The former Joyce’s Keg Room is pictured. Rahsann Graham has plans to turn the building into the Prendergast Landing, a business incubator that would include a kayak rental business and short-term rentals as well as space for local businesses to grow until they are ready for their own storefront. P-J file photo

Rashaan Graham has pictures of the building he now owns at 106 Fairmount Ave. in the late 1800s as part of a bustling waterfront economy.

Steamships used to dock in the area as people would travel to Jamestown, and in the years after Jamestown was founded the location that eventually became 106 Fairmount Ave. was in a prime location to capitalize on that waterfront traffic.

“If you can picture the late 1800s this was the corner where people who were coming down from the lake, I saw this as this thriving, bustling place,” Graham said during Wednesday’s Jamestown Local Development Corp. meeting. “When I was growing up it was called the outlet and it wasn’t thriving and bustling. If you can see the building on the far right, that is the building. I’m excited to be participating and contributing to what you all are doing on the waterfront. This is what we’re trying to reinvite people to.”

Members of the Jamestown Local Development Corporation seemed amenable to providing business incubator funding to the Prendergast Landing project – but no action was taken on Graham’s request of between $175,000 and $220,000 toward the project. The JLDC has $250,000 available for its business incubator fund that was created with federal ARPA funding.

Rahsann Graham, founder of Jade Empire LLC, bought the former Joyce’s Keg Room building in 2020 and wants to turn the 12,00 square foot building into a family-friendly destination that will have water sports rentals, office space, vacation rentals and other rental sales. The project budget had been listed as between $2.4 and $2.6 million, but could be higher as inflation drives up construction costs. The project has received a state grant through the Jamestown Renaissance Corp. and tax breaks from the county Industrial Development Agency.

The first floor of the Prendergast Landing will be shops while the second floor will be shared office space. The third and fourth floors will be short-term housing units and the bottom floor is projected to be a kayak rental business.

Incubator funding could be used for work on the first two floors. Graham said the storefront will be available for artisans or food vendors who have outgrown farmer’s markets but aren’t big enough yet for their own storefront. There will be a kitchen available for small sandwiches or salads and a coffee bar.

“It will be affordable month to month leases with no one getting too comfortable,” Graham said. “Really from an incubation perspective this is not where you’re going to be forever. As prime as we think the real estate will be because of what’s happening on that corner, this is set up for them to come in, spend some time there, develop a customer base and then move downtown. That’s where I see it from a space incubation place.”

The second floor will be shared office space that could be used by those working from home who need a work space outside the home or for small companies that need office space but can’t absorb the cost for a long-term lease in a bigger office building.

Graham has ties with the Small Business Development Center and the city’s ELab program working on business incubation and is in his fourth year offering small business development training with a program called Fast Track. He also sits on the board of the state’s Small Business Advisory Board. Businesses who move into Prendergast Landing would receive help creating their business from some of those agencies.

“All of those resources and partnerships that are happening we’re hoping to bring into this building, so not only are we providing a space for businesses to incubate in and a place for there to be partnership and cooperation, we’re also bringing in programming and resources around those individual businesses.”

Graham said he and his investors are working to secure additional state and government support to get Prendergast Landing off the ground. Work on the building began last year. Architectural plans have been finalized and investors are ready to invest their capital, Graham told JLDC members.

“It’s a matter of finding opportunities to find some more local and state grant money to help build the capital,” Graham said. “Interest rates haven’t helped. Commercial lending is still very high and my financial team, who knows I love my hometown, won’t let me put any more money into the project. … Full transparency I’m pretty tapped out here.”