Its dream of owning a downtown space collapsed. Now a business incubator has a new home.
WEST PALM BEACH — Three years after a failed effort to acquire a prominent city-owned Clematis Street building, a nonprofit business incubator is celebrating moving into new digs in a historic building on the city's main downtown avenue.
1909, a co-working space that offers classes and networking opportunities to 250 paying members, moved in April into a new spot on the third floor of the Comeau building on the 300 block of Clematis. The 9,000-square-foot office space is more than double the size of 1909's previous location on Datura Street.
The seven-year-old organization, which is celebrating the move with a private party May 10, said it was a necessary step for its growing list of members and its ambitions to provide more services to support local start-up businesses.
The move comes three years after 1909 thought it had struck a deal with the city to buy a much larger city-owned building across the street, the site of the former Off the Hookah nightclub.
1909 narrowly won a competitive bidding process in 2022 to buy the 30,000-square-foot site from the city for $10.5 million. It won over commissioners and the mayor by promising to create a dynamic, affordable space for budding entrepreneurs to work, congregate and thrive.
But city commissioners called off the deal two months later after 1909 revealed that another company would finance most of the purchase and that 1909 would be using less than half of the space itself.
The director of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency ended negotiations with the group, saying that 1909's proposal 'didn't reflect what was presented to the board.' Mayor Keith James lambasted the group for using "smoke and mirrors" to try to pull off a "bait and switch."
The group countered at the time that it had no idea that a partnership with another company would be treated as a deal-breaker.
In an interview, 1909 co-founder Danielle Casey said that the growing nonprofit's new private office spaces are already booked and that it is already mulling its next move after its five-year lease ends.
'We've moved 200 businesses to the city's main street,' she said. 'We're already at capacity.'
314 CLEMATIS: A colorful history of 314 Clematis: A hookah lounge, furniture store and iconic department store
The incubator and its members love being in the downtown center, where plenty of the business's clients are based, she said. But for 1909 to reach its potential, it will need a larger space where members can display and sell their products.
In the meantime, though, she said members are enjoying creating an 'entrepreneurial ecosystem' in their new location.
'The biggest value is honestly the community,' she said. 'It's a support group.'
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Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Business incubator 1909 moves into new Clematis Street office
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