‘A vision:’ Small Business Accelerator opens Published 6:00 am Tuesday, July 29, 2025

1/10 Swipe or click to see more Shops and restaurants in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator stand open to customers on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 2/10 Swipe or click to see more Tables are set for visitors at Danny’s Italian restaurant in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 3/10 Swipe or click to see more Daniel Gonzalez, owner of Danny’s Italian restaurant, speaks on Wednesday, July 24, 2025, about his newly opened location in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 4/10 Swipe or click to see more Wine, cheese, deli meats and other Italian delicacies sit on display in a refrigerated case in Danny’s Italian restaurant in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 5/10 Swipe or click to see more Tables are set for visitors at Danny’s Italian restaurant in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 6/10 Swipe or click to see more SOKY Floral Exchange is open to customers in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 7/10 Swipe or click to see more Jennifer Spurling, co-owner of SOKY Floral Exchange with Emily Hunt, speaks about their new shop in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 8/10 Swipe or click to see more An assortment of flowers are set out in the SOKY Floral Exchange shop in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 9/10 Swipe or click to see more Emily Hunt (left), co-owner of SOKY Floral Exchange with Jennifer Spurling (right), speaks about their new shop in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS 10/10 Swipe or click to see more Floral arrangements, t-shirts, specialty soaps and other farm- and boutique-made products sit out for sale at SOKY Floral Exchange in the Housing Authority’s Small Business Accelerator on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

“I couldn’t be any more ecstatic about how things are going.”

This is how Daniel Gonzalez, owner of the namesake Danny’s Pasta, described recent business at his location in the Housing Authority of Bowling Green’s Small Business Accelerator, which has seen several tenants move in in recent months.

The Small Business Accelerator was created through a partnership with Houchens and the Housing Authority of Bowling Green’s Live The Dream Development Inc. It seeks to give a hand to small businesses owned by women, minority populations, low-income individuals and those who lost their previous location to 2021 tornadoes.

The renovated, 20,000-square-foot former Save-a-Lot building has space for up to 11 tenants, with suites ranging in size from 800-2,500 square feet. Those selected can stay up to four years in the accelerator.

An opening date for December was originally planned, but some delays came up pushing completion into mid-January.

Gonzalez, who also operates a primarily take-out location in downtown Bowling Green, always wanted to open a sit-down restaurant.

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“When I opened up the pasta shop, it was just kind of like, how can I get to where I can open up a sit-down space,” Gonzalez said. “When I heard about this space becoming available for minorities, for low income business owners, for women, I said, ‘well, maybe I can apply and maybe that can be a space where I can kind of kick this thing off.’ ”

Gonzalez opened the location Feb. 28. For businesses moving into the space, the Housing Authority conducted background checks on applicants and covered some startup costs.

For Gonzalez, this meant a bevy of kitchen equipment that came with his space, by his estimate totaling $100,000.

“I don’t have that kind of money to just put into a place like this,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been a dream that was possible for me.”

HABG head Katie Miller said leases were signed at the accelerator in January, and move-ins were staggered. Two of the 11 spaces are still vacant, but the plans are to move a hair salon and nail salon into the remaining two units soon.

She said reception has been positive from the public so far.

“It is great to finally see it come to life,” she said. “You have a vision, and to see your vision come to life is a great thing for sure. Serving the community is helping small businesses, it’s doing what we hoped it would do.”

Emily Hunt and Jennifer Spurling operate SOKY Floral Exchange out of the accelerator. The business is focused on selling to wholesale customers.

Before the storefront opened, the business was selling to floral shops and different designers. Spurling said with the space in the accelerator, some retail sales are now possible too.

Hunt and Spurling work with around 25 flower farms in the region to source their product. Business is busiest during the spring, and slows down in the summer when the growing seasons end.

Before their storefront opened in April, the two were running an online-only business.

“We’ve been in business for two years prior to this, and we just kind of operated on a delivery only basis,” Spurling said. “We knew that to expand our business model, we needed to have a place where … florists could come in and shop.”

When the accelerator was still coming together, Miller said rental costs they found were between $800 and $2,500 per month.

The two are paying $800 per month for their space at the accelerator. Spurling said with rent figures being higher at similarly sized places around town, their storefront “might not have been possible” without the accelerator.

Med Center Health will also occupy a space in the accelerator as MCH’s Health and Wellness services will move from a location near the old hospital into the accelerator later this week.

Sarah Widener, head of Health and Wellness, told the Daily News her department will receive its own classroom space at the accelerator which will be used for its programs, namely diabetes education and medical nutrition therapy.

Currently, Health and Wellness is housed in a building near the old hospital alongside Med Center’s Dental Clinic. There, she said, space is “hard to come by.”

“We have not had our own, dedicated classroom where we can hold things like our diabetes support group, our diabetes education classes,” she said. “Those are things, plus more, that we have done in the past when we have had our own, dedicated space.”

After the department moves into the accelerator and gets going this week, space for these programs will be available.

“We’re hoping to offer more screenings regularly like we used to, whether it’s blood pressure, blood sugar, other things that we see as a need as we move along,” she said. “This new space will allow us to grow our services and offerings to the community.”