A business development services company based in Wilmington is moving from one downtown location to another.

Genesis Block, founded in 2019 by entrepreneurial couple Tracey and Girard Newkirk to support fledgling companies, was leasing office, coworking and event space at 20 Wrights Aly.

"Beginning in September we will be transitioning away from offering coworking, meeting rooms and event space as part of our service offerings," Genesis Block officials stated in an email Wednesday to members. "We are excited to announce the launch of our Genesis Block Academy, Block Eatz and Genesis Bridge/DiCE. Our focus on launching these dynamic brands has allowed us to shift our approach to expand our services to an even larger audience."

They said the move, which will put their corporate and administrative offices at Common Desk, will support this transition. Common Desk is itself a large coworking facility at 226 N. Front St. in downtown Wilmington. 

"Block Eatz, located at the McKeithan Center on the North Campus of Cape Fear Community College, will host our food hall incubator and entrepreneur training," the email said.

In June, a news release announced that Genesis Block has been chosen by a coalition created by Duke Energy to build an online platform to promote diverse-owned businesses in the clean energy industry.

“We are honored and excited to be selected to build out the vision of the DiCE platform, which is to use technology and collaboration to create more opportunities for diverse-owned businesses in the clean energy supply chain,” said Girard Newkirk, CEO of Genesis Block, in that release.

According to the announcement, Diversity in Clean Energy, known as DiCE, is an action-based coalition created by Charlotte-headquartered Duke Energy working in collaboration with Microsoft, T-Mobile, Kroger, General Motors, Solar Stewards and VLV Development as well as representatives from diverse-owned businesses in clean energy.

Genesis Block officials said in Wednesday's email, "Join us on Oct 6th from 9-11 as Genesis Block hosts 'Diversity in Clean Energy (DiCE): Converting Conversations to Contracts.' The aim of the event is to create a trade-show style environment with networking, to formally introduce DiCE and the millions of dollars in contracting opportunities that will be accessible for diverse-owned businesses."