Agriculture and food entrepreneurship have great potential to drive placemaking and create destinations for tourists and local residents, whether in small towns or major urban centers. By developing bespoke concepts and responsive strategies to reconnect a place to its food and agricultural economies, we help communities capitalize on the potential of their regional assets and create dynamic new facilities and programs that simultaneously highlight and support their food economies.
In Oneonta, NY, KK&P proposed a Food & Beverage Innovation District, as part of a multi-phase plan to boost economic development in the region. The plan brings together regional resources, institutions, farmers and entrepreneurs, and taps into the region’s momentum around craft brewing. The first anchor effort of this district will be the Susquehanna Regional Craft Food and Beverage Education Center, a flagship location for education and entrepreneurship. The project has been recognized with funding from the state and is on track to move ahead quickly.
About 65 miles northeast of Oneonta, in Amsterdam, NY, we are working to develop a culinary incubator that will create opportunities for new food and agriculture businesses while also creating a new destination for visitors to Amsterdam’s south side neighborhood.
And on much larger scales – we recently developed a concept and detailed operations plan for a food hall that incorporates small business development and local procurement for a location in downtown Oakland.
Later this month, we launch a longer-term and large investigation across 98 counties in five states in the Mid-South Delta region, aiming to spur agriculture innovation and economic development in an area rich with diverse natural and cultural resources, but challenged with significant stressors. Stay tuned for more information on this project and our client, Ag Innovations Development Group.
These projects, reflecting the unique identity of each place through its food and agriculture traditions and potential, are some of the most dynamic initiatives that KK&P develops. We dive deep into the people, culture, and economy of a place before developing responsive recommendations and approaches. To us, the passions, assets and challenges of individuals and their relationship to their communities are what define the strategies behind an eventual revitalization.