Sussex County opens a kitchen incubator with the hope of promoting economic development in the county.
The 1,800 square foot commercial grade kitchen officially opened Tuesday after a soft launch in April at the Delaware Tech-Owens Campus in Georgetown.
The kitchen incubator is a collaborative effort between the county, Del Tech, and the state to create this working space for small businesses without a commercial-grade kitchen.
"It allows specialty foodpreneurs like processors, farmers, caterers, food trucks, food carts - if you will - to grow their business," said Bill Pfaff, Sussex County’s economic development director.
It targets small businesses that do not have a commercial-grade kitchen, or can’t afford to build one for their business.
It includes six ovens, a number of stove tops, a fully equipped commercial dishwasher, commercial mixers big and small, a walk-in refrigerator, and a freezer. Three businesses can work at one time in the incubator.
"The whole purpose of this kitchen incubator was to help remove restricted barriers of high cost capital investment associated with leasing or purchasing a commercial kitchen and kitchen equipment,” said Pfaff. “To build out a kitchen today you can have hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we've taken care of that."
More than two dozen vendors are working or will soon start working at the incubator.
To work there, businesses must become incubator members, and pay a minimal fee and per-hour charge for kitchen use.
