The owners of a cat cafe planning on opening in Tulsa this fall say they need help with paying for construction.
They say the bids came back about $100,000 more than estimated, so they are crowdfunding for part of it.
The owners created a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to raise $25,000.
Their goal is to turn a 3,200 sq. ft building near 51st and Sheridan they are leasing into a cat cafe with grooming and boarding in less than three months.
“You’ve got cat bridges, cats dangling all over the place,” said owner Adam Fitzpatrick.
“If it was up to my wife, we’d have 40 cats at home, but we compromised, and I built her a cat café,” said Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick and his wife, who are from Oklahoma City, opened Don’t Stress Meowt – Cat Cafe there about a year ago.
“We’ve gotten over 200 cats adopted in our first year, over $20,000 donated back into the community,” said Fitzpatrick.
They said they want to double the size and impact in Tulsa, but they are short on cash.
“We estimated about $135,000. Everything came back in closer to $235,000,” said Fitzpatrick.
The Fitzpatricks said Kickstarter crowdfunding helped them raise $25,000 for their Oklahoma City cafe, so they are doing the same for Tulsa’s cafe.
“They believe in our mission, and they just wanted to help,” said Fitzpatrick.
Most nearby businesses said they are excited.
“They are bringing new people, a little bit higher-end merchants, and so forth, so we are changing for better,” Massoud Moheb, owner of Ringmakers by Massoud, who has been a tenant at The Farm Shopping Center for 35 years.
With permits approved, the Fitzpatricks said they are optimistic as they work toward opening in late October.
“We want to get cats adopted, and we want to take those profits and invest it back into animal welfare and our cats and to the community,” said Fitzpatrick.
If the business reaches its goal, the owners will hire about a dozen people in the coming months.
The Kickstarter campaign has raised about $7,000 dollars in the first 24 hours.
The cafe has until September 5th to reach $25,000 dollars.
If it does not, it will not get any of the money raised.
You can follow the Kickstarter here.
