Located in the historic East Village Arts District of Downtown Long Beach, Partake Collective is an adaptive reuse of a 1940’s General Telephone and Electronic building that now houses 21 ghost kitchens. The space includes a common area for ordering, shopping and mess hall for dining as well as a test kitchen, commercial kitchens, prep kitchens and a shared communal kitchen space. Designed to promote a healthy work environment it offers generous natural light and employee amenities including break rooms, lockers, showers and bike storage.

Partake is built on a model that promotes social engagement and community building. The design focuses on visitor activity on the ground floor with a streamlined pick-up zone that features a retail kiosk for operators to sell premade goods in addition to their in-house culinary creations. An additional show kitchen offers chefs a space to facilitate demonstrations, recipe testing and develop their concepts.

In collaboration with architectural firm Studio One Eleven, Howard CDM took a sustainable approach in embracing and utilizing the old and new building features. The original arched windows, existing heavy timber, steel and concrete were retained and exposed in public areas. Additional scope of work included modifications to the existing curb and parking with an added corner bulbout for temporary parking, takeout/delivery and drop-off/pick-ups.