$1.6M grant will create incubator for low-income, minority entrepreneurs
October 19, 2017 | Bobby Burch
A large federal grant will help reanimate an older industrial building in Kansas City to serve as a small business incubator.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration recently awarded a $1.6 million grant to the Hispanic Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City organization said that the grant should create about 90 new jobs.
The grant funds will aid in the construction and renovations of the 13,000-square-foot space, which is expected to feature a commercial kitchen, co-working space, conference rooms and other business services. The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) helped lead regional planning efforts to secure the grant, bringing together public and private partners to develop a strategic economic development approach.
Pedro Zamora, the Hispanic Economic Development Corporation’s executive director, told KCUR that minority groups are at times forgotten in the area entrepreneurial community. The new space, however, might help with more equitable entrepreneurial growth.
“It’s a big piece that’s missing,” Zamora told KCUR. “We know Kansas City has been identified as the fastest growing entrepreneurial epicenter for the nation, but are we growing equitably?
“We put together a strategy that can allow us to participate in that same entrepreneurial, competitive edge, but bringing in accessibility for the underserved communities.”
Established in 1993, the HEDC aims to develop and implement economic development initiatives that would positively contribute to the quality of life for Latinos in the Greater Kansas City Area. Learn more about the organization here.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Climate change innovation, leadership must be built at the local level, Buttigieg tells SXSW
Editor’s note: The following story is part of Startland News’ coverage of the SXSW conference in Austin. Click here to read more stories from the 2022 trip. AUSTIN — The keys to solving climate change could already be in the ignition, Pete Buttigieg said, empowering a crowd of innovation leaders to sit in the passenger…
Sit Foundry takes a stand for ‘lost art’ of upholstery amid fast furniture’s climate threat
Alex Krause Matlack is bringing what she teaches in the classroom to Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as she pursues Sit Foundry — an all-inclusive reupholstery design studio. “In the first week of my Intro to Entrepreneurship class, I tell my students to go out into the world and take notice of the problems they face.…
De-risking a dangerous job: How a window washing startup is raising the bar (and hose) with drones
It’s a nightmare to clean the windows of multi-story buildings, said Andrew Brain. “It’s incredibly unsafe for folks to be hanging on the side of buildings — and it’s incredibly expensive for them to be there. Insurance liability has gone up 300 to 400 percent. … I was thinking that there’s got to be a…
Callie England’s latest venture has no name or website; When odds are you’ll die next week, you learn to prioritize, she says
Sometimes hypothetical questions become all too real, said Callie England, a serial entrepreneur who frequently posed a speculative query to herself and clients: “If you were going to die next week, what decisions would you make?” It was a question she was forced to answer honestly in July 2021, when the veteran Kansas City startup…