, and commercial portfolios, and let the labels do much of the legwork. From the brand side—mostly startup, direct-to-consumer (DTC) players looking for their first physical retail spaces—the platform gives them a searchable database of locations, where they can input their needs (location, retail type, size, etc.,) and the app will pull up a list of suitable options including pricing, which can be negotiated. Just like Airbnb.
Digitizing the pop-up process
Morter said: 'A lot of focus has been on how to bring more DTC labels into physical retail. We have worked with over 4,000 brands, and the biggest challenge was always securing the space. One issue was that the manual process for arranging a £20 million lease was almost the same as for a two-week pop-up. No one seemed to get the model right.'
This was an opportunity, and Revolving Spaces was born by digitizing that leasing operation, among other things. The test site for the platform was at St David's, a shopping center in Cardiff, Wales, where it was piloted by Landsec, as previously reported, under the Co.Lab banner and in a white label joint venture with LDC.
Co.Labs are set to appear in more locations across the U.K.
LDC applied its tech so that Landsec could, for the first time, digitize its pop-up process. The result was an 'up to 30%' revenue uplift in the first year, a 50% faster vacancy turnaround, and 45% less admin.
An LDC spokesperson told me: 'St Davids Cardiff has now closed and the second instalment of Co.Lab is coming to Cabot Circus in Bristol in the west of England later this month. We're hoping for even better results with a higher footfall due to the location and size of the unit. This second instalment shows landlords are taking notice and actively adopting the model, underpinned by the Revolving Spaces platform.'
Cabot Circus is among the 20 biggest shopping malls in the U.K. (by area) and has over 120 High Street and designer brands, including Harvey Nichols, Stradivarius, Zara, &Other Stories, H&M, and Apple.
Bringing retail landlords onside
Lone Design Club has become the U.K.'s leading operator of short-term retail activations, working with 18 tier-one landlords. One of its secret sauces is having a valuable list of 10,000+ artistan-led and/or original ready-to-go brands—tenants that shopping mall owners love to have to give their spaces the creative credibility they often lack and no real skill-set to discover.
Revolving Spaces will utilize that list when potentially filling retail spaces for large commercial property developers like British Land or Landsec, the latter with a retail portfolio valuation of about $3.5 billion, as well as smaller locations, including those operated by local municipalities. 'The goal is to help landlords monetize their spaces so brands can book anything, and flexibly,' said Morter, who believes this latest platform iteration could take LDC to the global market on a big scale.
There are existing listing marketplaces for retail brands like Appear Here covering London and Paris, but Revolving Spaces is differentiating itself by being a 'landlord-first commercialization engine,' and also a lead generation tool. As well as being a directory, it is a fully branded, customizable platform that LDC says 'gives landlords full control over their portfolio, including real-time data and demand visibility.' In turn, brands get streamlined access to varied commercial spaces.
Rebecca Morter: 'We're not just simplifying the process, we're changing the model. This is about ... More future-proofing portfolios, filling space faster, and reshaping how retail and real estate work together.'
Nicholas Porter, ex-Landsec and newly appointed advisor to LDC, commented: 'Revolving Spaces enhances landlords' operational efficiency, enabling them to attract a diverse mix of brands, creating a 'revolving door' of relevant, rent-paying tenants that often exceed estimated rental value (ERV).'
Perhaps even more enticing is that the platform supplies landlords with valuable R&D insights that pinpoint the next high-growth brands. 'This unlocks further opportunities for store openings, pop-ups, brand activations, and media spend,' noted Porter. All that is potentially possible without the need to increase staffing.
Bridging the divide between landlords and brands is not easy. The latter often complain that deals offered to them are onerous, with not enough lead times to activate well, rentals that are too long, and high costs. Thus, connecting property owners directly with high-growth consumer brands in an automated, non-time-consuming way was a solid solution.
Making pop-ups pay off
For six years, Lone Design Club manually operated pop-ups across the UK, connecting more than 10,000 DTC brands with landlords through a laborious and fragmented process. Every activation involved emails, spreadsheets, inconsistent workflows, and resource-heavy comms, often leading to missed opportunities, idle space, and stretched internal teams.
The failures of short-term leasing were evident: the process was defined by reactivity, last-minute negotiations, and a lack of dedicated infrastructure or funding. Landlords often felt the operational effort wasn't worth the payoff, while brands struggled to secure the right spaces or useful lead times.
This was the cue for Lone Design Club to build Revolving Spaces, which automates lead generation, leasing, onboarding, payments, and brand engagement all via a central, landlord-branded portal. The platform integrates directly into existing landlord websites but can operate standalone if needed. The built-in analytics help drive smarter leasing decisions, according to LDC.
Morter said: 'We're not just simplifying the process, we're changing the model. This is about future-proofing portfolios, filling space faster, and reshaping how retail and real estate work together.' She added that, as well as outperforming dated systems, Revolving Spaces can take advantage of overlooked assets from rooftops and foyers to car parks, and turn them into 'on-demand revenue opportunities.'
The current mid-July launch of Revolving Spaces to the wider market comes on the back of an oversubscribed funding round, surpassing the company's initial $670,000 target. LDC has also made two heavyweight senior appointments: Barnaby Oswald, founder of Local Data Company (sold to Green Street at the end of 2023), who becomes board chairman, and Sean Salloux, a multiple-exit entrepreneur who joins as strategic tech advisor.
Revolving Spaces is now rolling out across major landlord portfolios, including Ingka Centres (IKEA's real estate arm), Hammerson, and Value Retail, with multiple launches scheduled throughout the coming summer.
A Local Hero for emerging brands
A few weeks ago, LDC also launched a concept called Local Hero in Brighton on the south coast of England. Located in the Churchill Square shopping mall, Local Hero is designed for emerging DTC brands that want to test out physical retail without any accompanying headaches.
The Local Hero concept has just arrived in the Churchill Square shopping mall, Brighton, England.
In partnership with Ingka Centres, Lone Design Club said that Local Hero 'aimed to break the cycle of inaccessible High Street spaces and give emerging brands visibility.' To do that, the space is fully equipped for short-term activations, product launches, and experiential events in a high-footfall location.
Importantly, the space includes a suite of essentials, from POS systems and tills to digital screens for messaging and product storytelling, making it easy for brands to move in and start selling immediately. The pop-ups have flexible fit-outs with adaptable shelving, displays, plinths, and rails to create something bespoke.
Local Hero is currently open for brand applications, and over the next 12 months, the space will rotate both emerging and established fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and sustainable labels. 'We look forward to seeing this space evolve as a hub for creativity, discovery, and engagement,' said Mark Buchanan-Smith, Churchill Square's meeting place manager.
LDC believes that the next wave of brand leaders will emerge from pop-up spaces like this, underpinned by digital platforms like Revolving Spaces that, in tandem, can deliver visibility without large overheads and can identify the most exciting young labels of tomorrow at speed.