We feel like we have made a breakthrough! We have decided to simplify our vision which will minimize our risk and test our vision. We have decided to leave the main warehouse as storage for now and focus on the attached warehouse on the east. Our current idea is to offer food in a space that families with members of all ages can feel comfortable spending some time. We would love to have either indoor food trucks or small kitchens in shipping containers to offer a variety of food, but it may be more cost effective to do one bigger kitchen that caters to the smaller serving areas. A turfed area with things that could keep kids (young and old) entertained would also be a goal. We would like to see large garage doors that would lead to an outdoor space in the front yard of the building as well. In this first phase, we will build out a large restroom area in the main warehouse to be accessed by this attached warehouse venue. You can get an idea of what we are talking about by looking at this graphic.

‍

The building is currently zoned as “light industrial” and we would like for the city to allow us to be zoned PD (planned development) and therefore, we have to apply with the city. PD districts are, “intended to encourage creative, innovative, and/or mixed use development, and to insure and promote land use compatibility and harmony for land that is to be planned and developed as a whole in a single development operation or a programmed series of developmental phases (hillsbouroughcounty,org).” We have already had a pre zoning application meeting with the city. This means the departments in the city heared our idea and told us their thoughts on code and limitations including parking, etc. This helped direct our architects (now we are working with Anderson Knight Architects in town) and engineers with SMH Consultants to know how to put together the application. The zoning meeting takes place on August 10. This will be a great step in the right direction!

‍

Praise God we are not doing this alone! We have been truly blessed with the people that God has brought to our team to help us figure this all out! Tyler Holloman from FrontierMHK is helping us navigate the historic tax credit process and figure out the viability of the concept. Ryan Haugaard contacted us because he is excited about doing creative things that bring people together in our community. He studied interior architecture at KSU and also became a general contractor. He and his wife have opened the coolest restaurant in Randolph called North County where he has created an atmosphere that has a similar vibe to our Ag Press vision. Ryan is helping us develop the concept and his knowledge of architecture, construction, and running a restaurant are coming in real handy! Brad Buser at Anderson Knight Architects has been a friend for many years and is so helpful in keeping us on track!

‍

Please feel free to reach out to us with questions, ideas or resources that might be useful to us!

-Cory and Derek

‍

Here are photos that have inspired us: