On PASE To Deliver
By Gwen Clayton
For Fort Wayne Ink Spot
After repeatedly hearing “no” from national chains when asked to locate in southeast Fort Wayne, Councilwoman Sharon Tucker realized she would need the local community to answer the call.
“The cry that we’ve heard in our Southeast Strategy Update charettes [collabrative design planning sessions] was there were amenities that people had a desire for, wanted, and didn’t want to leave their community to get,” Tucker said. “Even though we’ve been able to show that we have spendable dollars, and in certain pockets, there is a strong desire for many of the (national chains) that we’ve reached out to, they just aren’t interested in coming southeast. We’ve even heard, ‘Why should we when you bring your money this direction?’”
As she was driving around one day, she asked herself: “How can we impact change from within? If the big boxes are saying that they’re not interested in coming this way, let’s create our own.”
Then she started thinking about what the barriers to entry were for many young businesses, or even for businesses that wanted to create a second location.
That’s when she came up with the idea to do, “something similar to Shark Tank, but instead of having that concept where investors would invest in their business, what if we partnered with other businesses to provide those wraparound services that they generally need, but don’t have the access to?”
The remedy came in the form of a new economic development program called Project Activate SouthEast (PASE). On May 15, Tucker announced applications were now open and would be accepted through June 15.
Pitch Competition
PASE is a pitch competition that provides an opportunity for one entrepreneur to win a combination of in-kind grants and wraparound services, up to a value of $150,000. The caveat is they have to locate that business in Southeast Fort Wayne and commit to being open in that location for three years.
“Whenever you are going to open a business, there are four or five things that you have to have,” Tucker said. “You have to have legal counsel. You have to have marketing. You need a CPA firm. You need someone to be able to help tell you what banking options exist for your industry. Those are relationships that you absolutely need now.”
The PASE program gathers partners who are willing to provide those services, either for free or at a really good discount.
“It’s a win for the partner as well,” Tucker said. “Because if you’re a CPA and you’ve helped a small business navigate their books for a year, the likelihood of them leaving is very rare. And so now you’ve picked up a client that moved from volunteer service to paying service.”
She believes the backbone of every community starts in small businesses and those communities need to have a balanced mix of goods and services.
“Imagine if you had no access to common space to just enjoy a cup of coffee, what that would do to the commun-ing part of your commun-ity,” she said. “If there’s no place for you to go to just sit and say, ‘Oh hey, I know that neighbor,’ or ‘I haven’t seen you in church on Sundays,’ while you’re enjoying a beverage, then you would be probably standing in Southeast Fort Wayne.”
Tucker hopes the PASE program will bring in amenities that many parts of town take for granted, like pet care.
“Where can I go to have my pet groomed?” she asked. “I have to go out north. I have to go out to the Maplecrest area, or I have to go out west. Maybe there’s someone who has a grooming business that they thought, ‘I’ve been doing this in my house, taking care of people’s animals; I can do this in a brick and mortar.’ Just those small things create community. They create community pride. They create investment in your community.”
While Tucker believes that they need places in Southeast Fort Wayne to be able to shop for basic needs, she’s also excited to see what industries other than retail might apply for the PASE program.
“I’m excited to see if there could be a small dry cleaner,” she said. “I’m excited to see if it invites a WiFi coffee shop or if it brings along social-service counseling. I hope that it brings along a CPA firm, a law firm, the services that people need in Southeast Fort Wayne. I don’t want to just limit us to retail; I want to open the door to all life services.”
The judges on the PASE panel will determine which applicants are in industries that “are answering the best call for the community,” Tucker said.
The PASE program has two components: education and the formal business pitch. Applicants will spend the first 12 weeks in workshops and training. Entrepreneurs interested in applying to PASE must complete or have proof of completing, an entrepreneurial training program such as The BUILD Institute, Kauffman FastTrac, or the NIIC’s Breakthrough Program.
Entrepreneurs Backbone of Redevelopment
“We applaud and are thrilled to support Councilwoman Tucker’s entrepreneurial vision for Southeast Fort Wayne,” said Karl R. LaPan, NIIC president and CEO. “The work we have been doing through our Foellinger Breakthrough Entrepreneurship Program is complementary to PASE. Our program participants have benefited from the business success coaching, peer-to peer-learning, and the support services that are part of the program. We are excited to extend our inclusive entrepreneurial training to the emerging and aspiring entrepreneurial leaders and founders in our Southeast Fort Wayne community.”
In addition to these programs, there will be workshops throughout the summer designed to offer additional business plan writing assistance.
Entrepreneurs who complete that training will be invited to apply for the 8-week pitch preparation starting Oct. 1. The top five finalists will present their pitch in December, with one applicant winning the $150,000.
The pitch competition is similar to the show Shark Tank where competitors stand before a panel of judges from the entrepreneur community and tell them why they deserve to win.
“You put your best foot forward to market why you have the best concept that deserves to win this award,” Tucker said.
PASE is an expansion of the Summit City Match Program offered by SEED (Summit City Entrepreneur and Enterprise District) to match businesses with vacant space. Originally piloted in the South Calhoun Street commercial corridor between the viaduct at Murray Street and Rudisill Boulevard, the PASE program expands the parameters to Calhoun Street on the west and Washington Street on the north, with the city boundaries being the east and south.
“In redevelopment, your best efforts are concentrated in a specific area so you get the ripple effect of development,” said Trois Hart, director of SEED. “So, we worked with a number of organizations to figure out where that was going to go. It was a collaborative decision to pick South Calhoun, as a place to pilot programs. The actual program is called Summit City Match South Capital Pilot, because you pilot the program and then you scale it, always with the understanding that it would expand beyond that area.”
Southeast: A Hidden Jewel
The southeast side of town has struggled economically over the years as city development sprawled north and west. Residents left the area, especially after the closure of Southtown Mall in 2003, taking the stores and service businesses with them. Today, the 46808 ZIP code has been declared a food desert, according to a 2018 St. Joseph Community Health Foundation report.
“In lieu of continued investment in support in the community that is southeast,” Tucker said, “you saw more dollars, you saw businesses, moving out of the community and going into communities where homes were being built, and where people were migrating to. We had a lack of investment in the southeast area until most recently, where we have worked hard to build relationships and build bridges to show the value and the hidden jewel that exists southeast.”
This hidden jewel, Tucker says, is the area’s diversity.
“You can come and get some of the best tacos,” she said. “You can get some really good ethnic food, whether you want Indian or Burmese food. White, Black, Asian, you will find it in Southeast Fort Wayne. I can walk outside and my neighbor looks nothing like me. I get to see the beauty that God created.”
Another hidden jewel in Southeast Fort Wayne is an area to build.
“Our city is on the move and we keep moving further and further north until we’ve touched land lock in places where we just can’t expand,” Tucker said. “We’re landlocked by the county border out west. We’re landlocked in certain parts out east by the state, because you run into Ohio, and out north we’re landlocked by the Huntertown border. We can’t annex any additional space, so in order to grow, we have to continue to utilize the land that we have.”
Southeast, though, has room for annexation.
“But more specifically, we have a community that has a desire to support businesses that come into their community,” she said.
For more information on Project Activate SouthEast, visit www.fwcommunitydevelopment.org/pase
