PREP®, a culinary co-working and shared commercial kitchen concept, has expanded its operations to Arizona, opening PREP Kitchens Scottsdale at Shea Boulevard and Scottsdale Road. Since its inception in 2014, PREP® has been on a mission to support passionate food entrepreneurs by offering comprehensive mentorship, state-of-the-art facilities and a robust community of culinary professionals.
“The demand for fresh, locally produced culinary products is at an all-time high, which is allowing both new start-ups and established businesses the ability to grow their production and customer bases,” says Drew Barrett, co-founder and head of business development for PREP®. “It’s been incredible to watch the growth in the Scottsdale and Greater Phoenix area over the past few years and, in particular, to see how the culinary community has thrived post-COVID with record food and beverage sales and a host of new, critically acclaimed concepts coming to market. At PREP, we’re excited to accelerate the natural growth of the many makers that call the area home and offer them convenient, turnkey kitchen infrastructure and services to help supercharge their businesses.”
PREP’s state-of-the-art commercial kitchen facility offers a mix of turnkey private kitchens and stations available for rent by the hour and by the month. The Scottsdale location features 13 private commercial food production kitchens ranging from 250 to 750 square feet, plus a large, shared kitchen with 10 co-working stations available for cooking and baking. Members also have access to meeting areas; a back dock for loading and unloading; ample cold, dry and freezer storage; and large-scale, NSF-certified commercial production equipment. Member benefits include fully maintained equipment and cleaning, licensing support, procurement services, seminars and workshops, marketing and sales assistance and financial planning. The flexible membership plans are designed to serve the needs of event or corporate caterers, bakers, private chefs, specialty food producers, test kitchens, subscription meal service providers and restaurant groups in need of additional space for catering or batch food preparation.
“We leverage a combination of local mentors along with providing virtual/remote access to mentors that hail from other PREP cities,” Barrett explains. “We source experts with experience in areas that are key to early-stage food and beverage businesses in areas like marketing, finance, capital-raising, accounting, packaging, recipe development and other disciplines so that our members can help get answers to questions quickly that will help them scale up.”
Photo courtesy of PREP Kitchens
