Originally posted at the Chicago Business Journal.

Amped Kitchens, which opened its first Chicago location two months ago, is looking to open a South Side location in the next two years.

“I don’t think we will be opening any new locations next year because we are focused on getting this one up and running, but it is possible that in 2023 that we could consider additional locations and if we did that it would probably be on the South Side,” Mott Smith, co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Amped Kitchens, told the Chicago Business Journal. “The South Side has a ton of entrepreneurship right now, and we believe there’s a great deal of demand there, but not enough services and we’d like to fill that gap.”

“While both are multi-tenant kitchen complexes the big difference is we are production oriented whereas ghost kitchens are food service oriented,” explained Smith. “Ghost kitchens are going to have a bunch of restaurants putting hot meals in bags for drivers to deliver 15 minutes after production. Our facility is much more about manufacturing products for sale at retail outlets, consumer package goods you see at supermarkets.”

Smith, who also co-owns Los Angeles-based Civic Enterprise Development LLC, said Amped Kitchens tenants sign a one-year lease and have unlimited access to their private kitchen space. A lot of tenants are bakeries and candy makers and 54% of the tenants are minority-owned businesses, according to Smith, who added Amped Kitchens handles its own leasing too.