Mayor Bloomberg Tours, Touts City’s Business Incubator System
Posted August 18, 2011
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Mayor Bloomberg detailed the wide array of affordable workspaces available to small start-up businesses through New York City's incubator program on Thursday while visiting the Entrepreneur Space, a 12,500-square-foot City-sponsored food-manufacturing and business incubator in Long Island City, Queens.
The incubator program was launched in 2009 to promote entrepreneurship and make it easier to start businesses and create jobs. The City has opened nine incubators in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, featuring 125,000 square feet of affordable space, with additional projects in the pipeline.
The nine incubators currently host more than 500 start-up businesses and more than 800 jobs, and many businesses have already graduated from these spaces and expanded into market-rate space. Businesses at the incubators have raised more than $39 million in private funding.
Mayor Bloomberg also launched a new dedicated web page on nyc.gov for the City-sponsored and privately-operated affordable workspaces throughout the five boroughs.
"Today, we have nine incubators that have helped create more than 800 jobs, and businesses have already graduated out of them and moved into their own space," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Now, we're identifying opportunities to expand the program even further. We want New York City to be the most welcoming city in the country for people who want to start a business."
The Entrepreneur Space, the City-sponsored incubator in Long Island City, includes four commercial-grade kitchens and is open around-the-clock. Currently, 120 businesses use the kitchens to produce products ranging from Whoopie Pies and Indian delicacies, to organic dog biscuits, cakes and cookies, and catering services.
The Entrepreneur Space contains a small business incubator offering affordable workstations, job training programs, and mentoring services. The Entrepreneur Space is operated by the Queens Economic Development Corporation and managed by Mi Kitchen es su Kitchen, a consultancy founded by Kathrine Gregory in 1993.
Two classrooms are also available for organizations needing to secure space for job training classes or seminars. The Entrepreneur Space provides access to business counseling, technical assistance, and classes through the QEDC. New York City Economic Development Corporation provided a $170,000 grant to support its launch and operations.
In January, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Council Member Mark-Viverito and NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky opened another kitchen incubator at La Marqueta in East Harlem. The incubator, operated by Hot Bread Kitchen, a non-profit social enterprise that trains immigrant women working in the culinary industry, provides shared workspace and technical assistance for small, artisanal and ethnic food businesses. Since the launch, the incubator has created 28 jobs and 17 businesses have been accepted into the incubation program.
One, Donna Bells Bake Shop, has already graduated and is opening a new retail store in the Meatpacking District.
In addition to the two kitchen incubators in Queens and Harlem, there are seven additional city-sponsored incubators developed so far:
• a space for tech start-ups at 160 Varick Street operated by NYU-Polytechnic University;
• a co-working facility for freelancers in Manhattan, the Hive at 55, operated by the Downtown Alliance;
• the Council of Fashion Designers of America Incubator for designers in Midtown;
• the Chashama Arts incubator in Brooklyn;
• General Assembly, a technology and design campus in Flatiron;
• the Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator in Hunts Point; and
• the recently-announced technology incubator to open in DUMBO.
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