Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a Houston-based nonprofit that connects executives, entrepreneurs and MBA students with convicted felons to prevent recidivism, has signed a lease in the Houston area's largest coworking makerspace.
The East End Maker Hub, a 300,000-square-foot coworking facility with space for companies in manufacturing, robotics, hardware, medical devices and other industrial sectors, opened its doors earlier this year. The $38 million project was developed by Houston-based nonprofit makerspace TXRX Labs, which anchors the EEMH, and Houston-based Urban Partnerships Community Development Corp. After receiving millions of dollars in grants and other federal funding, the project turned a large warehouse in Houston's East End neighborhood into rentable suites for startups, nonprofits, corporate research arms and more.
Now, PEP has signed a roughly 11,000-square-foot lease at the EEMH, said Mike Pittman, vice president of real estate for Urban Partnerships Community Development Corp.
Bryan Kelley, CEO of PEP, said he knows how difficult it can be for formerly incarcerated men to find stable employment. Before becoming CEO of PEP, he spent 22 years in prison and was a graduate of the program himself.
"We are taking people out a cycle of poverty and crime and turning them into real producers in our community," said Kelley. "People who will be job creators, good leaders, good fathers, perhaps even philanthropists."
Kelley said roughly half of PEP's 11,000-square-foot space in the EEMH will be devoted to coworking space for PEP members to develop business plans and receive mentorship and business development advice from tenured executives. The other half of the space will offer warehousing and storage space for use by the members building their own businesses.
The new space will also allow PEP to offer more of an accelerator program for its members, a real step up for the organization, Kelley said. PEP plans to offer funding opportunities, pitch competitions and other efforts to help members scale their businesses.
"We have a dream of building the nation's preeminent second-chance incubator and accelerator, and I think that's going to happen right there at the East End Maker Hub," Kelley said.
PEP is still in discussions with design firms and general contractors for the design and build-out of its EEMH space, Kelley said. The organization aims to move into the facility later this summer. Headquartered in Houston, PEP also has operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
The PEP lease and a number of smaller leases have pushed the EEMH's occupancy up to just under 70% leased. The facility is on pace to be fully occupied by the end of the year, Pittman said.
As the anchor tenant at the EEMH, TXRX Labs also provides skills training classes to members and employees of EEMH companies. TXRX offers classes in software training, CNC machining, 3D printing, metalsmithing, welding and more, according to its website.
More than 30 tenants have taken space in the EEMH, including companies in electric vehicle transportation, carbon capture technology, construction technology, 3D printing, material science and more. Waste Management (NYSE: WM), one of Houston's largest public companies, leased space in the EEMH for its research and development team.
