A vacant building on Westchester Drive could soon become a launching pad for High Point's food entrepreneurs. The city is weighing a five-year agreement with Pepper Moon Collaborative to design, build out and run a shared-use commercial kitchen inside the roughly 11,000-square-foot property, with City Council set to take up the matter Monday if a city committee recommends it first.
Finance Committee Weighs the Deal
The High Point Finance Committee met Thursday to discuss the proposed agreement, which would have the city pay Pepper Moon Collaborative $660,000 over the first three years to operate the kitchen during construction and as it becomes operational, according to FOX8 WGHP. In years four and five, Pepper Moon would instead share a portion of the facility's revenue with the city. The committee could recommend the agreement to City Council, which is scheduled to consider it Monday.
The city owns the vacant building at 1661 Westchester Drive that the kitchen would occupy, and if the agreement wins approval, High Point would still need to complete the construction process before the space opens. The station's report notes the city had also considered building a new kitchen from the ground up before settling on this reuse approach.
What the Kitchen Would Offer
The shared-use kitchen is designed to give food truck operators, caterers, bakers and other entrepreneurs access to commercial-grade space where they can develop products, fill orders and expand their businesses. High Point Assistant City Manager Eric Olmedo said the long-vacant building presents a revitalization opportunity for the area. He added that a licensed, fully functional kitchen would let entrepreneurs test a concept and scale their businesses, per the same account.
City bid records show the push for an operator dates back further than this week's committee meeting. A City of High Point bid listing shows the request for qualifications publishing in October 2025 with a December 2025 closing date, and a related addendum document is dated Nov. 21, 2025.
An Earlier Plan for a Different Site
High Point has floated a shared kitchen concept before. A 2024 plan described a proposed 10,000-square-foot, city-owned facility at 331 W. Russell Ave. that would rent space to small food businesses, according to the High Point Enterprise. That earlier concept envisioned commercial kitchen space, kitchen condos, storage and preparation areas, a tasting room and a food pickup area, with the city covering some overhead costs like utilities rather than funding the entire operation. The evidence does not indicate whether that Russell Avenue proposal and the current Westchester Drive plan are connected or represent separate efforts.
Similar Kitchens Taking Shape Across North Carolina
High Point would not be the first North Carolina city to bet on this model. The NC Food Commissary in Fayetteville opened as a shared commercial kitchen and business center built to support food trucks, caterers, bakers and other culinary entrepreneurs, according to BizFayetteville. That facility features multiple private commercial kitchens, prep spaces, dishwashing stations, cold and dry storage, and a small business center, and it celebrated its grand opening on Feb. 19, 2026.
Elsewhere, a kitchen housed in the Enterprise Center on MLK Jr. Drive operates as a program of the S.G. Atkins Community Development Corp. designed to encourage food entrepreneurs, per AP News. Those projects illustrate the kind of small-business infrastructure High Point officials appear to be chasing as they weigh whether to greenlight the Westchester Drive agreement next week.
