Emporia Main Street’s newest incubator space business is hoping to have its doors open to the public by the month of May.
That was according to Juniper and Sage owner Kat Stueve in an interview on KVOE’s Morning Show Tuesday, close to a week after her business was announced as the new incubator space last Thursday. Stueve explained the business is a low-waste, refillable retail store, known as a refillery, that aims to put more “clean ingredients” into homes.
Stueve says that she had no prior retail experience before beginning the business, saying the concept came about based on needs observed within her own household.
Emporia Main Street Community Development Coordinator Jessica Buchholz says the entire Main Street team is very excited for the opening of Juniper and Sage, noting it is another unique business that offers a previously unseen service to residents.
Unique is a good term to use for the incubator space, just like Juniper and Sage, the third occupant of the space, its previous tenants were also unique business models that had no prior niche in the community, Trox Gallery and Gifts and Imaginarium. Both businesses have since moved on from the space to their own storefronts, Trox at 715 Commercial Street, sharing space with Gravel City Roasters, and Imaginarium, which is currently at 609 Commercial, utilizing a temporary space until it can complete its move to the former Graves Drug storefront at 707 Commercial.
Buchholz says the success of these businesses and the unique services they have provided to the community speak strongly to the Main Street concept as a whole.
The Incubator space offers businesses six months of free rent, six months of below-market rent and six months of “scaled-up” rent as businesses find their own space.
