Food businesses tight on resources and space on Nantucket will soon have a new place to grow their ideas on the island.
ReMain Ventures has purchased a former restaurant building at 5 Amelia Drive to create a business incubator and commissary kitchen. It’s a long-needed space on an island whose economy is largely driven by tourism and the food industry, said entrepreneur Karen Macumber.
“There are some things you can do in your own kitchen to start, but in most cases, if you want to turn (an idea) into a real business, you really need access to a commercial kitchen,” Macumber said. “Whereas in Boston you have Commonwealth Kitchen and other facilities…that can be turned into that quickly, here on Nantucket that’s not an option.”
Macumber and a team of experts will operate the food incubator and kitchen space to help local businesses scale beyond the island.
Finding space in a tight place
Cecil Barron Jensen, executive director of ReMain Ventures, said there's been a “deafening cry” from food producers desperate for space on the island.
Given Nantucket’s role as a tourist destination, setting up a restaurant, food truck or shop selling homemade goods is a “natural extension” for people who want to start their own businesses, Macumber agreed. She moved to Nantucket around five years ago after working in Boston’s startup scene.
But rising real estate prices have prevented many from purchasing physical locations, and have created high restaurant turnover during the last year, Barron Jensen said.
“I think what we love about this opportunity is that it … could potentially be a system-wide change,” Barron Jensen said. “We can hopefully support businesses that maybe don’t need the brick and mortar that they once thought they needed to have in order to have a successful business.”
ReMain Ventures has already been involved in supporting programs that combat food insecurity and promote sustainable agriculture on Nantucket, Barron Jensen said. The organization typically purchases a building and provides the space to business owners to run. She said ReMain has helped set up a bakery, grocery store and culinary school.
ReMain is funded by Wendy Schmidt and her husband Eric, the former CEO of Google, to support economic, social and environmental projects on the island.
The organization also worked with Macumber to launch the Nantucket Island Center for Entrepreneurship in 2019.
But the need for a food-specific business space remained. Macumber said that when they floated the idea around for this incubator and kitchen, sixteen businesses said they needed a spot immediately.
“Because their existing catering company was going to go under because they didn’t have the space or they had launched a new chocolate company and needed space to start scaling that,” Macumber said.
The plan is to convert the space at 5 Amelia Drive into multiple kitchens and host an incubator program during the island’s off season, Macumber said. The program would help entrepreneurs go from an idea to creating packaging and branding, scaling manufacturing and expanding off the island.
ReMain and Macumber said they will use the next few months to further develop the concept for the incubator and the facility. The program is being supported by advisors like James Griffin, a professor in the College of Hospitality Management at Johnson & Wales University and local restaurateurs and previous building owners Mark and Anne Dawson.
