ST. LOUIS — St. Louis will be getting a cultural co-working space and incubator kitchen. It’s called Apiary @ the Park, and it’s located in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
The cultural co-working space is for creative entrepreneurs, freelancers, culinary artisans and small businesses. It will also be one of the first co-working spaces that also has co-living space.
“There will be private residential apartments that are available for any of our co-working clients and are for the general public at large. We will also tout a café and marketplace, which will be a great venue for our artisans – both food and creative artisans – to sell their product,” said Founder Fatimah Muhammad.
Fatimah also points out that the café will offer alternative style meals with products prepared from locally grown farmers.
There will also be salon suites and wellness centers incorporated into the space.
When Apiary @ the Park opens, it will have safety measures put into place due to COVID-19. Spaces are designed so that everyone is working alone while still working altogether.
Fatimah came up with the idea for this project after coming to a realization. “I just realized all of the black that was in our communities – there was no place to sit down and have a nice cup of coffee. There was no place for all of the home-based businesses to gather within a five-mile radius in a place that really spoke to their culture. There was not a fresh food market. So, I just started to think about all of those things, and it just resonated through me,” said Fatimah.
She set up listening sessions throughout the Hyde Park area to survey the needs of the people in the community.
“I also wanted to get a feel for all of the entrepreneurs of color and what they were looking for and how they could best be supported. I took all of those ideas and started to really hash in and start to think – how can I make that work? And then I found this lovely building here on Salisbury that had been vacant for 20+ years and decided this would make the perfect home for Apiary @ the Park,” said Fatimah.
She says the name comes from the bee being a strong example of community building. She decided on the name before even going into the building. 8 months later after it was ready for her to go in, there was graffiti art of a bee that was sprayed on the wall. “And I thought, this is an affirmation.”
The opening of Apiary @ the Park has been slightly delayed due to coronavirus, but the apartment units, market, café, even pop-up space and the culinary kitchen are aiming to open in January 2021.
For more information, visit apiaryatthepark.com.
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