This $3.4 million project will put the spotlight on entrepreneurship in Rock Hill.
Cultivate RH has snagged a lease for a half-acre parcel in the heart of downtown. It will be located at 315 E. Main St.
The project will go through a master plan review, which typically takes 120 days, says Brittany Kelly. If approved, the project is expected to be completed in 2022.
She and fellow entrepreneur Charlotte Brown are behind that venture. Kelly notes the duo is passionate about social justice and the community and hopes to focus on those issues through this initiative.
“Rock Hill is a city of entrepreneurship and innovation,” Kelly says. “We have to have somewhere for these places to go.”
At the same time, leasing rates have climbed to as much as $21 to $25 per square foot.
Cultivate RH looks to create opportunities for budding entrepreneurs and highlight and strengthen talent in the community. It will offer 23 restaurant and retail spaces — at an affordable price.
“As a community we hope we can foster these dreams and turn them into a reality,” she says. “Our goal is that Cultivate is the center where we all meet.”
Boxman Studios has been tapped for the project.
Plans call for 12 modular units — reminiscent of shipping containers — to be pieced together to create a campus, complete with an outdoor covered bar and open-air amphitheater.
Four anchor restaurants will be permanent fixtures. The remaining businesses — each between 100 and 400 square feet — will commit to a two-year program to ensure their success. That incubator program aims to help businesses get their footing, test their concepts and learn the ins-and-outs of business; too many early entrepreneurship programs have limited access for the public.
“We just want to hold their hand,” she says. “We’ve both been on the other side as entrepreneurs needing help and not knowing where to get it.”
Kelly is behind retail store The Mercantile in Rock Hill. Brown recently sold Fresh Vibes juice bar and is pursuing a doctorates degree in business administration with a focus on entrepreneurship.
Kelly is also behind MercEmpower, an initiative to empower Black female entrepreneurs between the ages of 21 and 40.
“The need was so strong,” she says. “I just felt like I had to do something more."
