Hayden marketplace gives local makers a polished place to grow

A retail bridge for makers

Marketplace@Miles has become something bigger than a store at 10374 N. Government Way in Hayden. With about 50 vendors under one roof, the project is trying to give local makers a polished place to sell work that might otherwise stay limited to garage sales, craft fairs or a home studio.

The concept matters because it converts retail real estate into an economic ladder. Tony Villelli said the goal was to help mom-and-pop businesses take the next step, and that is exactly the kind of step many small makers in Kootenai County struggle to afford on their own. Instead of taking on a full storefront lease, a vendor can test demand inside a shared marketplace with lower risk and more built-in foot traffic.

The ownership group includes Tony and Susan Villelli, Devin and Stacy Nagel, and other local partners. The project was also framed as a practical choice for the land itself: a site that could have become storage units was instead turned into a rental and retail space for small businesses that had outgrown casual selling.

What shoppers find inside

The mix is what gives Marketplace@Miles its local-commerce appeal. The business says it features local, high-quality, unique, diverse, handcrafted and locally grown merchandise, with items that include home decor, pottery, jewelry, fused and stained glass, handbags, wallets, candles, laser-cut wood items, soaps and mosaic art.

That mix is a clear contrast to the uniform inventory in chain stores. A shopper in Hayden can walk in looking for something with a local maker’s signature, whether that means a hand-poured candle, a one-off piece of fused glass or a laser-cut wood item that was made in Idaho rather than mass-produced for a national shelf.

Devin Villelli describes the store as a “higher-end venue for higher-end homemade products,” and that framing helps explain why the marketplace feels different from a typical craft fair. The idea is not just to sell handmade goods, but to present them in a more curated setting where shoppers would be proud to buy something made in Idaho.

A project that took shape over time

The marketplace did not arrive overnight. Earlier reporting described it as a new product vendor mall under construction at the southeast corner of Government Way and Miles Avenue, and the opening timeline shifted several times before the business settled into a summer 2025 launch window.

By late September 2025, Marketplace@Miles was advertising grand-opening celebration events for Sept. 25-27, with food vendors and prize giveaways adding a community-event feel to the retail debut. A September 2025 item also noted that spaces were still available for retail vendors and that onsite storage was being offered, which suggests the project was still expanding even after it opened.

The business now presents itself as established rather than aspirational. Its website says Outlaw Coffee is already open on the site, and the Hayden Chamber of Commerce lists Marketplace @ Miles as a retail business at the same address with a local phone number. Those details matter because they show the project has moved from concept to active commercial presence in Hayden.

Why this matters for Kootenai County makers

For small sellers, the marketplace model lowers one of the biggest barriers to entry: the cost of getting into retail at all. A maker who has been selling at seasonal craft fairs or from a garage can try a more consistent walk-in sales channel without immediately paying for a standalone storefront, full build-out and all the overhead that comes with it.

That difference can be the line between a side hustle and a real business. If a vendor can turn weekend hobby sales into steady monthly transactions inside a place that already draws shoppers looking for Idaho-made goods, the business starts to look less like occasional income and more like a repeatable retail operation. The fact that one tenant is already considering its own standalone location suggests the model is not just filling space, but helping sellers grow past it.

Stacy Villelli said her time at JoAnn Fabrics gave her a network of local crafters and artisans who could fill the storefront, and that network effect is part of the marketplace’s value. A business like this does more than lease booths. It clusters makers, helps them get discovered by new customers, and gives Hayden shoppers a place to find products that are distinctly local rather than interchangeable with what they can buy anywhere else.

A more polished lane for local shopping

Marketplace@Miles is aiming for a more curated retail lane in a part of the county where many creative businesses start small and stay small because the leap to storefront retail is so expensive. The project’s 15-owner structure, its mix of about 50 vendors and its coffee-and-retail format all point to the same goal: keep more of the handmade economy local, visible and ready for everyday shopping.

For Hayden, the result is a marketplace that functions like an incubator with shelves. It gives artisans a cleaner, more professional setting, gives shoppers a reason to browse beyond chain-store sameness, and gives Kootenai County a new place where a home-based business can begin to look like a lasting retail name.