Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Colfax Chamber of Commerce president Val Gregory and son Cal wash windows at the Higginson building Tuesday. Furniture remains to be cleared out.
Val Gregory and son Cal will operate a frozen yogurt shop as one of the incubator's tenants.
The Colfax Downtown Association and Chamber of Commerce aim to open a business incubator in part of the former Higginson Furniture building the first week of August.
The project, named "Colfax Mercantile" and funded by a $30,000 grant from the county's .09 economic development program, will operate as a space for individual businesses to sell items. Owners will work one day per week, selling each other's products at a counter.
Each business will share the rent of the Main Street spot and may be part of the experiment for five years or $60,000 in profit in any one year.
"We're trying to figure out a way to fill empty buildings downtown," said Allie Cofer, Downtown Association project coordinator. "The goal is once these businesses get going, hopefully they are successful enough to rent a downtown building."
One of the first incubator tenants will sell frozen yogurt.
"A froyo shop," said Cofer, to be run by Val Gregory, executive director of the Colfax Chamber of Commerce and director of the Downtown Association and her son Cal, a business major at Walla Walla Community College. It will be called Home Sweet Home Treats.
The plan is for the incubator to be open seven days per week.
In addition, the Downtown Association will have an office in the building which was just bought by Austin Storm of Colfax. He is proprietor of The Storm Cellar in Moscow and Bully For You in Colfax.
To prepare the incubator's 1,700 square-foot rectangular space, workers will modify plumbing and add sinks for the yogurt shop, put a cloth awning out front, remove the dropped ceiling, take out carpet and put in a hard floor in the back section.
Will the $30,000 be enough to do it all?
"I think we got a good plan in place. I think the $30,000 is gonna get us there," said Gregory.
The Downtown Association decided on the Higginson building two weeks ago, after considering several spots in downtown Colfax.
"It was hard, it was super-hard, to choose," said Gregory.
She and Cal washed paintings off the building's front windows Tuesday.
"On that end of the street, we need some retail, and it's such a cool building," Cofer said.
The incubator will lease space from Storm.
Monday, Gregory ordered a "Coming Soon" sign from Abundant Faith Studios.
Rent for a spot in the incubator will range from $50 to $225, depending on location and size.
When might it all open?
"We're hoping for Aug. 1," said Cofer. "We're hoping to bust it out."
Gregory noted that it will also host quarterly business classes with insurance companies and banks.
"Kind of everything you need to know to open a business," she said.
She first learned about the incubator concept through the Washington State Main Street Program. Colfax is one of 33 member towns in the state.
"We're giving people an opportunity to see if they can actually own their own business," Gregory said. "We want a wide variety of people in there."
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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