Tech Incubators Continue to Pop Up across the Country

Alternate financing schemes increasing to pay for popular TBED tool

State and local strategies to assist new technology business formation often focus on three elements: helping firms secure much needed funding or capital (either private or public), lower their operating costs, or gain access to the intellectual and knowledge resources necessary to succeed. Since successful technology business incubators or accelerators usually address all three elements, the nation’s newspapers are continually reporting on the planning, construction or expansion of these useful TBED tools. A few recent announcements are highlighted below.

 

Arizona

Redevelopment of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) campus in Flagstaff soon will include a new $3.6 million, 10,000 sq. ft. technology and business incubator. The April 23 Arizona Daily Sun reports the facility is included in the Innovation Campus master plan for the city-owned property. Financing for the facility and future technology park derives from a $62 million bond, to be repaid by USGS rental of other buildings on the campus.

 

California and Michigan

Pfizer, which recently laid off thousands of scientists and researchers in Michigan and donated its $50 million lab facility to Michigan State University, has set aside 26,000 sq. ft. and $10 million per year for five years to incubate new biotech companies in Torry Pines, outside of San Diego. The May 4 edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports, “Tenants will have to agree to an up-front equity-share agreement with Pfizer. When research is done, Pfizer will have an option to acquire the rights at a fair market price.”



[Editor’s note: Connect and Biocom, the Southern California industry trade group, are reported as supportive of the project in the article, but we wonder how much local economic development will result from big pharma mining initiatives like these.]

 

Florida

The research park at Florida Atlantic University added 3,000 sq. ft. to its technology business incubator, allowing the facility to accommodate an additional six companies. Currently, the Boca Raton Technology Business Incubator houses 16 companies in 11,000 sq. ft.

 

Maryland

On a less encouraging note, the Chesapeake Innovation Center, based in Annapolis and dedicated to helping launch homeland security businesses, is downsizing by 77 percent – from 24,000 sq. ft. to 5,400 sq. ft. The number of start-ups to be served will only be reduced by half, according to the Apr. 17 edition of the Washington Business Journal.

 

Missouri

The April 23 St. Louis Business Journal reports the University of Missouri – St. Louis is purchasing a 56,300 sq. ft. building to house a business incubator specializing in the start-up needs of businesses in technology hardware and software development. The U.S. Economic Development Administration provided $1 million toward the purchase price of the building, the paper notes.

 

North Carolina

Once completed, the new Applied Technology Building on the Transylvania County campus of Blue Ridge Community College in Brevard will include incubator space to house up to seven businesses. The center also will house programs for automotive systems, applied health and distance learning. A Community Development Block Grant provided $400,000 of the funding for the incubator, according to the Apr. 12 edition of the Asheville Citizen-Times.

 

Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Technology and Research Park board approved plans for construction of a 24,000 sq. ft. business accelerator in Stillwater. The facility, to be named after a state legislator who was instrumental in securing funding for the project, is anticipated to be ready for occupancy by next May.

 

Pennsylvania

The building that houses the bus and Amtrak stations in Harrisburg is transforming its commercial space into a technology incubator. The center, owned by Amtrak, will be run by the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania.

 

Tennessee

The University of Tennessee is opening its Innovation Valley Center for Entrepreneurship, located on its agriculture campus in Knoxville, this summer. The new facility will be managed by the Tech2020 Center for Entrepreneurial Growth, which already operates three tech incubators in eastern Tennessee.



Also, in Nashville, the Advancement of Research Technology and Entrepreneurship Center will not open as planned, due to a shortage in funds for construction costs. A May 21 article in the Nashville Business Journal reports construction estimates for the nonprofit technology incubator recently came in at $2.2 million -- more than $1 million above what project officials were expecting. The center's management had already paid $3.8 million for a 138,000-square-foot building that was going to be renovated, using the construction money, but sources of funding totalled only $4.5 million. The ARTE Center, which was two years in-the-making, is being liquidated as a result.