The road to developing the $1.3 million co-working space in Seymour, known as SPARK Place, for entrepreneurs, start-up businesses and big thinkers continues as support is sought from the Seymour Redevelopment Commission.

Dan Robison, director of the Jackson County Chamber, went before the commission Monday afternoon to answer questions and ask for $200,000 to help fund start-up costs.

“From the time we spent together talking about this I walked away with three basic questions and I have answers to all three,” he said.

Robison said a purchase agreement has been made between the chamber and the owners of George’s Tire Shop located at the Second and Broadway streets. The Chamber Foundation also has filed a $5,000 earnest check with Seymour Abstract & Title to secure the property.

Questioning the timeline of the project, Robison said if everything moves forward as planned the project could be completed as soon as June of next year.

“As with any large, multi-partner project, there will be delays in funding, delays in construction, etcetera,” he said.

There also has been a display of county support with the recent allocation of $1 million of COVID-19 relief funds, ARPA, to develop the co-working space. That approval came from the county council.

The American Rescue Plan Act is a result of federal legislation designed to aid the country’s response to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Robison was asked about other funding sources for the project and he mentioned a funding request of $240,000 from the regional READI (Regional Acceleration and Development Initiative) 2.0 team.

“We are rated an A project by the READI team, which means it’s a good project,” he said.

While the $200,000 ask is not quite a match with the READI 2.0 funding, Robison said it would help the project make necessary improvements.

President Mark Dennis asked how the business was going to be sustainable once the remodel was completed and fully operational.

As a lead sponsoring organization, the chamber will be responsible for staffing and operating the co-working space.

According to the SPARK Place business plan, operations will initially rely heavily on shared resources with the chamber to access specialized expertise and support. Robison said the chamber plans to move their office into the space and offer early stage memberships to keep their operations viable.

“We feel very confident that we will be able to maintain operations at the facility,” he said.

The chamber currently operates in a historic downtown building on 105 S. Chestnut St. It is a unique property as it once housed the Farmer’s Club in the early 1900s and is the only property downtown that is on the National Registry of Historic Places.

“We have yet to determined what to do with the existing building, whether we want to lease it or put it on the market,” Robison said. “It would need to be the right person if those avenues were taken.”

Robison said the SPARK initiative itself is more than just SPARK Place, offering various other opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Robison mentioned a member-managed venture capital fund, Flywheel Fund of Jackson County, that is being developed by local individual investors, in partnership with the Flywheel Fund connected to The Mill in Bloomington.

Robison said an additional $200,000 of commitments have been invested into the fund to help early stage entrepreneurs, these dollars are completely separate from operating costs.

“Once the fund is up and running the chamber won’t have much to do with it besides the development of the entrepreneurs who feed into that system to get their start-up funding,” he said. “It won’t be an internal mechanism of the chamber.”

Robison said he has no expectation of coming back to ask for additional funding after this initial request, however, if the requested funding is not approved by the redevelopment commission, the chamber will have to seek an additional funding source for the remainder of the project.

Some of the necessary repairs include a new roof and HVAC system, Robison said. While the property currently is not part of the Seymour Mainstreet District, there has been some discussion on expanding it to capture that space.

“We are committed to doing this right and have a great finished product to offer to the community,” Robison said.

The owners of the former tire shop have 90 days before the chamber closes on the property. The chamber required the owners to provide a Phase 1 and Phase 2 environmental site assessments.

In 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced 10 Indiana recipients, including the city of Seymour, will receive $9.4 million in funding to assess or clean up polluted brownfield sites.

Seymour received $500,000 and some of those funds have been used to aid in the environmental assessments of the tire shop, Mayor Matt Nicholson said.

According to the business plan, any funds not utilized for the startup would be applied to operating costs over time from the redevelopment allocation, if approved.

Commission member Bonnye Good said during a recent workshop, that the commission was told to not fund certain construction projects, such as roofs.

“If the money goes toward the build we have to be careful where its used,” she said.

The commission came to a consensus not to move forward with funding approval until there is additional information, but overall supported the project.

“I think it’s a good project but would like to get a little further down the road,” commission member Nate Tormoehlen said. “Having some parameters once we get the architectural study would help.”

“I personally support it,” commission member John Reinhart said. “Our purpose is to grow businesses in the community whether its big or small.”

“I think are a lot of good pieces for it…it may be a little large of a project than what we need for our community,” commission member Tim Hardin said. “Until we see some updated information we will see how this follows.”