MARS HILL - Mars Hill University hopes its Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership program has a lasting impact not only on current and prospective students, but on the community as a whole.
James Heinl is an assistant business professor at the university and executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, presented the university's proposed project which would not only house the university's CEL and its community inclusive programs, but would also house some of the university's working individuals.
The project, 16 N. Main, will also serve as the center's storefront and feature a conference/event space, according to Heinl.
The CEL includes Mars Hill's entrepreneurial leadership academic program. It aims to educate a new, diverse generation of leaders to "bring an entrepreneurial mindset to businesses in Western North Carolina."
"It is not just about how to start a business," said Heinl, "but how to impact any business in any position by displaying the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs."
Heinl presented the university's plans for 16 N. Main to the Mars Hill Town Board Nov. 6.
The building will feature a large conference and event space for public and private event hosting, economic development training and more. Additionally, the building will provide residential units for local employees and will be intentionally priced to provide equitable housing to local community employees.
The upper level will house the residential apartments, while the main level will be composed of the flexible multiuse purpose and multiuse spaces, including a kitchenette, Center for Entrepreneurial Learning offices and desks, a lobby, the event/conference space and a storefront.
The storefront will be a retail space featuring student products that are designed on campus, as well as community products.
According to Heinl, 16 N. Main will have six housing units available.
The housing will be aimed at working people, and as such, affordability is a main point of emphasis for the center, Heinl said.
"Because of the position we're in, we're able to cap the rent, put it at $800 a month," Heinl said. "That's including power, water, sewer, trash and parking.
"What we want these to be is housing for people that work in Mars Hill. Maybe they just started their careers, whatever it is. It's for people that work here. That's what we want this housing to be."
A packet issued at the Town Board meeting categorizes the project as "a facility that strengthens our community."
On Sept. 30, the center hosted a case competition for high school students.
Teams of one to four students will employ key business skills such as research, analysis, presentation, and creativity as they compete to develop the best solution to a business case. The competition saw six teams from area high schools compete for more than $10,000 in prize money.
Students presented unique business plans about pickleball, and three local entrepreneurs served as judges for the competition.
Heinl said the new Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has seen a lot of success in his 16 months with the university.
"We raise a lot of funds, which is very helpful," Heinl said. "We have a private donor, who is a seven-figure donor, which is extremely helpful."
In addition to the case competition, the center is utilizing the contributions from its business partners ? which include Camden's Coffee House, Mars Theatre Brewing Company, Meadowsweet Creamery, Outrider USA, Spark Robotic and The Wild Violet ? to invest in incubators as well.
"We're putting money in students' hands, but we're also putting money in high school students' hands," Heinl said. "So, part of the purpose and use of this space would be to not only to host these case competitions there, but also to have some type of office spaces for our program.
"We're not trying to profit on this. What we want to be able to do is to cover the expense of the property using the rates of rent that we're charging. Of course, we'd hope for some grants and taxes and things like that."
According to Heinl, the center team is looking into establishing a limited liability corporation business structure for the project.
For more information on the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, visit its website: https://www.mhu.edu/academics/majors-and-minors/business-administration/entrepreneurial-leadership/.