BEACON Kitchen construction is underway in Belmont

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) –The BEACON kitchen project will be a full-equipped shared-use kitchen for entrepreneurs.

Right now, it’s under construction in Charlottesville’s Belmont neighborhood.

New Hill Development has a BEACON pilot kitchen on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.

“It’s pretty miraculous seeing going from blueprints to being at the construction site, seeing the infrastructure being laid down,” BEACON Director David Givens said.

BEACON Kitchen wants to expand economic opportunities and add diversity to the Charlottesville food economy.

The kitchen will be 10,000 square feet.

“This facility is going to be a shared use commercial kitchen, that will be capable of supporting up to 70 food businesses,” BEACON CEO and Co-founder Yolunda Harrell added, ”No matter what type of business it is, whether it’s food prep, catering, and baker.”

Construction has been costly in order to get to this point.

The kitchen has run more than $250,000 over the original budget.

Charlottesville City Council reallocated $90,000 of federal funds to New Hill Development from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“This is the right investment for the city because it meets with their goals, right?” Harrell said, “They’re trying to create a community that works for everyone. They also understand that this is a pretty expensive community to live in, to work in, and to start a business in.”

It’s preparing programs for when the kitchen opens in late summer or early fall.

“We’ve been working on things like not only technical skills, but managerial skills and soft skills to really round them out,” Givens said.

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