investStratford

The Little Prince is a constantly evolving community focused creative event space. It is made up of four major components, three of which make up our bricks-and-mortar downtown Stratford location, while one exists purely online as an extension of the bricks-and-mortar space. These components are: 1. a tiny screening room affectionately referred to as the “the World’s Smallest Movie Theatre.” 2. A cinema themed lounge with a fully functioning concession serving our house-made popcorn and cotton candy. 3. As of February 2021 (with the assistance of this funding,) a small commercial kitchen which will allow us to both expand our line of product and commit to the highest standards of sanitization. 4. Our website (under construction) which, when finished, will function as the digital version of our bricks-and-mortar storefront, meaning it will be more than just a landing page, it will be an experience and a destination in and of itself.

Address

62 Wellington St. Stratford, ON N5A 2L2

Grant Amount

$14,500

Total Project Cost

$25,600

"This program was profoundly helpful and came just at the right time. It eased our uncertainty regarding the future of the business in these challenging times and allowed us to actually expand the business in a number of ways. When combined with our own financial investment and a detailed roadmap for adaptation, this funding allowed us to reimagine the whole business and our part in the community going forward. Furthermore, it is directly responsible for our spike in production and recent expansion into the confection wholesale market (due to our newly built commercial kitchen,) as well as our ability to meet the huge jump in demand for delivery and shipping our product Canada-wide.

Lastly, it allowed us to put in place several entirely new safety features which will result in our future guests being confident and comfortable in our bricks-and-mortar environment at such time as Health Canada allows non-essential businesses to reopen. We invested significantly in the project ourselves as well which meant we could design many of the precautions in such a way as to appeal greatly to both our current and expanded audience going forward, ie. a plexi-glass partition cleverly disguised as an antiquated “box office” booth and a concession counter partition to match, or our brass stanchions which bring to mind golden age theatres while also serving to direct foot traffic safely within the space."

Leigh Cooney, Owner/Operator, The Little Prince

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Project Summary

With the help of this financing, we have been able to (among other things):

• Install a small commercial kitchen which will allow expansion of line of product and commit to the highest standards of sanitization.

• Construct new website which, when finished, will function as the digital version of the bricks-and-mortar storefront, meaning it will be more than just a landing page, it will be an experience and a destination in and of itself.

• Install touchless features in place of our outdated manual ones such as hand dryers, an automatic exterior door opener, double hinged swinging interior doors, soap and sanitizer dispensers and more, as well as the faux-antique plexi-glass barriers.

• Install an air-circulation unit to continually replace stale air.

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Key Impacts

-Partner with other community-minded creative individuals and arts groups to support and promote local musicians, comedians, filmmakers, and more via online content filmed and staged safely on-site at the Little Prince. This seamless blend of on and off- line content existing symbiotically is going to play a large role in our direction going forward.

-Invest in multiple employment opportunities, some of which are already active while others are in the works currently.

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The Little Prince

Address

Grant Amount

Total Project Cost

Project Summary

Key Impacts

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