Editor’s Note: This is the second of two stories about a recent report on the Ignite Innovation Center. The Feb. 7 story focused on the purpose of the project. Today’s story looks at closing the funding gap to complete it. The public is invited to attend an “informational share-out” by Great Bend Economic Development Director Jason Kuilan from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, at Dry Lake Brewing, 1305 Main.

Great Bend Economic Development Director Jason Kuilan told an audience last Wednesday that mistakes were made, but there was no financial wrongdoing in efforts to fund the Ignite Innovation Center in Great Bend. The $7 million project can’t enter the next phase of construction until more funding – about $1.6 million – is secured.

“If you run a nonprofit, or if you’re raising money for a project, take some learnings from us. I don’t advise starting a large project before you have one that cites all of your funding,” he said.

Kuilan was speaking at the “informational share-out” that was open to Chamber of Commerce members only. A public version of that meeting is scheduled for this week.

“The first step was providing transparency to the project,” Kuilan said, claiming meetings with Great Bend Tribune reporter Andrew Murphy disclosed everything.

“So we built the vision, we launched the website (www.gbedinc.com/innovation-center), we sat down with the Tribune, we went through the financials. That was another big question, right? Has there been any misdealings with any of the financials? No. So we went through the financials with Jason Murray at the Community Foundation, who’s our fiscal sponsor, he handles all of our large grants. He walked them through; every single penny had been accounted for, all the invoices in, all the invoices out. We sat down with Melanie Maneth, our accountant, who does our day-to-day books. Again, everything checked out there. ... While there were some mistakes made and some risks taken, there weren’t any misdealings with financials. We took a risk, and we’re dealing with that risk now, and we’re going to get through it, and I’ll talk on that. But we provided the financial transparency. We provided the vision transparency.

“The next step, and I wish I had a full year to do this, is building relationships with local businesses, local investors and individuals that can help us fund this thing. I would love to have a whole year to properly wine and dine and build the relationships and, you know, go through the whole sales process. Unfortunately, right now, I’m positioned where I’m like, ‘Hi, my name is Jason, can I have $50,000?’” As Chamber members laughed, he added, “Some of you have gotten that email from me, and I’ve come to your office and given that pitch.”

Closing the gap

“I’m at the point now where I have this $1.6 million gap. Over the past two weeks or so, we’ve closed about 400; we’re continuing to make really good work on it. Hopefully, in the next week or two, I’ll be able to announce a partner that’s looking to fund the Innovation Center operations for the foreseeable future. If that happens, that unlocks a ton of doors.”

He continued, “A little bit more on the financials; we also have money set aside for equipment, for resources, for programming that we’re not able to reallocate for construction because the foundations have said that that’s not what their money is to go towards. We respect that. Again, that just gives us the challenge of having to close that gap.”

Kuilan reminded his audience that tax money is not being used to fund construction of the Innovation Center.

“But to reiterate, the tax dollars that we get from the city and from the county, hopefully, go to pay our day-to-day operation payroll, day to day operation equipment, office supplies, etc. ... We’re able to turn that investment in us into more money by going out and getting those grants, getting those tax credits, getting those foundation commitments. We’ve had two different foundations this week committed to helping us get that Innovation commercial kitchen up and running. So everything that we are trying to do is going to get done. We just need everybody here’s support.”

As he meets with people who can help fund this project, Kuilan told Chamber members that Barton County needs to build an investment fund for future projects that may emerge, before those projects are ever identified.

“We cannot wait until these projects have been identified, because they have very short timings of when you have to start and when you have to finish. When we got $4.3 million for this project, we didn’t get it as a lump sum. We got some to get the project kicked off, and then we continued to invoice them as we paid out our invoices, meaning we had to continually do reporting with them.

“So I’ve been meeting with all the banks asking for money, a lot of local companies asking for money, and I told them, ‘I need money for the Innovation Center, but you can count on it that I’m gonna be back in a couple months, and I’m gonna be asking for some more money.’ Because the Innovation Center is all part of what Economic Development is going to do in this county. We’re going to be doing a lot of other projects, but we’re not going to start those projects until we start to get some money invested in some sort of account that we can draw from.”

He said GBED isn’t alone. The Friends of Great Bend group that is raising money to create a public golf course at the former Club and StoneRidge is another example.

“They’re doing some amazing things with that golf course. They need an investment fund that they can potentially draw from. And there’s a lot of other organizations around Great Bend and Barton County that are doing great things that also deserve to have some sort of investment fund that goes towards economic development. So as an organization, what I would like to do is build this economic development fund, raise money privately, from grants, foundations, and then go to our friends at the city and the county and get them to match that to pay for infrastructure that goes towards houses and other projects.”

He added, “These projects will fall into our laps from time to time, and we need to be able to act on them in a manner that’s fiscally responsible. So that’s what we’re going to do differently.”

Beyond the Innovation Center

“The priority for Economic Development right now as an organization is clearly finishing the funding gap – getting a little over a million dollars, $1.2, $1.3 million left. We’re going to get there. We have a commitment from a local financial institution that’s going to help us with a loan if we need to, to make sure we finish this on time. And then we’re going to continue to fundraise and pay off that loan. And then we’re going to continue to execute on this. We have some money set aside for equipment. We have money set aside for programming. We’re continuing to apply for grants through our partners who have continually funded us year over year, the Patterson Foundation. Dorothy Morrison Foundation ... we’ll continue to get tax credits which have which have paid for our Ignite program. We’ll continue to do all of those things so that Economic Development is still running at the high speed that it has been.

“On top of that, we’re going to be expanding what we’re able to do.” He encouraged Chamber members to sign up and join subcommittees to help with efforts toward housing, workforce development, entrepreneurship, marketing, and grant writing.

He said he’s learned that Barton County needs more housing developments, but people who want to build houses say their limiting factor is the money that it takes to pay for the infrastructure to get those neighborhoods ready to develop.