FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Patricia F. Danflous
504 456-2761
504 250-1347
pfitzdan@aol.com
Edible Enterprises, a commercial kitchen and food production incubator in
Norco for home-based food businesses, is now under construction. Catco
General Contractors, a St. Charles Parish based company, was awarded the
contract.
The facility, located in the former Norco Co-op building on Third Street, is
scheduled to open for business in the spring of 2009.
Spearheaded by the River Parishes Community Development Corporation (RPCDC),
the project received approval from the State of Louisiana in the 2007
legislative session for a $350,000 grant to create a food technology
business incubator in Norco. The Louisiana Department of Economic
Development awarded an additional $50,000 grant for the incubator.
The RPCDC was developed with seed money from the Norco Community Economic
Development Foundation (NCEDF), created by a $5 million gift from Shell and
Motiva in 2003.
According to RPCDC Chair Lily Acosta Galland, the incubator will empower new
and just-beginning businesses to rent a commercial kitchen, network with
colleagues and receive business advice including marketing, packaging and
distribution. “Incubators have been proven as powerful engines for local job
creation and business development,” she explains. “Such facilities offer
space for a beginning business to operate and share equipment and services,
which are usually too expensive for most start-up companies. Consulting
services, counseling and management assistance will also be available to
tenants.
“The effort reflects a collaboration among many entities including, but not
limited to, St. Charles Parish Government, Louisiana State University
Business Development/Agricultural Centers, U.S. Department of Agriculture,
St. Charles Parish Schools, Goodwill Industries, and Greater New Orleans
Inc.,” she comments.
Edible Enterprises will feature up to three fully equipped kitchens, a
packaging and distribution area and businesses offices in compliance with
all federal, state and local regulations for commercial kitchens.
The Norco food technology is designed to foster entrepreneurial and minority
business development in the region; provide a place for displaced and
impacted food production businesses to reestablish their businesses,
products and markets; promote the food industry as a major segment of the
cultural economy, and support efforts to upgrade workforce skills for the
industry through partnerships with Goodwill Industries and the St. Charles
Parish School System, LSU’s Ag Center and Food Sciences and the Norco
Community Economic Development Foundation (NCEDF).
The project is estimated to create or supplement 50 jobs during construction
and renovation and establish more than 50 permanent jobs. Students from the
St. Charles Parish Satellite School’s culinary and media programs will also
have the opportunity for intern positions with the incubator project. As
companies graduate from the incubator facility, it is anticipated they will
establish their own facilities and employ workers trained by Goodwill and
the LSU Ag Center in food production technology.
Destrehan High School students recently painted the building exterior.
River Parishes Community Development Corporation board members include:
Chair Lily Acosta Galland, Shell; Ricky Bosco, Bosco Brothers; Corey
Faucheux, St. Charles Parish Economic Development; Bill Finn, Carver Darden
Koretzky Tessier Finn Blossman & Areaux, L.L.C.; Felecia Gomez, St. Charles
Parish Schools; Ron Guillory, Valero; Julia Remondet, St. John Economic
Development, and Claudette Robichaux.
For additional information contact Christ Weaver, 225-928-0882 or Lily
Acosta Galland, 504 – 465-6667.