A new center for culinary entrepreneurship and workforce training called Store One, which is being built in the former space of the first-ever grocery store that Northgate González Markets opened, has reached $10.75 million in funding.
About $7.75 million in public funding will go to construction and another $3 million from private donations will support the project’s equipment and operational expenses.
The 12,000-square-foot center is being developed by the city of Anaheim in a model public-private partnership with the Anaheim Community Foundation and is aiming to open in late 2025. Construction is expected to begin this fall.
To date, funding has come from public organizations such as the federal Economic Development Administration, which gave $3 million and a federal Community Development Block Grant of $2 million. The city of Anaheim itself raised $1 million and Anaheim Public Utilities gave $250,000.
A joint federal appropriation is forthcoming from the offices of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla and U.S. Representative Lou Correa, totaling $500,000 as well as a state appropriation of $1 million from Assemblymember Avelino Valencia.
Lead donors, and a few of Orange County’s most active philanthropists, include the Samueli Foundation with a $1.5 million gift and another $1 million from the Sun Family Foundation.
On June 27, Store One started a campaign to raise an additional $5 million that will go towards purchasing furniture and equipment. The funding will also support multiyear programming and operations.
The center aims to serve hundreds of adults, specifically youth, through culinary business incubation, workforce training, upskilling and related community services, with the goal to potentially produce up to 120 culinary trainees and support 20 food-related startups annually.
Training Kitchens
The González family started their Mexican grocery chain in 1980 when Founder Don Miguel González Jiménez and his son Miguel González Reynoso gathered the funds to purchase a small liquor store in Anaheim.
The remainder of the family provided “sweat” equity to convert the store into the first Northgate market. Now, the company counts 44 grocery store locations across Southern California.
In 2019, the city of Anaheim purchased the vacant property from Northgate for $4.75 million.
Several of the González family members from Anaheim-based Northgate volunteer on the advisory committee and strategic taskforce.
“With Store One, we are preserving and building on a proud part of Anaheim’s past while investing in the future of our young people,” Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said in a statement.
“Now, we will create a space of opportunity and economic mobility for young chefs, cottage bakers and others with a dream of building a legacy right here in Anaheim.”
Upon completion next year, Store One’s facilities will include a few kinds of kitchens for a variety of training and resources.
There will be a teaching kitchen for training chefs, line cooks, restaurant managers and other positions. Food entrepreneurs will be able to test recipes and produce goods in large quantities at a batch production kitchen. The center will also have two pop-up storefronts, on a rotating basis, for those entrepreneurs to sell their creations.
Store One will sport a showcase kitchen and flex space as well for cooking demonstrations and other events. There will also be a community garden and gathering space.
The project is looking to partner with local nonprofit and educational groups to provide day-to-day services and programming.
