Northside Economic Opportunity Network’s latest building will help hundreds of food entrepreneurs.
MINNEAPOLIS — North Minneapolis once again has a commercial kitchen for different businesses to use.
“It’ll serve about 80 – 90 businesses a day, so huge impact on the community,” Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON) President Warren McLean.
To McLean, Black History Month is a reflection of how far Black people have come and a reminder of things that are not done. NEON’s newest venture encapsulates this.
NEON Collective Kitchens is available 24/7 and has a total of 10 kitchens, ranging from ghost kitchens to test kitchens. It has two catering prep rooms, a dedicated consumer packaged goods space, five retail spaces, and a large conference room that fits 100 people.
“There’s a scramble for kitchen space all over the city,” he said. “They’re only five kitchens of this size in the country.”
He said the 25,000-square-foot facility costs $22 million and is designed to help businesses build and scale.
“We provide free business consulting services to inspiring entrepreneurs and existing entrepreneurs,” he said. “Our mission is to build wealth for low to moderate-income entrepreneurs in north Minneapolis and surrounding communities. Our vision is to transform north Minneapolis into a prosperous, visible, sustainable, and highly diverse multi-culture community.”
McLean said 40% of their clients are food entrepreneurs. He said food entrepreneurship is just one pathway out of poverty.
“It allows them to access equipment they normally wouldn’t have access to right here in North Minneapolis because there’s no other commercial kitchen of this scale,” McLean said.
He said they’ll provide resources to help entrepreneurs with what’s required to become successful. McLean said most people are first-generation entrepreneurs and need someone to show them what to do and how to do it.
“Without it you have people who are locked into a situation that causes deterioration not just in their own life but in neighborhoods around it, and I think given the right resources and opportunities and take advantage of the talent that they have it always them to build proper businesses and build wealth for their families, it changes the trajectory of their lives,” he said.
Felipe Galvan, NEON’s Collective Kitchens Director of Operations, said what’s different about this commercial kitchen is that it will also serve as an incubator space.
“We’re going to have an incubation process and that means our clients will have a reduced rate and we’re going to have an advisor working them as their business starts, and as their business grows,” he said.
Galvan said each kitchen has state-of-the-art equipment, appliances and storage space. He said the kitchens can accommodate up to five businesses at a time.
“We are calculating to be serving up to 200 businesses a year, so that’s a lot of jobs, a lot of businesses to be created,” Galvan said. “It’s exciting just knowing how we are filling a void within North Minneapolis. It’s phenomenal.
McLean said Collective Kitchens will help remove barriers to entry for Black entrepreneurs while allowing them to elevate themselves.
“It doesn’t have the same sort of high capital investment that’s required for a lot of businesses, so it has low barrier entry except for the kitchen part, that part is the obstruction that we are here to move,” he said.
McLean said there’s no debt on this project, showing investments can be made in North Minneapolis.
“It produces to me a can-do attitude that things can be done and this is a place people are willing to invest if they have the right concepts,” he said. “It’s wonderful to see there’s a path that doesn’t have to be negative, there’s an upward path and we want to be a part of that.”
McLean said NEON is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and will have the grand opening for Collective Kitchens in May.
