Kitchen Ponderay set to get cooking

PONDERAY — After 18 months of planning, development and fundraising, the Bonner County Economic Development Corporation had all of the ingredients to break ground on the construction of Kitchen Ponderay last January.

Paul Kusche, former executive director of the BCEDC, who was dedicated to seeing the project through, said he is excited as the grand opening of the commercial kitchen rapidly approaches.

“You have no idea how excited I am,” Kusche said. “This is a year’s worth of work for me, completed.”

As all of the inspections were completed recently, Kusche said the kitchen is “good to go” and the grand opening has been set for Tuesday.

The 1,540-square-foot space in the Bonner Mall, previously occupied by the Hideaway Lounge, is accessible to the community, its users and it’s a good use of what would otherwise be dead mall space, Kusche said.

With the kitchen equipment from the defunct Sandpoint business incubator as a starting point, BCEDC officials raised the funds necessary to complete the design, engineering, construction and installation.

While the kitchen is a project of the BCEDC, management of the kitchen will fall under the umbrella of the nonprofit Kitchen Spokane. Kitchen Ponderay will be a natural extension of the organization’s affordable model, said Jayme Cozzetto, president of Kitchen Spokane and director of Kitchen Ponderay. It will be a certified facility where new food companies and others can operate under their personal licenses.

“It took everyone coming together to make it happen,” Cozzetto said. “... We are happy to extend the footprint of what we have been known to offer in our geographic area.”

This is the second year since Kitchen Spokane extended their presence to Idaho with a kitchen in Coeur d’Alene, Cozzetto said, and now further north into Ponderay.

“We are really tapping into emerging markets that are underserved right now and that need that springboard to launch entrepreneurs — that’s what we are looking to do,” Cozzetto said.

While the kitchen’s primary purpose is to serve new business startups, it will also be used for some charitable work in the future. Kitchen Spokane has implemented a Feed-The-Needy program which, once established, Kitchen Ponderay will work with volunteer organizations in the region to provide food and facilities necessary to prepare and distribute meals.

In a statement, BCEDC’s new executive director Andrea Marcoccio said Kusche has served as the “jack of all trades” over the past year, putting to use his decades of industry experience to complete the project, from physically hauling equipment himself to creating partnerships. Cozzetto agreed that Kusche has been “extremely pivotal” in bringing the kitchen to the community and creating those partnerships.

“Without that gentleman and his expertise and his knowledge and his networking, this could have remained in limbo forever,” Cozzetto said.

It was when the BCEDC received the lead grant from the Northwest Business Development Association for $30,000, Kusche knew it was time to make the “all-out effort” to complete the $80,000 project. The project has since been completed with the help of six grants, as well as support from the Bonner County commissioners, the city of Ponderay and the Panhandle Area Council.

Kusche said the grand opening is an event to say thank you to all the vendors and those who helped bring the kitchen to fruition, including the Magnusen family and Tom Hix for the space in the Bonner Mall, and Matt Kerr with Sayler Owens Kerr Architecture. The Bonner County Board of Commissioners provided the equipment, as well as $7,500 for maintenance. A $15,000 GEM grant for planning, design and maintenance was provided by the Idaho Department of Commerce.

Funds for equipment, construction and installation have also come through the NBDA’s $30,000 grant, a $3,000 GEM match from the city of Ponderay, a $10,000 BNSF grant, $15,000 from the Inland Northwest Community Foundation, a USDA Rural grant in the amount of $25,000, $500 from Litehouse, Inc., and $2,500 from the Avista Foundation, as well as interim financing though the Panhandle Area Council and a pending request to the Equinox Foundation.

The BCEDC used local contractors to complete the project, including Pend Oreille Mechanical, Sandpoint Electric, Will’s Plumbing, Reader Concrete, and Lauca Construction.

The grand opening will also serve as an opportunity for those interested in using the kitchen to see it and meet Cozzetto, Kusche said. The event will be held from 4-5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Kitchen Ponderay location in the Bonner Mall, 300 Bonner Mall Way.

Individuals or businesses interested in using the commercial kitchen can contact Cozzetto at Kitchen Ponderay via email at admin@commercialkitchens.site, or by phone at 509-868-7710.

Information: commercialkitchens.site.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.