For someone starting a small business, an idea is only the beginning. There are permits to understand, financing questions to work through, a place to operate to find, and decisions that can be difficult to navigate without experienced help.

In East Tulsa, a project meant to bring some of that help closer to home has reached a visible milestone. On Tuesday, October 13, partners broke ground on the Bank of Oklahoma Eastside Center for Entrepreneurship at Plaza Santa Cecilia. Construction is beginning on a resource center for people building and growing businesses. The center itself is not yet open.

The setting is part of the story. Plaza Santa Cecilia, near 21st Street and Garnett Road in the Tulsa Global District, has long been a place where immigrant-owned businesses and restaurants serve neighbors and visitors. Elevate East says the property has housed approximately 30 immigrant-owned businesses. The planned center would place new business resources within a community that already has entrepreneurs at work.

Those resources have practical meaning for people who have started with little guidance. In earlier reporting by 2 News Oklahoma, Plaza Santa Cecilia business owner Judith Annie Cruz recalled the uncertainty she faced starting her own business. She welcomed the prospect of tools and knowledgeable people being available to help other owners move forward. Her experience gives a human scale to what might otherwise sound like a building project.

Eastside Rise's current plans describe 14,465 square feet of space, including two classrooms, shared work areas, private offices, meeting rooms and smaller places for collaboration. The organization also envisions business training, marketing guidance, legal and financial consulting, and mentorship designed with the community's cultural backgrounds in mind.

The organization says its goal is to reduce barriers to business ownership, especially for emerging entrepreneurs from socially and economically disadvantaged communities, including immigrants. Affordable workspace and shared expertise are part of that ambition. Whether those plans translate into accessible, useful support will become clearer when programs begin operating.

Getting to this groundbreaking has taken time. The City of Tulsa announced a business incubator at Plaza Santa Cecilia in February 2024, but the schedule slipped. Reporting by the Tulsa Flyer traced part of that delay to the legal complexity of purchasing one portion of a larger commercial property. Eastside Rise completed its purchase of the western portion in June 2025. The October ceremony marks progress beyond acquisition and planning.

The effort has involved both public and private support. Eastside Rise credits the City of Tulsa, Tulsa County, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Coretz Family Foundation, the Hardesty Family Foundation and Bank of Oklahoma with helping advance the project. The organization's hopes for jobs and neighborhood growth remain goals, not outcomes the groundbreaking itself can demonstrate.

According to October 13 reporting, completion is targeted for fall 2027. That is a projected milestone, not a confirmed opening date. The public project description does not yet establish specific coworking rates, program eligibility or the schedule for the first classes. Eastside Rise offers project updates for those who want to follow what comes next.

A groundbreaking cannot tell us how many businesses will grow from this space. It does show that a long-planned investment has reached construction. At a plaza where local owners have already been building livelihoods, the next chapter is about whether the new center can give more people the tools and connections to do the same.