Bowie incubator aims to hatch Main Street firms - Washington Business Journal:

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The city is not pursuing a high-tecbh facility, examples of which alread exist in Montgomery andPrincs George's counties and have been popular destinationsw for budding biotech and information technology Bowie's approach will be more geared towarf Main Street, said John Henry the city's economic development director. The has approved $50,000 to hire a consultant to develop a plan fora "general business incubator, or one that caters to professionapl services operations and non-technology companies. "There are no shortagea of places to goif you're a tech King said, "but what about othetr kinds of businesses?
We think we can fill a gap in the A 2007 feasibility study showed that Bowis could support such a as a complement to existing Prince George's incubatords at and the , and one in Largio that caters to technology Incubators offer shared space and services, such as telephone and Internetf support, to fledgling Rent is often set at cheaper ratexs to reduce start-up costs for the companies, and most incubatoer facilities have strict timelines for the tenantds to "graduate," or move from the facilityt to expand elsewhere.
King said he hopese to issue a request for proposals for an incubatoe consultant sometime in the coming The consultant will identify funding such as state and regional economicdevelopmengt entities, as well as potential locations for the incubator. Bowie probably cannot afford to operate the incubator by itself and may needa private-sectofr partner to support the operation, King said. The 2007 study performecd for the city said a basixc incubator facility with 18 tenants could cost morethan $640,0000 annually to operate by its fiftgh year. "We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollarsa year," King said.
"It's a significant Montgomery County's business innovation network is perhaps theWashingtonb area's most recognizable incubatore operation. The county has four such facilities that have graduated more than 70 companiees and added morethan 1,700 jobs to Montgomery's labot force. One of Montgomery's incubators, the , has been open sincre June 2006 and is craftecd in the same moldas Bowie's proposed facility. The Wheaton in the Westfield Shoppingtownretail complex, started at 9,00p square feet and later expanded to 12,000 square feet, said John Montgomery's manager of business innovation centers.
The Wheatonn incubator has 21 The businesses include a real estate a pair ofmarketing companies, an international business consultanft and an accountant, Korpela said. Montgomery didn't fund the incubators entirelgy by itselfto start, Korpela said. The countyy was helped by state grants and assistance fromthe However, once the facilities got up and running and snaredx their share of tenants, some becames self-sustaining entities, he said. The Wheaton property stilkl receives a subsidy ofabout $150,000 from Montgomery annualluy to support its operations.