The Niles kitchen and entrepreneurial incubator, in the works for almost a year, could open as soon as January, now that it has obtained sufficient funding.

The Niles City Council approved a resolution Monday to use $20,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds toward the project. CDBG is a federal program that provides communities with resources to address community development needs.

The certified industrial kitchen, located in the former Pickwick Club in the Leader Publications building on North Fourth Street, is designed for small business owners to use the space to produce their product, according to Niles Main Street Director Lisa Croteau.

“In Michigan you have to cook from a certified kitchen to sell it,” she said. “This allows business start-ups to cook and sell product.”

The hope is that the product produced in the kitchen will also be sold at French Market during the summer, Croteau said.

Croteau said 17 people are signed up to use the kitchen space already. They will pay $15 an hour to rent the space, which Croteau hopes will be enough for Niles Main Street to break even on the venture.

The resolution was approved by a 7-1 vote with Scott Clark voting no and Mayor Mike McCauslin absent.

Clark, a newly elected representative of the 4th Ward, said there are better uses for the CDBG funds.

“With the lack of funds at the state and federal government, putting funds into a kitchen for 10 people isn’t smart,” he said.

Clark said it’s a “slap in the face” to business owners who invested in their own certified kitchen.

Carri Harrington, economic restructuring chairperson for Niles Main Street, told the Star in a previous story that she hopes the kitchen will draw people from outside of Niles.

“Our goal is to make this a regional thing,” she said. “It’s going to be a regional project stretching as far as about 90 miles.”