LANSING, Mich. — In the heart of downtown Lansing, the historic Knapp's Centre is kind of hard to miss.
It's a yellow and blue building that sticks out and used to be a department store for the area back in the day.
Today, it is home to apartments and businesses like Sweet Encounter Bakery.
"Sweet Encounter is a gourmet, gluten-free bakery. We specialize in all things. Eat treats and cooking classes for all ages," said CEO and owner Nikki Thompson Frazier.
She started business back in 2015 because of her daughters.
"Both my girls have food allergies, and I wanted to make sure that people like them could enjoy treats that were also good for their bodies," Thompson Frazier said. "We opened in a Knapp's building February of last year.”
And so far she says the experience has been great.
"We have loved the Knapp's building. We love the downtown area. They're very supportive, which we appreciate. We love the ambiance that we have here,” Thompson Frazier said.
At this time, Sweet Encounter Bakery is the only food business in the building, but they'll be getting some company in the future. A space inside the building will actually be turned into a $4 million food incubator.
"We are going to be in the bottom floor of the Knapp's building taking up 20,000 square feet," the director of downtown community development for Downtown Lansing Inc., Julie Reinhardt, said. "We’ll be able to support 16 food-based businesses, so we'll have six restaurants on the main floor as well as five food trucks and five wholesale makers that may be looking to get shelf space at a grocery store.”
Reinhardt says the food incubator program is called the Macotta Club. It was named after the iconic yellow and blue tile that is the face of the Knapp's Centre that is an enameled wrap cement tile.
"We help them with their startup costs. We help them with their marketing. We offer monthly educational training for small businesses as well as financial training, and then, we hope that at the end of an incubator program, they're ready to open up their own storefront or continue with their business," Reinhardt said.
The Macotta Club was born out of the success of their Middle Village Micro Market program, which is their retail incubator program.
“100% of our graduates in the middle village program are still in business today. 100% of them are businesses owned by women or people of color," Reinhardt said. "80% of those have opened up storefronts downtown, so we're hoping to have the same success rate with the Macotta Club.”
The project is expected to be up and ready by the beginning of 2024, and they are aiming to have it open from 7 a.m. until midnight.
"We hope to create a vibrant downtown where people can come and enjoy things at all hours of the day as well as we're passionate about supporting that entrepreneurial ecosystem. So we can support these businesses make their dreams come true in the capital city as well," Reinhardt said.
And as far as Thompson Frazier over at Sweet Encounter Bakery, she's excited for her new neighbors to move in.
"I'm excited about having new people come in because I welcome competition because it's going to bring more customers, which is great," Thompson Frazier said. "I'm excited to be able to share information, share resources and figure out ways that we can all work together to make this better.”
Now, if you are interested in being part of the Macotta Club, there is still space available. You can learn more information by going to macottaclub.com.
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