Shared kitchen facility opens
REPUBLIC – The Fayette County Community Action Agency is hoping to cook up some new jobs with a 5,000 square foot commercial kitchen at the Republic Business Incubator. “It’s our hope that not one business will use this center, but many businesses,” said Jim Stark, executive director of Fayette County Community Action. “We’re hoping individuals in the community will be interested in entering food service, creating jobs and improving the tax base.”
The shared kitchen facility, officially known as Food Service Rentals, includes commercial mixers, convection ovens, deep fryers, ranges, a walk-in cooler, dishwasher and food preparation and storage areas. Stark said that while much of the equipment was purchased new, some of it was donated by the Brownsville Area School District.
“This is remarkable, what has transpired here in the last five years,” said Redstone Township Supervisor Larry Williams.
The business incubator is housed in the former FGA grocery warehouse.
“Some of you have been at this site before, when there was no kitchen and the roof leaked,” Stark said.
The building now houses two businesses and the commercial kitchen that is available for rent. Rich Stull, the executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Community Development Corp., noted that part of the building that housed the coolers when it was a grocery warehouse now houses the walk-in cooler for the commercial kitchen.
“It’s come full circle,” Stull said.
Stull said the shared commercial kitchen will make it possible for people to get into the food service business without making the capital investment. Stull said it cost about $300,000 to renovate and equip the commercial kitchen, and more equipment including packaging equipment, may still be added to accommodate businesses that may want to market their products in stores.
The facility also offers lockable storage areas and will rent “small ware” such as dishes and stemware for caterers.
Republic resident Josephine Sepac, the former food service supervisor at SCI-Waynesburg, was among those who toured the facility Friday. She lives just a few blocks away from the business incubator.
“I never dreamed this place would look like this. It would be my pleasure to work in a place like this. If I was able, I’d come over and rent this place, or help someone else,” Sepac said.
Kathy Broadwater of Jerry’s Catering located in Republic, provided refreshments for the opening, but initially had reservations about a facility that could bring competition so close to her own business. Still, she sees where the new facility could benefit her company as well.
“I could use storage. There are things like china you don’t need all the time,” Broadwater said.
She also liked the idea of a commercial dishwasher, something her own business doesn’t have at present. Broadwater also expressed interest in the possibility of being able to bottle her own spaghetti sauce if a packaging kitchen is installed in the new facility.
William Severac of Chez Gerard also attended the opening and saw the possibility of expanding his existing restaurant and catering business by using the larger rental facilities for food preparation.
“I could expand my restaurant using this,” Severac said.
The Republic facility is patterned after a shared kitchen that has been operated by Food Ventures, a non-profit economic development organization in Athens, Ohio, for the past 11 years. Larry Fisher, the director of Food Ventures, said his facility has expanded to 13,000 square feet and serves about 100 clients a year, with 30 to 40 using the facility in any one month, with some utilizing the service only for storage, others as a way to get their product into stores with all of the proper labeling and health requirements.
“To my knowledge, this is the very first one in Pennsylvania,” Fisher said of the shared commercial kitchen.
Fisher said his facility is rented by the hour, with a sliding fee depending on the amount of equipment used. Stull said the Republic facility will most likely operate in the same fashion.
“They’ve got something apparently that works,” Stull said.