The Shops at Sharp End, a minority retail business incubator, is aiming for a soft opening in October, said Darin Preis, Central Missouri Community Action executive director. To do this, it will need to hire staff to work with the planned 40 clients who will house their businesses in a retail space in Suite 109 at 500 E. Walnut Street.
An American Rescue Plan Act allocation of nearly $398,000 from the Boone County Commission officially awarded Monday will help The Shops provide staff income the next three years as they provide business workshops and train clients.
“Work is still happening on the space,” Preis said, adding the soft opening will provide an opportunity to “get our processes working and make sure we get all our clients and participants on board. That will be a big part of this. Orienting them and training them up so they understand their role.
“We’re not trying to create an Itchy’s where everybody has their own station, we’re really trying to create a retail market where it’s organized by product line.”
The Shops at Sharp End is a partnership of CMCA, Regional Economic Development Inc., Missouri Women’s Business Center and the Downtown Community Improvement District. Each entity is using their skillsets in providing a rounded program to the first round of clients and thereafter. The model for the business incubator is based off one in Washington, D.C., said Jayme Prenger, director of the Missouri Women’s Business Center.
“We have quite a few retail clients already. We have talked about this with them for a while. We are excited to have them in here to be able to test the market and train them through the retail process and owning a business,” she said, adding the retail business incubator in Washington had a real flow. “It was a more of a feel like Poppy where different vendors come in and it is all set up and looks nice.”
Workshops for clients in different development stages could focus on branding and packaging, while others will be selling on the retail floor and determining their pricing structures, she added.
While the ARPA award is for staffing, REDI is covering costs for the space and the Downtown District is taking care of marketing and branding. Flooring still needs an update and the space soon will have display racks and cases.
A mezzanine level will have seating and will include displays on the history of the Sharp End, which was Columbia’s Black Business district before urban renewal programs in the late 1950s and into the 1960s uprooted it all.
“On the walls we’ll have photographs and maybe even a mural. Anything that depicts the individuals, the businesses and those that were involved in the Sharp End when it was in its heyday,” said Stacey Button, REDI president. “The programming and the business coaching we’ll put into place in the coming months will be a great way to help develop retail startups.”
The incubator is focused on bringing back brick-and-mortar retail spaces that may have had to transition to or currently are totally online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she added.
Northern District Commissioner Janet Thompson likes that the incubator space could be a first step in healing community trauma from the 1960s urban renewal programs.
“The Sharp End was such a vibrant part of this community. … This is a step forward in some way to make amends and say let’s raise (minority) businesses up and make sure this never happens again,” she said.
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The county received more than 100 ARPA funding applications, totaling nearly $84 million in funding requests. The county, out of its $35 million pot only had about $18 million left to allocate. The first application round resulted in about $12 million in awards, so a second round either later this year or early next year will allocate the remaining $6 million.
All of the applications received were strong, but they did need to be whittled down to what ultimately was 26 awards, said Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick.
“It’s hard to answer what denied applicants could do better, but there were just some applications that really stuck out and this was one of them,” he said. “Small businesses are the backbone of Boone County’s economy. … We are excited about the collaboration among everyone involved in this process. There is little doubt in our mind that this will be sustainable.”
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Southern District Commissioner Justin Aldred expressed his joy that The Shops could help lessen barriers to entry for a person starting a retail business in Columbia and Boone County.
“It is wonderful to have everyone coming together to generate more for the community as a whole,” he said.
Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.