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One Acadiana wants ideas for a small business that would work inside one of downtown Lafayette’s most historic buildings.
The organization is hosting a months-long Small Business Challenge, a contest to find an entrepreneur who may have the best idea for a business to occupy the Sans Souci building, 219 E. Vermilion St., next to Parc Sans Souci possibly by the start of Festival International next year.
The winner will receive a favorable lease on the building along with a tenant improvement package, management and consulting support through the startup process and additional mentorship and training.
The process will start with an informational meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Opportunity Machine, 314 Jefferson St. The goal is to put a business in the historic 1,200-square-foot building that has recently became vacant when the Sans Souci Fine Arts Gallery moved to a spot along Jefferson Street.
“We want it to be something that will provide traffic for the park,” One Acadiana President and CEO Troy Wayman said. “So some type of food and beverage, some type of retail. You want it to be something that will attract people to come in and spend time at the park.”
The idea is modeled after a similar contest launched in Pensacola, Florida, when philanthropist Quint Studer was seeking a tenant for a building he owned in that city’s downtown area. The process was more than a means of finding a tenant and included small business workshops and other mentorship opportunities to anyone with entrepreneurial aspirations.
The program will include workshops on business plans, development and pitch coaching sandwiched around two rounds of selections. The final pitch competition for 10 finalists scheduled for Feb. 9, and the winner will be notified the week of Feb. 12, which is also the week of Mardi Gras.
The winner of the Pensacola contest, said Andre Breaux, VP, Policy Initiatives & Governmental Affairs, for One Acadiana, has been open for over a decade.
“Six other businesses that went through the business challenge opened up somewhere else in downtown Pensacola,” he said. “They just needed the process and the structure to keep their idea moving forward to the next level. That’s what we’re going to try to provide, and we don’t want anyone to fall through the cracks – anyone who wants to keep moving their business forward.”
Details on how much the rent will be abated for the winner have yet to be worked out, Wayman said. In Pensacola, the winner did not pay rent the first year and had a discounted rate the second and third year before paying the full market rate in the fourth year and beyond, Breaux said.
The Sans Souci building, built in 1847, is owned by the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority and was the site of the first post office and later the first newspaper in Lafayette. It was nearly demolished in the 1940s before a buyer turned it into an antique store.
“It’s about growing entrepreneurs in the community,” Wayman said. “It’s about removing those barriers to entry and growing our own successes.”
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