Project Row Houses: Boosting Houston's Third Ward Businesses

Project Row Houses Business Residency Program

• 💡 The Project Row Houses business residency program aims to support startups in Houston's historic Third Ward.
• 🎯 Businesses apply for assistance on a rolling basis, with the program selecting the most qualified applicants.
• 🔑 Participants receive reduced rent for their business spaces for up to 3 years, approximately 50% of the going rate.
• 📍 These reduced rent spaces are located at the historic El Dorado Ballroom and two smaller adjacent locations.

Supporting Entrepreneurs and Storytellers

• 🚀 The program has supported about half a dozen businesses so far, including a specialty comic book store that operated for four years.
• 🌟 GF Coast Cosmos, the only Black-owned comic book store in Texas, successfully transitioned from the program to its own storefront.
• 💬 GF Coast Cosmos aims to be a place where people can not only purchase stories but also learn to tell their own stories through art and writing workshops.
• 🌱 The program's goal is to nurture a new generation of storytellers and businesses.

Future Growth and Mentorship

• 🤝 Project Row Houses plans to offer mentoring services in the near future.
• 📈 The initiative hopes to foster a culture of teaching and learning, where each participant can help another, contributing to the growth of the business residency.
• ✨ The ultimate aim is to help startups find their own superpower and succeed.