Portside

What's it like to run a PDX popup? Ask Missionary Chocolates

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

When the Port of Portland announced the launch of our new pop-up program in the main terminal in 2023, Missionary Chocolates and Orox Leather were the first local businesses to secure a spot.

Missionary founder Melissa Berry, who is also a naturopathic physician, started making gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free chocolates in 2008. She has sold her chocolates at farmers markets and her NE Glisan storefront since 2011. Melissa partnered with Josie Hartman, another local entrepreneur, to expand their business at PDX.

Melissa and Josie smiling at each other in front of their store — *Melissa Berry, Missionary founder and partner for the PDX Pop-up, Josie Hartman*

Missionary Chocolates’ pop-up store, which opened in August 2024, will operate until early 2026. We met up with Melissa and Josie after their first six months at PDX to get their insights on what future pop-up participants should know about this opportunity. (Our conversation has been condensed and streamlined.)

PDX: Why did you make the decision to go for this pop-up opportunity?

Melissa Berry, Missionary Chocolates: I absolutely love the airport. To showcase our products to locals as well as all the passengers traveling in and out of Portland—it was a huge opportunity. However, we weren't financially in a position to build out our own space. So we jumped when the Port Concessions team offered us a ready-built shop that we basically had to move merchandise into.

What kind of investments did you have to make?

Melissa: Thankfully, the airport took care of all the shelving, lighting, equipment and infrastructure. In terms of major overhead costs, our investment was pretty limited. However, our five large, backlit signs cost upwards of $15,000 combined. We also set up an inventory system that was separate from our current space. Then we had to stock the PDX shop. We already have an existing shop in Portland, but filling a second shop with enough product to support the high volumes at the airport was a big stretch for a business of our size.

Missionary's pre-security storefront with big backlit signs — *One of two pop-up locations at PDX.*

Was hiring a challenge for the airport store?

Josie Hartman: Hiring the staff so we could be open seven days a week and meet PDX’s operating hours has been a challenge. So has navigating our staffing needs when it comes to managing deliveries, stocking the store, and cleaning. We tried out a few different staffing approaches in the beginning until we felt comfortable with the coverage we were able to provide. Six months in, we're getting it down!

Are certain products selling much better in an airport environment than in your streetside shop?

Josie: Yes. We first stocked the airport just like we do [at our flagship store]. That turned out to be opposite of what people at the airport buy. We found that a smaller box with an assortment of items has been a big seller at PDX. Instead of ordering boxes of a single product or our bags of cookies like our long-term customers do, somebody who doesn't know us will buy a cute little $15 box that has a couple of different things to taste. Chocolate bars are also important at the airport.

We’re thankful that we already switch out products seasonally. Return travelers may see that we’ve just put out something new with different colors on the box or with a Valentine’s Day theme. Our product line isn’t stagnant. That’s something that someone considering a pop-up space at PDX should consider.

You also stock your PDX shop with products from smaller vendors.

Melissa: Just sitting in the first meeting [with the PDX concessions team], I started thinking about all the people that we do farmers’ markets with and that we work with already. Almost all the products we sell in our PDX shop are made by woman-owned businesses. The Jasmine Pearl Tea Company are our neighbors down the street, and we use their tea in our chocolates. There's just so many collaborations that we've been able to do. We get to demo our chocolates at the airport, so I also offer that possibility to our other vendors. That's an opportunity for them if they want to have more exposure.

boxed mixed truffle sampler — *Mixed sampler packs, seasonal favorites, and partner products were winners for Missionary at the PDX Pop-up location.*

Valentine's day chocolates — *Mixed sampler packs, seasonal favorites, and partner products were winners for Missionary at the PDX Pop-up location.*

Are there other challenges of operating in the airport environment that people should know about?

There are some logistical considerations with Bradford Logistics, [which runs the airport's Central Receiving and Distribution Center]. Your staff has to deliver on a very tight time schedule and follow specific directions.

Without Josie as my business partner, this wouldn't have happened at all. I mean, I have six-year-old twin boys! I would say: Don't do this on your own. Make sure you have a strong team that gives you good support.

The airport has been amazing at supporting us. As long as you're constantly communicating with Port staff about what is happening, they are 100% in. It has been great.

What has been the impact of this opportunity for your business?

Melissa: So many people walk into our shop on Glisan and say, “I live here in Portland, and I never heard of you before seeing you at the airport.” That's the kind of comment you love. We're not only gaining some national or international recognition, which I've tried so hard to achieve, but with people who live down the road.

