A new nonprofit popcorn shop is getting ready to open in Highland Park next year.

Highland Popcorn is set to open late January or early February in the Highland Village Plaza shopping center, with both a retail storefront and a wholesale component to package products for stores like the nearby Lunds & Byerlys. They’ll have butter popcorn, cheese corn, caramel corn and seasonal flavors like peppermint crunch, plus cookies and sodas.

The store’s workforce will be predominantly people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said founder Shamus O’Meara.

(If you don’t know O’Meara, perhaps you know his son Conor, or at least his voice: The 25-year-old hosts a local radio show called “Conor’s Corner,” on which he talks about sports and life with autism and chats with guests ranging from Vikings player Justin Jefferson to St. Paul City Council member Chris Tolbert.)

Although popcorn can be a grab-and-go product, Highland Popcorn is meant to be a space to hang out, O’Meara said. So there’s plenty of seating — and different textures, too, from traditional chairs to benches to soft pillows on modular boxes.

The space is bright and colorful, and they’ll have a portable stage to host live events or podcast recordings, O’Meara said. Light fixtures, which have yet to be installed, are set to look like popcorn. There’s also a sensory room for those who need it.

And popcorn, he said, is well-suited to the unique strengths of his workforce.

The production process includes a number of discrete tasks — sorting kernels, pushing bins, popping popcorn, mixing flavors, packaging finished popcorn for wholesale — so an employee can find a niche they excel at. This way, O’Meara can facilitate a work environment where employees can focus their attention, receive clear guidance and develop patterns and routines that work for them, rather than feeling overwhelmed by conflicting instructions and constant transitions between activities.

For many people with disabilities, jobs that are accessible, reliable and oriented toward their unique skills are nearly impossible to find. Nationally, only about one in five disabled people were employed last year.

O’Meara feels a heightened responsibility to make sure that, when Highland Popcorn opens, he does right by his employees. The last thing he wants to do, he said, is open the store only to have to close it and yank the opportunity out from under his workers’ feet.

“They’re dealing with enough challenges in their lives,” he said. “I don’t want this to be another bad experience or feel like someone hasn’t given them an opportunity to be successful.”

By day, O’Meara, who lives in Highland Park, is an attorney and a former chair of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities.

However, as he admitted with a laugh, “35 years as a lawyer doesn’t prepare you for anything in the retail popcorn business.”

The storefront of Highland Popcorn sports the company’s vibrant, colorful imagery on Dec. 12, 2023. The logo and visual aesthetic were designed by local brand agency Fame, one of many partners that’s supporting the nonprofit popcorn shop scheduled to open next year. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

To support various aspects of the business, O’Meara has assembled a who’s-who of partners, including some of the top names in marketing, disability services, and, yes, the popcorn industry.

Lunds & Byerlys helped him secure the storefront. FoodOps, a local food consultancy founded by a former executive at local popcorn juggernaut Angie’s Boomchickapop, is helping develop Highland Popcorn’s products and recipes.

National concessions company Gold Medal Products is sending a representative to train the staff on all things popcorn, and MSS, a disability support organization in St. Paul, is helping with job coaching. Local brand agency Fame is doing the shop’s marketing, including designing its logo and vibrant imagery.

Focus Beyond Transition Services will also use Highland Popcorn as a placement site for its programming, which helps young adults with disabilities gain employment and life skills. This is particularly meaningful, O’Meara said, as Conor went through the Focus Beyond program a few years ago.

“This is only one popcorn business, but you’ve got to start somewhere,” he said.

As the retail storefront comes together, contractors are constantly going in and out. So the doors are often unlocked, even though Highland Popcorn won’t open for a couple more months.

Over the course of a 45-minute conversation earlier this month, three separate would-be customers flung open the shop’s door to ask if they were open.

“Not quite yet,” O’Meara told an older couple who stopped by. “But pick your table — I’ll put your name on it for you!”

They introduced themselves to one another.

“Oh, a good Irish name!” the woman said gleefully.

After they left: “That happens all the time,” O’Meara said, chuckling. “Walking in, knocking on the door. … But I’m glad we’re hearing this really positive vibe from the Highland community, and beyond, too. That’s been cool.”

Highland Popcorn: Opening early 2024 at 2138 Ford Pkwy; highlandpopcorn.com

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