The MicroBusiness Development Corp., a nonprofit that helps startup companies get off the ground, plans to move to a new home. But first it has to raise as much as $4 million.
The organization is a tenant in the 72,000-square-foot Denver Enterprise Center, a business incubator owned by the Denver Urban Economic Development Corp.
“We are on a month-to- month lease, and we haven’t been able to renegotiate it,” said Kersten M. Hostetter, MBD executive director.
In a letter, Hostetter has asked the small businesses that are her organization’s clients, as well as other nonprofits and service providers, for contributions to help in the move.
“Today, we ask that you support MBD by taking this moment to be our hero. Our Hero Campaign will raise $100,000 from the community that will be matched by our funding partners to fund an MBD building,” she said in a letter dated June 20.
The contributions will demonstrate that the nonprofit has community support it needs to get foundation grants and government-backed low-interest loans. The MBD hopes to buy a $4 million building at West Seventh Avenue and Kalamath Street, Hostetter said.
The Denver Urban Economic Development Corp. has sent letters to other tenants in the enterprise center at 3003 Arapahoe St. telling them they must move by June 30, Hostetter said.
“I think we are seeing the writing on the wall, and we see it is time for us to go,” she said.
Jan Friedlander, Denver Urban Economic Development board president, said the organization isn’t evicting anyone. Some of the companies that received the letters haven’t paid rent for months, she said.
At a meeting Monday, Hostetter said board members told tenants the organization is willing to work out reasonable terms under which those who are in arrears can pay off their rent bill.
Nicholas Agro, owner of Whirled Peas Catering in the building, has received a letter calling on him to move his business by June 30. Agro had already planned to move Whirled Peas into a state-of- the-art kitchen facility within the next few months, he said.
A copy of the letter that he provided to The Post says nothing about him owing rent.
“(Denver Enterprise Center) is hereby providing you with notice of the termination of the month-to-month tenancy of Whirled Peas,” said the letter, from Denver law firm Sherman & Howard, which represents Denver Urban Economic Development.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
