Join us Monday, May 5th for a Ribbon Cutting at 12:00pm in Downtown Garner (Purvis Street and Main Street)
Join us Thursday, May 8th for Small Biz Social (Meet at Garner Rec Center) – networking and social event
For every $20 you spend at participating small businesses, you will be entered to win a SMALL BUSINESS GIFT BASKET!!
No fooling…spring is just around the corner and so is our April Foods Day Food Truck Rodeo featuring local food trucks, vendors, and our downtown merchants. Come enjoy lots of delicious food & fun and check out historic downtown Garner…your destination for local flavor!!
While we love our furry friends, this is NOT an event for pets.
Downtown Merchants: Full Bloom, Zin Yoga Studio & Wine Lounge, Steep Right Up, Nana’s Lil Sweets, Shady’s Pedal 2 Petal
Food Trucks: Beefy Buns, Blu Tea Spoon (Vegan), Bundts by Brenee, Carolina Fish Fry, Greek on Wheels, Hibachi Black, JAM Ice Cream, Kono Pizza Raleigh, Mama’s & Papa’s Taqueria, Monique’s Rollin’ Stove, Moon Runners, RomaRican, Vegan April (Vegan), VP Jerk Center
Craft Vendors: BellaRose Handcrafts, Fern & Hazel Permanent Jewelry, Free Spirited Artistry, In Your Face, Lemon Drop Lemonade, Pistol Penny’s Popcorn, Sugary Sweet Tumblers & Crafts, Swift Creek Giftworks
DJ: Dennis Pritt
The Business Recovery Grant Program will issue a one-time payment to an eligible North Carolina business that experienced a significant economic loss due to COVID-19. The application period closes January 31, 2022.
Two types of grants will be available to an eligible business that suffered an economic loss of at least 20 percent during the pandemic:
Garner Economic Development is pleased to announce a series of free webinars to help business impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The one hour webinars will feature local experts on topics such as cyber security, financial planning, and disaster preparedness. The classes will be held at 10:00am each Tuesday in November. The Garner Chamber of Commerce is hosting the webinars via Zoom. To sign up, please visit their events page.
The partnership between The Garner Chamber of Commerce and The Downtown Garner Association launched its first round in April and awarded small grants to 34 local Garner businesses and non-profits totaling $48,000. As the pandemic continues, the decision was made to do another round to help small businesses in and around Garner.
The goal of Round 2.5 is to provide support for businesses that are open but still recovering and struggling with the financial impact of COVID-19 either through restrictions on their business type, reduction in customers due to the pandemic, and/or businesses that have incurred additional expenses to make their places of business safer for the public (installation of barriers, hand sanitizer/dispensers, masks, etc.).
Priority business types for this round include 1) gyms, fitness studios, and indoor fitness, 2) barber, salon, and personal care businesses, 3) local restaurants, and 4) other service businesses especially impacted by COVID-19.
Deadline to apply is September 30th at 5pm.
The interior of the brick storefront at 120 E. Main St. has shed its dreary look. Walls coated with whiteboard paint are covered with notes and lists written in assorted colors. A large, wall-mounted monitor in the refinished back room displays app data. And remodeled offices with fresh carpet and paint are buzzing with activity.
But it’s not just the physical environment that’s different from when the Town-owned building housed Garner Fire-Rescue administrative staff or, before that, Garner Police Department personnel. These days, Operation 36 —a fast-growing company that uses tech platforms and innovative instructional methods to teach golf to children and adults—is leasing the space. The company signed a lease in September and now has five employees working out of the building. Operation 36 shares office and conference room space with staff and volunteers for the Downtown Garner Association (DGA).
The transformed storefront has been rechristened Gearworks. First announced at the Garner Chamber of Commerce’s annual Connect conference in August, the Gearworks concept involves converting 120 E. Main into a time-limited “bridge space” for small, scalable companies that previously may have been in a co-working space or a home office but are not quite ready for market-rate office space.
The Gearworks initiative is part of a larger strategy by DGA and Garner Economic Development to grow the creative-class and tech cluster in the historic downtown by adding other businesses of a similar type to the mix.
“Gearworks is intended for tech companies, social entrepreneurs and perhaps nonprofits,” Garner Economic Development Director Joe Stallings explains.
Downtown Development Manager Mari Howe is excited to add Operation 36 to a roster of Main Street creative and tech companies that includes Rising Stream, GrafixHouse , Foosye, and Garner Underground. She says it’s easy to see why these kinds of businesses are choosing downtown.
“Downtown Garner is uniquely positioned to help creative and tech businesses bridge the gap from small-scale startups to growing companies with a growing workforce,” Howe says. “We’ve heard from several businesses who were growing out of Raleigh’s co-working spaces, but weren’t quite ready for the regular office park gig. Many had their eye on historic buildings in Downtown Garner that offer creative, affordable workspaces while still being close to the region’s bustling entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
“We’re really appreciative of this space,” says Ryan Dailey, co-founder and chief operating officer for Operation 36. “Our staff is excited to be here. It’s a really cool part of town to be in—it’s really upbeat.”
Howe notes that the Downtown Garner environment provides invigorating entrepreneurial support for companies such as Operation 36.
“The entrepreneurial business mix in Downtown Garner essentially serves as a giant tech incubator,” she says. “Gearworks tenants can walk up and down the business district, talking with other tech companies about the start-up process and crowd sourcing input from others who’ve gone through the same problems before.”
Gearworks tenants not only will receive a multitude of benefits; they will also give back to the community. As part of the leasing arrangement, Gearworks tenants agree to participate in some form of community service or mentoring projects while they are leasing space at 120 E. Main. Operation 36 is still working with Garner Economic Development on the details of its service or mentoring.
Operation 36 is a network of over 350 golf professionals in over 300 locations internationally who focus on new players’ long-term development as golfers. The goal of instruction is to help beginner golfers to achieve a score of 36 for nine holes. But there’s a catch: The new golfers start only 25 yards from the hole each hole.
“We fell on top of a really cool concept of starting closer to the hole where anyone—even a beginner—could have success,” Dailey says.
Dailey and Operation 36 co-founder Matt Reagan also decided to make golf instruction a group activity. “It should mirror the successful programs like gymnastics and dance and karate where you’re surrounded by kids of the same age who are working together towards different goals,” Dailey says.
The Operation 36 approach also focuses on getting new golfers out on the course as much as possible. That seems obvious, but not all golf instruction makes that a priority, Dailey and Reagan say.
“You gotta play the game and get out on the golf course to really enjoy what golf has to offer,” Dailey says.
The company has also developed an app that all of its golf students use (therein lies the tech side of Operation 36). The app enables the students to see their progress over time.
“You can’t improve what you can’t measure. We’re the only company that actually measures whether you’re creating a golfer,” Dailey says.
Awhile back, moms and dads of the youngsters taking lessons with Operation 36 started asking about adapting the company’s methods for adults. As a result, Dailey and Reagan developed instructional options for grownups too.
“It’s a lot less intimidating, and there’s a social aspect” to Operation 36 instruction for adults, Dailey says.
Operation 36 has devised a winning formula for making new golfers of both young people and adults. And, as the company scales up, Gearworks will be a part of that formula. It figures to be the first of many success stories for Downtown Garner’s new bridge space in the coming years.
Article written by Rick Mercier, Communications Director for the Town of Garner.
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