Anne Dunaway's small grocery store and hydroponic growing facility in a downtown Ogden neighborhood appears like an oasis in the desert — a food desert, that is. Dunaway, a single mom and entrepreneur, began growing microgreens in her garage in 2018. That gave birth to Urban Prairie Agriculture, her business focused on nurturing fresh local food sources that can boost health and strengthen communities.
But her latest leap — the indoor grow facility and storefront in a low-income urban neighborhood — involved buying and retrofitting an old building and getting the necessary permits from Ogden City to begin production. That sometimes confusing process took several months longer than expected, which led to the loss of lucrative contracts that could have supplied $8,600 in revenue each week, Dunaway said.
In October 2023, Dunaway focused on purchasing the 65-year-old structure at 301 28th Street, and completed that transaction in March 2024. But she later learned of costly improvements that Ogden City required in order to issue her business license. While Dunaway had hoped to host the market's grand opening in mid-May, that date got pushed back to July. And it wasn't until late September 2024 that she finally obtained her operating license. By then, the major contracts had disappeared.
Those hurdles seemed like a "gauntlet of impossible and often conflicting city processes," Dunaway said. But now she's scrambling to line up new contracts and meet production timelines posted on her warehouse wall.
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