Upstairs at the Black Dog will offer multiple rooms available to startup businesses. Staff photo by Tony Walters
By mid-April, Logansport will have a business incubator, which is a place for entrepreneurs and people with fledgling businesses to start without having to worry about too much overhead.
Businessman Scott Johnson, who’s been building the space — Upstairs at the Black Dog — since last summer, will receive $12,500 from the city for a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system for the second floor and $10,000 from the Logansport Redevelopment Commission for the emergency exit staircase for the second-floor space.
The two bodies voted to invest in the project, the Redevelopment Commission on Feb. 26 and the City Council on Monday.
“It’s going to speed it up a lot,” said Johnson.
He’s been building the space above his Legacy Outfitters and Black Dog Coffee, 116 S. 6th St., since late summer, a little each day with help from others. But it would’ve been a while before he could afford the HVAC system on his own.
The city sees this as an investment.
“We really think it’s a community initiative,” said Bill Cuppy, Executive Director for the Cass Logansport Economic Development Organization (CLEDO). “This is not a new concept. Co-working space is definitely a benefit to your community.”
Businesses start in these kind of spaces and move out on their own, adding to the economy with more commerce, possible new jobs and fewer vacant buildings.
“Our goal is to occupy these vacant spots throughout Logansport,” Cuppy said.
At the City Council Finance Committee meeting on Feb. 21, members were wondering if they could put more money towards it. Many places have a similar incubator to help start businesses. There are 176 such incubators listed in Indiana, Cuppy said. They are shared, open office space at a low rent with extras included.
The incubator will provide a working space (and utilities), a printer, free Wi-Fi internet and a conference room. Cuppy said the Chamber of Commerce will allow the incubator residents to use its large conference room, too.
The tenants will also have expertise to draw on, said Johnson.
The Indiana Small Business Development Center, local banks and local entrepreneurs have volunteered their time and expertise. There are also the fellow entrepreneurs and their energy and ideas, creating synergy, Johnson said.
“It’s not just about space but about creating a resource,” Johnson said.
However, the tenants cannot stay there permanently. Johnson plans to have them stay six months, then review their progress and decide if they have a viable business they can build. If so, they can extend their stay another six months. Then the fledgling business needs to relocate.
“This is a nest, and after a while, you have to leave the nest,” he said.
He believes rent will run about $100 to $150 a month.
“It’s basically a give-away,” Johnson said. “We’re going to try and cover our costs and see what we can grow.”
The city’s investment does come with stipulations for Johnson.
He needs to have the incubator open for three years. If he sells the space or closes it, he’ll have to repay a percentage of the city’s money, based on how long he kept the incubator going. That is because of the public investment in it, Cuppy said.
He is also required to provide the Wi-Fi and printer and utilities, and no one can stay beyond a year, as he already planned.
Johnson wanted to create an incubator because one in St. Petersburg, Florida, had been so beneficial when his son-in-law began his financial business.
Johnson had also received a valuable hand from the people he rented his building from for a year before buying it. He told them he couldn’t afford the whole rent, but it would benefit them to have someone in there rather than an empty building. They agreed, and that made the difference for staying in business.
“I owe a lot to those guys,” he said.
Johnson was also part of the group — including City Council members — that looked at creating a business incubator last summer. They traveled to other cities to look at theirs, and Frankfort alone had put $500,000 into the inside and outside of its building.
“Other communities have spent several thousand dollars for the same thing,” Cuppy said.
The city had been looking at potential spaces for a few years, and redoing the second floor of the CLEDO/Chamber of Commerce Building would’ve cost $276,000. Upstairs at the Black Dog will cost much less and be situated in a vibrant area.
“It just seemed like a perfect spot for this type of initiative,” Cuppy said.
Johnson put $40,000 of his own money and many hours of his own time for construction to show his commitment to the project.
When he and his helpers began, the upstairs didn’t even have electricity or plumbing, and now it has walls, a ceiling and 16 doors.
“Just the cost of the doors was significant,” he said.
Johnson is thankful for the support the community and the city has provided, and it looks like there’ll be people to move in when it opens.
“People are going to want to see it before they decide ‘this is a place I can work,’” he said.
However, there may be a line to get one of the six working spaces.
“I’ve got a lot of people who’ve expressed interest,” he said. “I think we’ll be amazed what can grow out of this.”
Johnson’s building is also one of eight that will receive facade restoration funding from the Main Street Revitalization Program grant that the City of Logansport was awarded in January.
The $600,000 grant, along with contributions from the city, the Redevelopment Commission, Logan’s Landing and the building owners, represents an estimated $995,650 investment in downtown. The Black Dog and Legacy Outfitters’ project was estimated at a total cost of $68,432, of which Johnson is required to fund 20 percent.
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