NewBo City Market plans for ‘immense impact’ with $2.5M expansion in 2025

CEDAR RAPIDS — In 2012, NewBo City Market pioneered a new type of an entrepreneurship model: a place for small business owners to not only get a start, but to thrive with the cultivation of support from grants and mentors.

Now, 12 years later, the centerpiece of New Bohemia is on track to make the collection of small businesses bigger.

Ahead of plans for the launch of a $2.5 million expansion in 2025, The Gazette caught up with NewBo City Market’s Executive Director, Julie Parisi, to look back at the last decade as the organization prepares for the next one.

Parisi, who started as a board member in 2016 and came on staff in 2018, has 10 years of entrepreneurial experience, including two as a shopkeeper in the market with Zaza’s Pasta from 2015 to 2017.

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Q: NewBo City Market is turning 12 years old this year. Tell us about some of the biggest accomplishments your organization has celebrated in that time. What are you most proud of?

A: Twelve years is a short amount of time, but it's been amazing to witness how our organization has been one of the catalysts for reinvigorating the New Bohemia Czech Village District. It's been astonishing to watch the neighborhood transform around us.

Developing both event programming and entrepreneurial support programming that makes a difference in the lives of those who we serve has been gratifying. It spurs our team to continue innovating new ways to bring the community together around supporting small business.

It's a particular point of pride to see the small businesses that got their start in the market now populating locations across the Cedar Rapids community and within the Corridor.

Q: Finding success for more than 10 years doesn't come by accident. What do you think have been the keys to the market's success as a long-term staple in one of the city's trendiest neighborhoods?

A: We have remained steadfast to our mission, which is to support businesses through a business incubator, providing equitable access to the arts, and to serve as a community gathering space. It is by reducing barriers to entry across each of these areas that we claim success.

Q: A lot has changed in Cedar Rapids and the New Bohemia neighborhood over the last 12 years. How has NewBo City Market evolved with it over the years?

A: As a nonprofit in the District, it's incumbent on us to adapt to changes to best serve our shopkeepers and patrons. To that end, we regularly conduct surveys to learn new ways to continuously improve our services.

With data from the surveys, we've been able to create new programs that draw the public to the Market Yard and support the small businesses inside the incubator. We have added a more interactive “playscape” to the Market Yard, added fire pits to the yard to create a more inviting green space, and developed and implemented The Hatchery program in response to entrepreneurs needing more coaching and support programs.

Collaboration on various economic development initiatives, such as (The Czech Village and New Bohemia) District shopping events, has been key to our evolution as well. Working with organizations like CSPS Hall, NewBoCo, The District and the National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library have forged strong relationships that ultimately benefit the entire neighborhood. By working with both for-profit and nonprofit partners, we continue to enhance our attractive district through collaborative programming.

Q: What is your organization's long-term vision for the years ahead as you continue to serve an important niche in the small business community?

A: Our goal is always to incubate more viable, sustainable businesses to keep the small business environment in the city vibrant and dynamic.

Q: NewBo City Market was started to be, and still is, an incubator for small, fledgling businesses. Many of those businesses have outgrown the market and moved into bigger places, but some have stayed there long-term. Was allowing longer-term tenants a part of the organization's vision from the beginning, or is that an adaptation that has come with time?

A: From the outset, no clear guidelines were set in regards to the length of incubation for small businesses within the market. As time has gone on, we continually evaluate the life span of businesses at the market.

Over time, we have adapted our views on what incubation means for individual shopkeepers and often let the timeline discussions be led by their goals and desired outcomes. We believe it makes sense, from an economic developer driving force, to have a handful of well-known, long-standing shopkeepers while most other spaces will have the natural turnover expected in a business incubator setting.

Q: There are quite a few new businesses that have settled into NewBo City Market over the last year. What's the average length of a tenant's stay at the market?

A: The length of stay is very much driven by a business' desire to scale quickly or not. Each shopkeeper enters the business incubator at a different point in their entrepreneurial journey.

We've seen some businesses stay as little as 18 months and others who stay for six to seven years before they find the right opportunity to move their business beyond the market.

Q: What other markers of success have you seen with small business owners there, and what kind of impact has the market had on the community at large?

A: The thing that is unique, and sometimes the most challenging to explain, is that even if a business fails in the incubator program, we still consider it a success in that they've not taken on a massive loan or mortgaged their home to get started.

Because we reduce barriers to entry by offering subsidized rent, communal infrastructure and business development coaching and mentorship, entrepreneurs can take a chance on realizing their business dreams with very little startup capital. The support that we provide is its own success story because NewBo City Market is one of the only nonprofit public markets in the country offering entrepreneurial support mentoring and grant making to truly support the growth of the individual as an entrepreneur.

Some of the markers of success I have seen largely come in the form of financial literacy and strategic planning. Whereas an entrepreneur may enter the incubator program at NewBo City Market never having analyzed a financial report, they often leave understanding how to make a budget, make financial projections, write a proposal or grant, create an invoice or read a balance sheet. Those are skills that, once learned, they will retain for the rest of their lives.

Q: The market is pursuing a $2.5 million project to add more space. Tell us where things are at with that, any updates you may have on the timeline, and the power it could have to transform your organization's role in the community.

A: We expect the expansion project planned for 2025 to have an immense impact on our community as Rotary Hall, the market's interior space, will be open seven days per week.

The addition of a grocery store to the neighborhood will favorably impact the New Bohemia Czech Village District, securing its place as Cedar Rapids' most walkable neighborhood. Part of the expansion project includes adding new business incubation spaces to Rotary Hall as well.

We hope this means our role in the community will become solidified as the best option for diverse startup entrepreneurs to get the exposure and guidance they need to create a sustainable business that will grow to a permanent brick-and-mortar space within the community. Lastly, our expansion projects plans for an indoor stage on the mezzanine level, which means year-round arts incubation and programming.

Our popular outdoor summer concert series, Rock the Block, will no longer be the only no-cost opportunity for community residents to experience local musical performances. We hope to include more visual and performing, too.

With an activated and well-programmed event space and collaborative endeavors with the tourism office, we hope to help Cedar Rapids become a premier Midwestern location for larger conferences and conventions.

Q: What else is on the horizon? Do you see any other challenges ahead for your organization or for your small business owners in general?

A: On the horizon, we hope to expand our business development services to historically marginalized populations by learning more about the best ways we can serve them. This kind of data can sometimes be hard to collect, so we anticipate that challenge as we persist in our efforts.

We want our approach to solving the needs of these entrepreneurs to be holistic and targeted — ensuring a lifetime of small business ownership that can feasibly sustain (business owners) and their families, and even future generations. This may include adding new areas of expertise to our staff, rounding out an already knowledgeable and dedicated team.

In regards to the small business owners, some of the challenges lie in access to the capital needed to scale and grow a business. We continue to make connections within the community to solve for that issue, but there isn't always an easy answer because each entrepreneur is very different.

Tenacity, however, is a predominant trait in every entrepreneur I've ever met, so I am forever hopeful for their successes. Our NewBo City Market staff will always be here to provide the mentorship they need to continue to reach for their dreams.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.