Small Shoppes Marketplace to Open at Former Painted Tree Site on Chenal Parkway
Small Shoppes Marketplace is set to open at 15400 Chenal Parkway in late May, replacing Painted Tree Boutiques, which closed all of its national locations on April 13 after filing for bankruptcy. Former Painted Tree general manager Jessica Meece secured the building lease and launched the new concept within weeks of the closure, with roughly 70 percent of vendors from the old location returning.
Painted Tree Boutiques, an Arkansas-based chain that operated multi-vendor retail marketplaces nationally, shut down all of its locations on April 13 without advance notice to vendors and announced it was filing for bankruptcy. The Chenal Parkway location in west Little Rock was one of dozens affected, leaving local small business owners scrambling to find storefronts with little warning. Jessica Meece, who had managed the Little Rock Painted Tree location, moved quickly: she secured a new lease on the 15400 Chenal Pkwy building, obtained a business license, and began organizing Small Shoppes Marketplace as a direct replacement.
Vendor Continuity
About 70 percent of vendors from the Painted Tree location are returning to Small Shoppes. The booth-rental model is being preserved, which lowers the barrier for small operators who built their inventory and customer base inside the marketplace format. Vendors like Love Story Boutique and Threefold Grace LLC — a skincare brand — are among those making the transition. The remaining stalls are expected to attract new vendors filling categories left open by those who chose not to return.
Timeline
A soft opening is scheduled for May 23, 2026, giving vendors time to set up and the operation to work out logistics before a formal grand opening planned for June. The location at 15400 Chenal Pkwy #200 is the same address where Painted Tree operated, meaning returning customers will not need to find a new destination.
What This Means
Painted Tree's abrupt bankruptcy left vendors — many of whom had operated inside the marketplace model for years — without a storefront and with stock still on-site. Small Shoppes provides the fastest available path back to market and preserves the Chenal Parkway retail cluster that those businesses depended on. Whether the new operation can sustain long-term occupancy without the national brand infrastructure remains the open question.
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