Hatching a plan to create business incubator
Staff writer
“Business incubators,” which help startups and entrepreneurs develop businesses, have grown popular nationwide in the past few years. One is coming soon to Marion.
Matt Meyerhoff, owner of the former County Seat Decor at 130 E. Main St., recently received an $85,853 Downtown Thrive and Revive grant through Kansas Department of Commerce.
The grant is meant to “establish a co-working hub, meeting space, and small business marketplace designed to support entrepreneurs and remote workers,” a department press release states.
Meyerhoff said he hoped to start renovating and setting up the space this fall.
Em’s Sprouts and Stems, already in the building, will remain.
“We want to work with her as we move forward with the Revive and Thrive grant because we had applied for that grant before she came in,” Meyerhoff said. “She was an entrepreneur that we could help right away while waiting to find out if we got the grant or not.”
The first floor of the building is listed at 30 by 115 feet — 3,450 square feet — appraisal records indicate.
It’s big enough to accommodate the existing business as well as additional space for other store-fronts as well as pop-up shops and events, Meyerhoff said.
“It’s a very large first floor,” he said.
Something similar happened in the basement of the city hall in 2017, when it was renovated into a venue “designed primarily to accommodate local area and business meetings,” the Record reported at the time.
City hall’s basement is now used just for city council meetings.
Meyerhoff said the new incubator will be different.
“We look to more actively manage this for entrepreneurs to be able to use,” he said. “We really think that being on Main St. will make a big difference. There’s been a resurgence in entrepreneurs on Main St.”
So far, nothing has advanced in terms of renovation. The building’s mechanics need updating before another shop can be added.
“We’re working with our architect on that, basically figuring out exactly what we need to do and how to do it,” Meyerhoff said.
The goal, Meyerhoff said, is to renovate the first floor into a space for business and make the second floor available to live in. He said costs for both of those projects would total more than $1 million.
Meyerhoff said he has heard from locals who may want to become involved, but because the grant is still fresh and planning and renovations are still needed, there haven’t been commitments, yet.
And while the business incubator may not grow Marion to the size of Wichita or Kansas City, Meyerhoff said he understood the importance of small, local startups.
“I don’t know that this is going to be something that’s going to make Marion into a giant town and blow up,” Meyerhoff said, “but if we don’t support the people who are here, Marion doesn’t have a chance of growing.”