Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 08/09/2018

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food truck culture. It may be difficult for food trucks to operate in Ramsey, but they may be able to utilize the kitchen incubator as an expansion opportunity. National restaurant incubators Current Incubators: To carry out a nationwide survey and analysis, around 650 shared commercial kitchens and food incubators were identified across the country and information like mailing address, email address, respective websites and their kitchen descriptions were assembled. The kitchen descriptions include kitchen capacity, available amenities, rental rates, and hours. Responses to these surveys have been the most positive and very useful. We found that for incubators it is difficult to provide the high capital investment that is required for the initial development. It is also very challenging to make a profit and many of the incubators were losing money in the initial years of the business. Regulatory policies were another common reason that proved challenging for some of the respondents. Challenges identified by restaurant incubators currently in existence ranged from the difficulty of operating while generating enough revenue to meet ongoing expenses to engaging and becoming engrained within the community the incubator serves. Square One Kitchens, which operates in Fargo, North Dakota, listed the following points as key obstacles in operation of a food incubator: • Helping the community understand what a shared kitchen is and how it works (this concept is much different than a standard food business so it seemed to confuse people) • Finding a space that would fit the needs of the business • Investment — it cost quite a bit to get [Square One Kitchens] up and running with the equipment, fit up, etc... • Only had one built-in client prior to starting. The beginning phase was very stressful as [we] had to wait for clients to be ready to start their business and utilize Square One. The Cauldron Kitchen, operating from Ottawa, Canada, is a shared commercial kitchen service for catering, food businesses, bakeries, personal chefs, and culinary classes. Having been in business for 2+ years as of the time of the interview, the Cauldron had this to say regarding obstacles: • The obstacles to start the business were finding a suitable commercial lease location with appropriate services (electrical, sewage gas) • A shared commercial kitchen requires a little more than what a restaurant needs because it has multiple pieces of equipment • Venture funding is weak in the food industry for creative business ideas 13