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A few passing clouds. Low 58F. Winds light and variable..

A few passing clouds. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.

Marquessa Ewing, left, holds the $150,000 check presented by Fort Wayne City Councilwoman Sharon Tucker in the first Project Activate SouthEast (PASE) Fort Wayne.

Marquessa Ewing, left, holds the $150,000 check presented by Fort Wayne City Councilwoman Sharon Tucker in the first Project Activate SouthEast (PASE) Fort Wayne.

It has been 10 months since Marquessa Ewing received $150,000 as the first Project Activate SouthEast (PASE) Fort Wayne winner. She’s still looking for a suitable spot for her indoor-outdoor entertainment space, now called the Urban Kitchen.

Ewing, a real estate broker and Summit City Entrepreneur and Enterprise District, or SEED, program graduate, won over the PASE judges in December.

Urban Kitchen will have a restaurant for indoor and outdoor dining and space for private events, games and entertainment such as poetry reading and karaoke. The limited menu with chicken wings and french fries could be ordered by a Toast kiosk, rather than having wait staff. Most importantly, she’d like to have a space where others in the community could sell small items.

“Since I’ve won the PASE competition, I’m now a current member of Greater Fort Wayne,” Ewing said. She also was accepted into the gBETA business development program’s small-business digital marketing cohort.

A “lot of opportunities have come my way while I’m still going through the process of having a location being built,” Ewing said.

Fort Wayne Councilwoman Sharon Tucker, whose 6th District covers southeast Fort Wayne, said, “We’re working to find her a location, which is proving to be more challenging than we thought it would be.”

What’s proved difficult is finding the right place to ensure her success in a place that welcomes all demographics, Tucker said. They’ve found that southeast has a shortage of building stock.

“We’ve taken lots of those buildings down, like you would have seen in other communities where there are buildings that you can renovate or rehab,” Tucker said.

Southeast doesn’t have buildings like the former pharmacy that became home to the Friendly Fox restaurant on South Wayne Avenue in the old southwest part of town or Ophelia’s restaurant that most recently had been another restaurant and a doctor’s office before that on Wells Street just north of downtown.

However, a new development is going in southeast near Southtown Centre.

Linda Golden, owner of LegacyOne, Inc., plans to build a 6,000-square-foot building on a 1.3-acre parcel of land, bounded by Menards to the west, Southtown Crossing to the north and east and South Phoenix Parkway to the south.

Legacy Office Centre will have 12 offices including space for the corporate offices of LegacyOne’s real estate, construction, and property management businesses as well as a multi-purpose space with a warming kitchen.

Ewing is looking at possibly getting a prefabbed steel building that she can put into the development. Depending on when she finds a location, she hopes to open Urban Kitchen by next summer.

“The Golden site would be a very attractive location for foot traffic and it serves lots of people in the community,” Tucker said.

The second PASE pitch competition is set for Dec. 3, Tucker said. Twenty-four entrepreneurs who signed up by June 1 are taking part in workshops to write business plans and training preparation and, those that make the cut, will make formal business pitches. The five-year program puts a focus on lifestyle services because the idea is to get foot traffic in southeast Fort Wayne and fill those missing amenities that residents want, but all businesses are welcome to apply, Tucker said.

Last year, five businesses pitched their ideas. “Two have activated already; one is the process of activating,” Tucker said.

Max Araujo’s De Araujo Mechanical found a space in a Fort Wayne SEED building and outgrew it, so it’s now in a second location, Tucker said. “So their business is up and booming, and they’ve been doing really well.”

Another finalist, Todd Manuel of Solomon & Company, a digital T-shirt printing business, got help from Greater Fort Wayne to expand his business.

Meanwhile, Chanel Ridley’s Lil’ Lue’s Brews & Books is looking to go into BrickStreet Grill, a barbecue and entertainment place that plans to go into 2104 Calhoun St.

The fifth business plans to compete again this year.

“The program did exactly what it was designed to do: give them exposure, help find partners for entrepreneurs and, the one, the winner, that we’re supporting, finding her a location,” Tucker said.

As long as support continues to PASE, it will keep going. “I would like people to know while the public hasn’t seen a lot of activity in the front of their face, there’s been a lot of things going on behind the scenes.” PASE wants to ensure that the entrepreneurs get wraparound services to ensure success. So Ewing has been undergoing training through her mentor.

Tucker said the PASE program is looking for support for future competitions but also from developers and others who know of locations southeast to help Ewing’s business get set up.

If a business would like to partner with PASE, it should reach out to Tucker at Sharon.tucker@cityoffortwayne.org.

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