Incubator Move Threatens Kitchen Center
When Ellen Yeates fires up a steam kettle of apples, she’s doing more than heating up the kitchen at the Spokane Business Incubator.
She’s fueling the economy.
But Yeates’ tiny company, Spokane River Recipes, could turn cold July 1 when the incubator moves from Geiger Field to downtown Spokane. The move could shutter the kitchen center, leaving its 12 to 25 regular and seasonal users with no hearth to prepare food.
“In this area, with all of our agricultural resources, to let the kitchen die would be criminal,” she said.
The Spokane Ag Bureau agrees. The 200-member promotional group has emerged as a potential operator for the kitchen center, an Eastern Washington University facility that helps small food processors and caterers get their business going.
“We’ve often talked about a way to add value to our crops. This could be it,” said Dennis Fiess, manager of the bureau.
As a division of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, the bureau has the money and motivation to keep the kitchen open. The bureau, best known for sponsoring the annual Ag Expo, has about 200 members and $245,000 in the bank.
EWU announced two years ago that it was withdrawing from the incubator to focus on academic programs. The Joint Center for Higher Education is expected today to approve a plan to merge the incubator into the Spokane Intercollegiate Research Technology Institute, or SIRTI.
During the summer, kitchen center occupancy hits 100 percent. Financial reports show that after paying overhead costs, the kitchen has $9,800 to $14,000 left over to pay for a part-time manager.
The bureau’s bid, Fiess said, may depend on the willingness of EWU to part with the kitchen equipment at a reasonable price. A new lease also must be negotiated with the building owner, Spokane International Airport Business Park.
Yeates, whose company produces a line of sugar-free fruit butters, says kitchen center users can’t afford to go elsewhere.
By law, they must use statecertified kitchens to produce food for the public. But commercial restaurants and food processing companies charge up to $25-perhour rent for use of their kitchens, three times the kitchen center’s $6-$9 per hour rate, Yeates said.
Catherine Goodwin, director of the incubator, said she’s hopeful the Ag Bureau can take over the kitchen. When it moves to SIRTI, the incubator will concentrate on technology-based companies, leaving a void for start-up low-tech businesses such as food processors.
In related action, Momentum ‘95, an economic development group, agreed Tuesday to spend $39,700 on the incubator through 1995. The county and city also have issued community development block grants, effective May 1, for a total of $45,000, Goodwin said.