Health department regulations may be important for public health, but they present a challenge for entrepreneur foodies who are just starting up. Marcy Bishop Kates found this out when her well-known cooking skills resulted in unexpected catering requests.
"I'd never done it in a professional basis," says Kates, who is a grant writer with
Michigan's AmeriCorp program. "I wanted to do everything legally, so I was looking around the area to find a kitchen to rent and couldn't find much."
She soon found out that she wasn't the only one in such a pickle. Kates is currently on the board for the Holt Farmers Market, and she utilized a farmers market list serve to survey others in the industry and learned that the demand for a local kitchen incubator was strong.
With the help of
CB Richard Ellis/Martin, Kates responded to the demand by leasing a 3,200-square foot commercial kitchen on Aurelius Road in Holt to open Incu-bake. Though the kitchen incubator, which will offer commercial kitchen space, meeting rooms and businesses assistance tools for food entrepreneurs, won't open for a couple weeks, Kates is already getting rental requests.
"I have people who were waiting for the applications," she says. "The response is even more than I expected." Kates is pleased about this for many reasons.
"I truly believe the local foods and farming combined with local business will play a big role in bringing Michigan back," she says. "I've seen the change that it's brought to our community."
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.