State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, is pictured ordering a gelato recently from Hannah Sellari, owner of The Big Dipper in Dunkirk.

State Sen. George Borrello is crossing the political aisle to support kitchen incubators across the state.

Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, recently signed on as a co-sponsor for S.3561, legislation sponsored by Sen. Cordell Cleare, D-New York City, that passed both houses of the state Legislature in the 2023-24 session but was vetoed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The bill was passed last week in the state Senate by a 60-2 vote. It has yet to make its way back to the Assembly floor for a vote.

“I know it’s passed a few times,” Borrello said on the Senate floor. “I know it made it all the way to the governor’s desk where she vetoed this. Let me start off by saying that operating a restaurant is difficult. Opening a restaurant is extremely difficult. And knowing what to do and how to do it is nearly impossible to guarantee success. That’s why these small kitchen incubators are such a great thing. We want to promote small, local business owners. We want to promote local foods, local restaurant owners. And this is the way to do it.”

Borrello cited the Eli Fish Brewing Company in Batavia as an example of an incubator kitchen that has helped launch several Batavia-area restaurants. Cleare’s legislation would require the Empire State Development Corporation, in consultation with the state Agriculture and Markets and the Office of New Americans, to study and report on the economic impact of optimizing and expanding kitchen incubators in New York state. The report would have to include insight into optimizing and expanding kitchen incubators and entrepreneurship efforts for minority, women, and immigrant populations, and recommendations on how to create more entrepreneurial success in the industry.

“The average cost of installing even the simplest commercial kitchen can be $20,000 or more, which is prohibitive for so many entrepreneurs who have a unique product to bring to the marketplace,” Cleare said. “So it is proven that shared commercial kitchens are a viable solution to this challenge, but we don’t have nearly enough of them and access is not prioritized to those who need them the most. So the purpose of this bill is to require that we study in action plan concerning the transformative effects of locating and optimizing small kitchen incubators in public and private spaces where they can have the most collective impact.”

The Hatch at Jamestown Community College’s Olean campus offers support to small businesses, including a commercial kitchen with oven, stove, electric griddle, cold storage space, dry storage space, kitchen utensils, pots and baking sheets. There have been occasional discussions about creating incubator space in Jamestown, but those efforts haven’t yet resulted in a finished product.

Borrello said one reason Cleare’s study wasn’t signed into law was concerns about funding. Borrello said the state should find the money to help expand the use of kitchen incubators statewide.

“What I’ve heard was that we don’t have funding for this,” Borrello said. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got funding for a lot of things. I would hope that in this budget we could find a little bit of room to give Empire State Development money so we can promote new businesses, small businesses here in New York state. I’m proud to co-sponsor this bill.”