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Independence, MO —
With a smile, Tom Lesnak says local economic development officials, including himself, perhaps did it all the wrong way when they transformed part of a decades-old Independence hospital into a kitchen incubator.
They had no idea whether it would work, and they didn’t really have a sturdy business plan, said Lesnak, the president of Independence Economic Development.
But the end result, he said, was a huge success.
Nearly five years after the Independence Regional Health Center at Truman Road and Forest Avenue closed its doors, the kitchen incubator portion of what is now the Independence Regional Ennovation Center has received more than 300 inquiries from those who want to jump-start their entrepreneurial aspirations.
And, for the first time in his two decades of work in economic development, Lesnak has received hugs, he told about 40 city officials from across the United States, including California, on Thursday afternoon. The tour was part of “Imagining Innovations of the Future,” the 2012 Transforming Local Government conference that took place Wednesday through Friday in Kansas City.
Lesnak explained the history of the former hospital and its renovations into the Ennovation Center as the officials sampled the products of two kitchen incubator clients, Hippie Chow and Frannie Franks Coffee Cakes. During the kitchen incubator tour, officials sampled the products of the Berry Nutty Farm, which makes jams that “taste like Grandma’s kitchen.”
Lesnak said the two biggest questions he gets asked about the project are “What is it I smell?” – and more importantly for city officials across the country to learn – “How do you fund something like this?”
“The one that probably gets the most attention and is probably the sexiest of the bunch is the kitchen and culinary incubator,” Lesnak said, adding that only a handful of such spaces exist across the United States. “We get more questions and more requests for tours of this space than any space probably in Independence, outside of Harry Truman’s home and the Truman Library.”
Lesnak explained the $12 million in tax increment financing made available to redevelop the former Independence Regional Health Center and Medical Center of Independence and how the Independence School District joined in as a community partner for the Ennovation Center.
While the kitchen incubator portion of the Ennovation Center received strong support from both sides of the metropolitan state line from the get-go (half of the kitchen’s clients come over from Kansas), the bio-tech incubator section experienced more of a struggle, Lesnak said.
With a smile, Tom Lesnak says local economic development officials, including himself, perhaps did it all the wrong way when they transformed part of a decades-old Independence hospital into a kitchen incubator.
They had no idea whether it would work, and they didn’t really have a sturdy business plan, said Lesnak, the president of Independence Economic Development.
But the end result, he said, was a huge success.
Nearly five years after the Independence Regional Health Center at Truman Road and Forest Avenue closed its doors, the kitchen incubator portion of what is now the Independence Regional Ennovation Center has received more than 300 inquiries from those who want to jump-start their entrepreneurial aspirations.
And, for the first time in his two decades of work in economic development, Lesnak has received hugs, he told about 40 city officials from across the United States, including California, on Thursday afternoon. The tour was part of “Imagining Innovations of the Future,” the 2012 Transforming Local Government conference that took place Wednesday through Friday in Kansas City.
Lesnak explained the history of the former hospital and its renovations into the Ennovation Center as the officials sampled the products of two kitchen incubator clients, Hippie Chow and Frannie Franks Coffee Cakes. During the kitchen incubator tour, officials sampled the products of the Berry Nutty Farm, which makes jams that “taste like Grandma’s kitchen.”
Lesnak said the two biggest questions he gets asked about the project are “What is it I smell?” – and more importantly for city officials across the country to learn – “How do you fund something like this?”
“The one that probably gets the most attention and is probably the sexiest of the bunch is the kitchen and culinary incubator,” Lesnak said, adding that only a handful of such spaces exist across the United States. “We get more questions and more requests for tours of this space than any space probably in Independence, outside of Harry Truman’s home and the Truman Library.”
Lesnak explained the $12 million in tax increment financing made available to redevelop the former Independence Regional Health Center and Medical Center of Independence and how the Independence School District joined in as a community partner for the Ennovation Center.
While the kitchen incubator portion of the Ennovation Center received strong support from both sides of the metropolitan state line from the get-go (half of the kitchen’s clients come over from Kansas), the bio-tech incubator section experienced more of a struggle, Lesnak said.
“When the economy tanked, there wasn’t a bio-tech incubator in Kansas City – there’s seven of them right now,” Lesnak said. “We were all building at the same time, so we saturated the market, which is a problem, and then the venture capital market just fell flat. Money dried up everywhere, and so the bio-tech projects have not been as plentiful as they were when we started this deal, but we’re starting to see it pick up again.”
Because of the TIF, the Ennovation Center doesn’t experience any overhead expenses. The bonds are paid off through TIF, “and we can be very competitive on price,” Lesnak said. “If we need to offer it at $25 a square foot or $18 a square foot, we’ve got the flexibility to do that.”
On the culinary side, the hospital’s former kitchen was gutted and was converted into four open kitchens and one enclosed kitchen space where gluten-free products are made. Everything is provided for the clients at rental fees, Lesnak said – after meeting the five requirements to be a kitchen client, all they need to bring are their raw ingredients and the recipe.
“A lot of groups from Kansas come over here to look at this to see if it could be replicated,” Lesnak said, adding that he’s learned along the way that a food incubator can work well in any location. “It wouldn’t surprise me if sometime in the next couple of years, you see an old school being converted – a least a portion of it – for a kitchen incubator.”
And yes, city officials from Kansas were on hand for the tour, including J.D. Lester, city manager for Chanute, a southeastern Kansas town with about 9,000 residents that started its own small business incubator about 18 months ago.
“This has given me some very good ideas to expand on some of the things that we do,” said Lester, adding that Chanute’s incubator has already “graduated” one jewelry-making client who now has her own retail storefront. “It’s kind of been confirmation of doing the right thing and the opportunity to see how others are doing it.”
