Southeast to open business incubator Friday

Catapult Creative House, Southeast Missouri State University's new business incubator at 612 Broadway, will allow students from various departments and disciplines to work together in a quest to become entrepreneurs.

Catapult is set to have its soft opening from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, with live music, a coffee tasting and products and art for sale, said operations manager Leah Powers.

Powers said the project has been in development for the past four years and became public two years ago.

"Folks at the university understood that students need a realistic business experience, and so this is a great way for students to be an entrepreneur and learn how the business side of everything works," Powers said, "and to give them a safety net if they want to try out a business plan."

University president Kenneth Dobbins said in a news release the incubator project "helps anchor an entrepreneurial corridor on Broadway" by completing the work of the Douglas C. Greene Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Center for Excellence in Mass Media, which is a partnership among the university, Rust Communications and KFVS12. The center is being developed at 325 Broadway.

Development of Catapult is funded through a gift to the university by alumnus Charles Stamp Jr., government grants through the Missouri Innovation Corporation, other private donations and university funds, according to the news release from Southeast. The total cost of the project is $1.95 million.

The 12,000-square-foot facility was an empty storefront.

Rianna Hester, a student intern working with Powers, said the response from students has been great because it gives them a behind-the-scenes look at how businesses work.

"It's going to be entirely student-run, which is really great because it will get students into the whole entrepreneurship process," Hester said. "There's going to be a student manager that will be overseen by some of the committees to just make sure they are filling everything out right. There is going to be students working on production, which is really cool."

Catapult's first floor contains an art gallery, retail store, classroom, printing stations and a beverage bar run by hospitality management students.

"The hospitality management students are the ones who are coming up with beverages, the menu, the prices, the snacks," Powers said. "They make the snacks, so we've got a lot of trail mix and cakes and yummy goody things that I'll probably eat a lot of."

Students in a fashion merchandising practicum course will run the retail store. In the class and at Catapult, these students will learn how to order products and display them and the overall business structure of retail. Powers said the store's goal is to sell only student products, but it will supplement with other products until that is feasible.

Construction management students are producing movable walls for the art-gallery area so it can be configured toward the exhibit being displayed. The art gallery is overlooked by the conference room and some workstations on the second floor.

"We cut out the floor of the second story and then put in a nice skylight to give [the art gallery] a natural light feature," Powers said.

Also on the first floor is a classroom for workshops and classes that work in the building, Macintosh and PC computers for large-format and 3D printing and three printing presses that can be used for stationary projects.

"These are all owned by rustmedia, and so we're working with them to house the presses and use the presses," Powers said. "So in this instance, community members and students who want to learn how to do letterpress, you can take a workshop to get certified, and then you can work the presses."

Upstairs in the building is a conference room, a kitchenette area, collaborative "think space" and workspaces for various disciplines.

"The studio space upstairs can be rented out by students, visiting artists or community members," Powers said. "It's an application process, so it's very competitive. So they'll have to apply for the space and explain what they are going to do up here and how it coordinates with Catapult's mission."

There are art stations, photo studio, ventilated spray room, sewing lab and a drafting table for interior designers.

"We have the arts, we have business students who can come up here and collaborate with the art students on how to market," Powers said. "And the art students can work with merchandising students on how to sell and what price point to put products at. Then we have the hospitality management students doing the same thing. We've had interior design students who helped with some of the actual design choices in the building. So it really is all about getting every student from the university the chance to talk to other students and come up with ideas, be creative and then sell those ideas."

Catapult's summer hours will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The hours will expand during the fall with its grand opening.

Those interested in renting workspace or displaying art should contact Powers at lepowers@semo.edu.

Business reporter Erin Ragan of the Southeast Missourian contributed to this story.

Pertinent address:

612 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO