KENANSVILLE — James Sprunt president Dr. Lawrence Rouse came before the Duplin County Board of Commissioners seeking approval to make needed changes to the WestPark facility located in Warsaw.

Rouse expressed that the college was not coming to ask for any money as the project had already been funded, but needed the board approval to make the renovations. The commissioners approved the renovations, which will total $608,187 at no cost to the county.

According to Rouse, Bruce Bowman of DMS Architects, and Lynn Davis, JSCC Small Business Center director, JSCC will create a regional shared-use commercial incubator kitchen at the WestPark shell building, located in Warsaw and owned by Duplin County.

The community college will be entering into a long-term lease with Duplin County for 11,000 square feet of space. The plans state that 6,000 square feet of this space will be used to install commercial kitchen equipment, food prep areas, freezers, refrigeration, food ingredients storage and processing and distribution center for the farmers. They went on to specify that the existing office space will be used for workforce development, and as business incubators to help launch small business.

The primary purpose of the facility will be to provide hourly access to a commercial kitchen and food preparation area to entrepreneurs and food businesses for new food product development, research and food testing in eastern North Carolina. Rouse informed the commissioners that to his knowledge there were only two such facilities in the state, one that has been operational for some time in Asheville and another in development in Hillsborough.

“This could really prove to be an asset to our area and we have already been contacted by some local interest and some from the Wilmington area as well,” Rouse attested.

In the data shared by the presenters, the geographic area served would consist of, but not be limited to, the following counties: Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender, Duplin, Greene, Johnston, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Sampson and Wayne. The Asheville facility has had entrepreneurs willing to travel from Raleigh to utilize their facility and the same is hoped for this one, officials said.

Implementation will be assisted by Pender County, which is the Community Development Brock Grant (CDBG) recipient. JSCC is the sub-recipient and will take the lead on the implementation of the project. Davis is the project manager and Kay Sessoms, also from JSCC, is handling the logistics, bid process and purchasing through Holland Consulting. An advisory board has been formed to guide the process to make sure key entities are represented.

In a handout provided by Rouse, it states that funding for the project will come from a CDBG grant from Pender County as recipient and JSCC as sub-recipient; a Duke Endowment from Pender County; Economic Development Initiative Grant (HUD) that will be used for the WestPark building renovations; USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grants (RBEG) applied for (equipment only); and the Cape Fear Resource Conservation & Development, Inc. which has been requested for marketing purposes. A total of $208,500 will come from federal funds, $356,478 from state funds and $43,209 will be from private funding to equal the total cost of $608,187.

“We have funding for the renovations and we are continuing to seek out other sources and expand the project with other agencies and schools such as UNC-Wimington to more fully utilize the full potential of this commercial kitchen, said Rouse. “This will all be done at no cost to Duplin County.”

The commissioners unanimously supported the community college’s project and gave permission for the renovations to be done.

To contact Billy Todd, call 910-592-8137 ext. 117 or e-mail sigeneral@myclintonnc.com.