With Trox Gallery and Gifts now moved into a new home in downtown Emporia, Emporia Main Street will start looking for a new business to fill its incubator space at 729 Commercial soon.
In fact, Emporia Main Street Director Casey Woods says information about the application process should be released before the week is out. Woods says the success of Trox was exactly what Main Street had envisioned well before the incubator space was created.
Trox opened shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic came to Lyon County, and Main Street adjusted some of its procedures to help the business gain a footing.
Applications will be available soon. Woods says prospective businesses need to provide information about their business. Main Street’s Business and Finance committees will go through the information before the Main Street Board of Directors takes final action. The 18-month lease includes free rent for six months, which rent increasing to $400 per month for six months and $800 per month for the final six months of the lease. Once the lease ends, or before the lease ends if business owners feel ready to move early, businesses are expected to find their own space and Woods says Main Street will offer help with that process.
Woods says service, technology or retail businesses are the focus at this time. Several restaurant concepts have been filed before, but the incubator space does not have the needed hood system or three-compartment sink to make that happen. Woods says incubated restaurants could happen down the road, and Main Street is interested in working with potential equipment donors — although restaurants would likely need to use another incubator space that is not currently available.
For more information, call Main Street at 620-340-6430 or go online to www.emporiamainstreet.com.
