Community Renaissance Market, an incubator for small businesses, closed its 6800 West Gate Blvd. location on Dec. 31.

Market CEO and Cultural Strategist Ruth Glendinning said the close was due to a lease issue with Albertsons, the master lease holder. Albertsons did not immediately respond for comment.

Glendinning plans to work on refining the vision of the small business incubator and hopes the market will re-emerge in another form in 2012.

"[The market] served as a great pilot project for CRM 2.0," she said.

For the immediate future, she plans to form a consulting group dedicated to repurposing former big-box store locations to meet community needs.

Community Renaissance Market branded itself as a SLOW-Tech Incubator—with SLOW standing for Sustainable, Local, Organic Work—and set out to be a community hub and place for entrepreneurs to grow budding businesses.

The former Marketplace West Gate housed all types of tenants from art galleries and food vendors to specialty shops and The Harmony School for the Arts. The site hosted special events, such as the Makers and Bakers Holiday Bazaar: A Steampunk Christmas.