We saw a big uptick in our online orders during the holidays, too. We see comments that people write on the gifts they send to other people, and we saw a lot of comments like, “I found these chocolates at PDX, and I thought you'd like them.” The exposure we get is just unbelievable.

A new purpose for Terminal 2

2017-2019 aerial of terminal 2

With an abundance of breakbulk cargo terminals along the lower Columbia River between the ocean and Portland, the Port began to consider whether Terminal 2, located on the Willamette River, should continue serving as a marine terminal. Multiple studies confirmed it: T2 was no longer needed for breakbulk cargo.

Instead, the terminal would provide the greatest economic benefit – meaning it creates quality jobs for the people who live and work in our region, and opportunities for rural and urban businesses – if redeveloped as an industrial park or manufacturing hub, especially given the short supply of industrial land in the Portland area.

Finding possibility in mass timber

2020

Wildfires devastated rural Oregon, wiping out thousands of homes and increasing the region’s urgent need for more affordable housing – and sparked new collaboration between state and Port employees, who create an informal network to provide housing for fire victims.

Meanwhile, at PDX, we were bringing together partners from across the region to construct a new airport roof made of mass timber. Designed and built in the Pacific Northwest, with materials supplied by 40 Oregon and Washington landowners, mills and fabricators, the new 9-acre airport roof changed the region’s idea of what’s possible. Some of the wood was even harvested to reduce the impact of wildfires.

The PDX roof was just the beginning.

Create a coalition to do something big

2021

The next step was to formalize partnerships that had started taking root, leading to the formation of the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition. Our goal was – and is – to create a regional hub for innovation and mass timber industry growth through sustainable design, manufacturing and housing construction.

Coalition members include the Port of Portland, Oregon Department of Forestry, Business Oregon, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and TallWood Design Institute.

EDA funding kick-starts plans for a mass timber modular factory

2021

Still rendering of T2 Mass Timber site concept

Another EDA grant enabled the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition to launch a comprehensive strategy for expanding the mass timber housing market.

Funding targeted coalition projects across the state, from fire and acoustical testing of mass timber products for use in multifamily housing, to wildfire reduction and sustainable, traceable wood harvesting in regional forests, to developing the workforce training needed for new jobs in an emerging industry. It also provided funding for the Port to begin site preparation at Terminal 2.

Transforming a longtime marine terminal this way requires a lot of planning, investment and infrastructure work before construction of new buildings can begin. We started identifying partners to help build and operate a new mass timber and housing manufacturing factory, and working with Mackenzie, a local firm, on high-level master plans to guide ongoing development.

Demonstrating mass timber’s promise for housing

2023

interior example of fully furnished mass timber home

One of our early partners was Hacienda Community Development Corporation, a local nonprofit that built six prototype homes from mass timber at T2. The Mass Casitas pilot project, funded in part by $5 million from the 2023 Oregon Legislature, not only provided homes for families in Madras, Talent, Otis and Portland. It demonstrated that mass timber modular construction can provide a quicker, more efficient and cost-effective way to build housing.

Around the same time, the Port also began leasing space to modomi, a Portland-based company specializing in sustainable modular housing, and modomi began renovating an old warehouse into a modular housing manufacturing facility.

Campus plans take shape

2024

Rendering of UO acoustics lab: modern timber building

Two years of plans started to become reality with multiple anchor tenants announced for the campus.

The Port approved leases with the University of Oregon for a new mass timber acoustics laboratory, along with Zaugg Timber Solutions, which took over the warehouse renovated by modomi to create a temporary mass timber manufacturing facility. With plans for a permanent mass timber modular factory at T2 as well, Zaugg began efforts to build an interim modular manufacturing facility and recruit for its training program in Switzerland.

Throughout all this excitement, we continued working out costs and plans for making sure soil is stable for future construction at the campus, and securing additional federal funding for developing critical infrastructure.

What’s next

2025-2028 man in hardhat and harness working on timber building

When complete, the 39-acre Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus at T2 will include manufacturing, research and development, skills training, and incubator space for small and emerging businesses.

In 2025-26, we’ll work on soil stabilization and critical campus-wide infrastructure improvements. We’ll also work with University of Oregon as they undergo design and permitting for their new acoustics lab – expected to begin construction in 2026 and open in 2027 – and finalize plans with Zaugg for a new, permanent mass timber modular factory to open in early 2028. Zaugg will begin producing mass timber modular housing units, industrial and commercial buildings, and prefabricated mass timber building components even sooner, as early as 2026, in their interim facility.

And we’ll continue collaborating with partners to make sure workers are prepared for the new, high-quality jobs in the emerging mass timber industry.