. >> reporter: marselena castro has one of the pop-ups that just moved into two vacant storefronts on el paseo san antonio. she shares space with two other businesses. across the paseo all five businesses are women-owned. >> three weeks ago this was a completely empty space and now making it our own and space it up, we're so blessed. >> reporter: the program is called moment paseo, collaboration between the city of san jose and downtown association to help businesses get started and hopefully generate a buzz in foot traffic. the association pays the rent and the businesses pay back a portion based on their sales. >> it's kind of almost like a trial pad, you know, for small, very small microbusinesses to experience what it takes to run a business and whether they could potentially go bigger and eventually have a big space on their own. >> reporter: it's not without challenges. the businesses must stay open a minimum number of hours and if another business paying full rent wants their space, the pop-ups might have to move out. >> the fact we're here when three weeks ago it was empty, no