SYRACUSE - Syracuse University's South Side Innovation Center has expanded to hold more tenants in its small business incubator.
The center, housed in a former Dunk & Bright funiture warehouse on South Salina Street, launched in 2006. The expansion, which involved renovating the building's second floor into useable space, added 2,500 square feet to give the center a total of 15,800 square feet.
The facility was simply out of room on the first floor, says Monica Hughley, managing director of the center, which is run by the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at SU. In addition to providing incubator space for young companies, the center offers training, mentoring, guidance, and other services for entrepreneurs on Syracuse's South Side.
The center's incubator currently holds 16 companies. The expansion will allow the facility to house another seven startup businesses and two anchor tenants.
The anchor tenants, Hughley says, will be older, more established firms that will mentor the younger companies in the facility. The first anchor tenant is Watts Architecture & Engineering, P.C., a Buffalo - based company with 75 employees.
The firm will use the innovation center as its Syracuse satellite office, Hughley says.
The expanded incubator space also already has its first startup tenant in line. Funk N'Waffles, a specialty Belgian waffle cafe, will be the first business to use the expanded space.
The state provided $20,000 for the innovation center, which spent $250,000 on the expansion, refurbishing the building's ground floor, and installing a Community Test Kitchen, which is designed to help local food-based businesses refine their products.
The facility also has 15 virtual tenants who don't have space at the center, but use its resources. The expansion will allow for more virtual tenants and provide more space for staff and volunteers as well.
The innovation center grew out of the South Side Entrepreneurial Connect Project, an effort to encourage growth and development on the city's South Side through entrepreneurship. The project has involved more than 200 Whitman students and 25 faculty members in helping young companies and new entrepreneurs.
The project began four years ago with a goal of creating 100 sustainable businesses on the South Side, says Nola Miyasaki, executive director of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship in the Whitman School.
"Now we're working on sustainability," Miyasaki says. "We're not going anywhere. We believe entrepreneurs are the key to our economy and our community."
In the past year alone, the project and the innovation center ran 120 different training programs. In an average year, those working with the project and the innovation center counsel more than 200 entrepreneurs.
The companies housed in the center now employ 40 people and generate about $3 million in annual sales, says Eric Spina, SU vice chancellor and provost.
"We're tapping the resources in the region and in the neighborhood," Spina says.
Some of the other businesses housed in the center include BD Trauma Scene Clean, a biological, infectious, and hazardous material abatement and disposal company; FYM Logic, an electrical technology services company; and The Real Estate Society, an online agent referral service for sellers and buyers.
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