The Project

Philadelphia has a fast-growing culinary and hospitality sector, famous for top-name chefs, and an impressive array of farmer’s markets, urban farms, and sustainable culinary businesses. However, Philadelphia also has a high poverty rate, a critical need for jobs and economic development, and a need for bringing fresh food to under-served communities.

The Enterprise Center plans to connect the powerful regional food economy to the emerging green jobs sector, creating employment and building healthy communities through a new initiative: The Center for Culinary Enterprises.

The Concept

The Center for Culinary Enterprises (CCE) is an innovative multi-use commercial kitchen center, designed to be an engine for creating food-related jobs and businesses, and to provide resources to emerging food entrepreneurs in Philadelphia. Specifically, the CCE is a 13,000+ square-foot project on South 48th Street between Spruce and Pine Streets in West Philadelphia that includes:

	Three shared-use, licensed commercial kitchens for rent to culinary entrepreneurs who need commercial kitchen space to legitimize their small or home-based businesses.
	The eKitchen Multimedia Learning Center — a dynamic demonstration kitchen inside a smart classroom and television studio, ideal for an array of supportive programming.
	Retail spaces.
	Interface with The Enterprise Center’s existing Walnut Hill Community Farm.

The Developer

The CCE is being developed by The Enterprise Center Community Development
Corporation (TEC-CDC), the community development affiliate of The Enterprise Center — a successful Philadelphia-based business development organization that was founded in 1989.

The Building

In developing the CCE, TEC-CDC will renovate an existing one-story, 12,500 square-foot building and add a small new-construction extension on the building’s western side, making the final project just over 13,000 square feet in size. TEC-CDC purchased the building in August 2008. This project will have substantial community development impacts, transforming a long-vacant building on a busy commercial corridor back into active use.

Funding

The CCE is a $5+ million project. Financing comes from a number of public sources, foundations, and private gifts. Support includes public funding from the City of Philadelphia and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration.

Programming

Clients at the CCE will have the opportunity to take part in a business incubator program called Philly Food Ventures, where The Enterprise Center’s business development professionals provide technical assistance tailored for culinary entrepreneurs. The CCE will additionally provide a venue for year-round programming, including cooking classes, food business seminars, and health and nutrition workshops, led by partner universities and nonprofits.

Economic Development

	Each year, at least 10 new food businesses are projected to be launched or accelerated.
	The project is projected to create 13 full-time jobs and 32 part-time jobs on-site.
	The business clients who utilize the shared-use kitchens are projected to create between 36 and 63 jobs annually.
	The estimated full-time-equivalent (FTE) job creation in Year One is projected at 54 to 81 and the estimated 3-year FTE job creation is projected at 126 to 207.
	The CCE will work to annually place 50 individuals in workforce positions in the culinary industry, and train 100 high school students in restaurant and hospitality management.
	The community health and nutrition programming is anticipated to serve at least 400 individuals each year.
	A new sit-down restaurant will be added to a neighborhood lacking in quality dining options and community meeting spaces.

Environmental Sustainability

The CCE is a LEED-registered project with the U.S. Green Building
Council and is designed to have a number of features for environmental sustainability. The project is additionally sustainable due to its reuse of an existing building and location in a dense, urban, transit-oriented area.

Assumptions

The CCE is based on several years of research, including market studies, data on
43 kitchen incubator projects across the U.S., a survey and focus groups of potential clients, and a third-party evaluation by a national expert on kitchen incubators. Operating assumptions were designed to be conservative, ensuring a fiscally sustainable project from Year One.