Boutique with locations across other college towns set to open in State College
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- Pitaya, a women’s boutique, will open a new store in State College this spring.
- Work on the boutique is underway at 324 E. College Ave., the former Auntie Anne’s shop.
- It will mark the company’s first shop in Pennsylvania, joining others in college towns.
A new women’s boutique is set to open in downtown State College this spring.
The new store, Pitaya, is expected to offer trendy, accessible clothing and accessories geared toward college-aged customers. Work is already underway at 324 E. College Ave., the former home of a combined storefront for Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon and Carvel.
Pitaya’s 15 shops across the country stock their shelves by modeling what owner Michael Mazor calls “frequent newness.” New products arrive weekly to keep customers engaged help them discover new styles.
“We’re able to keep refreshing the racks so that they’ll be drastically different from one month to the next,” Mazor told the Centre Daily Times.
Plans to bring Pitaya to State College came together quickly, Mazor said. He was not actively working to expand his company but fell in love with the College Avenue storefront thanks to its ample foot traffic and central location along downtown State College’s busiest street. That corner of town has seen significant openings in recent months, including The Press Cider and Craft Beverage Taphouse and the in-progress Brooklyn Bodega and Kung Fu Noodle.
The location — a former fast-casual snack shop — is perfect for Pitaya’s model, Mazor said.
“We prefer long, narrow spaces based on our floor design, and we organize by color,” he said. “We like to have everything along the perimeter so it’s easy to see what we offer. You can walk a loop and see everything.”
Pitaya hopes to open by late spring, Mazor said. The exact timing will depend on the progress of construction and permitting, which has hit a few snags in recent weeks, in part due to a recent cybersecurity attack.
Mazor said he may choose to push Pitaya’s opening back if the store faces additional delays, noting it would be unfortunate to get rolling right as Penn State students leave for the summer.
Pitaya’s State College store will mark the company’s first location in Pennsylvania. Many sites are in key college towns across the midwest, including Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
College towns like State College are perfect for the brand, Mazor said, because they offer a built-in customer base, plenty of foot traffic and opportunities to enhance downtown communities. Once he researched the area, State College felt like a perfect fit for the company’s next store.
“I’ve been to a lot of college towns, and I didn’t expect to be so blown away by how positive and vibrant the area is,” Mazor said. “I felt like I was walking back in time.”
Mazor founded Pitaya, named for the fruit, in 1990 after traveling in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize and finding a passion for selling clothes. Its first store opened in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1990.
Most Pitaya stores staff around 12 employees, including part-time positions for college students. Though the hours for State College’s shop aren’t set in stone, most locations open around 10 or 11 a.m. and close by 8 or 9 p.m. daily.
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