Boise partners with Idaho SBDC on new incubator

The city of Boise is partnering with the Idaho Small Business Development Center, a statewide business consulting and training organization, to run its new business incubator for alternative energy startups.

Boise Mayor David Bieter announced the agreement during a City Council meeting on May 25.

The city will work with the SBDC’s Boise branch, which is housed at Boise State University, to launch the new incubator, a project that Bieter floated during his State of the City address last year. The university-linked group, which was founded in 1986 to help any Idaho small business at no cost, has five other offices around the state, all connected with other schools.

The incubator, known as the Greenhouse, will house as many as 12 startups, in a 3,500-square-foot building at 520 W. Idaho St. The structure, originally built for the Boise Fire Department in 1961, was left vacant when the city’s water quality division moved to City Hall last year.

The building, made of concrete with a brick façade, offers six offices and six cubicle areas. SBDC staff will be on hand four hours a day, four days per week. Companies will pay from $150 to $300 per month for rent, with telephone and Internet access included.

The SBDC will lease the building for $1 for three years, with two possible one-year renewal terms.

Before the incubator opens in late June or early July, the city plans a number of energy efficiency upgrades to the building, including replacing the single pane windows, revamping the HVAC system and installing new lighting. The city is also seeking a congressional earmark with the help of Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch to create a “living wall” on the outside of the building.

Cece Gassner, economic development assistant to Bieter, said interested companies have already been calling City Hall, and the SBDC has identified 16 of its clients that could be potential tenants. She said the demand seems strong.

“For a lot of entrepreneurs just starting out, it can be nerve-wracking,” she said. “The main advantage really will be the close access they’ll have to business experts.”

SBDC specialists will work in the building to help companies with business, marketing and communications plans. Targeted training sessions and other professional services will also be available, and several private companies have expressed interest in serving as experts-in-residence to provide informal advice to the startups.

The SBDC says its latest survey shows that its clients added jobs at 9.6 times the average rate for Idaho small businesses, with a total of 1,175 jobs created or saved over the past two years.

The city also cited a study conducted by Grant Thornton LLP in 2008 for the U.S. Economic Development Administration, which found that incubators are a better investment of government funding than any other infrastructure project. The study concluded that business incubators create 46 to 69 jobs for each $10,000 invested by government, at a cost per job of $144 to $216, while investment in commercial infrastructure creates nine to 13 jobs for each $10,000 invested, at a cost per job of $744 to $1,008, and investments in roads create four to seven jobs per $10,000 invested at a cost per job of $1,291 to $2,293.

Jim Hogge, SBDC state director, said he’s recently seen a wave of new startups focused on exploiting alternative energies, and he believes the Greenhouse will spark even more entrepreneurial activity in those areas.

He said it will also provide a new space for companies that aren’t yet earning revenue and need a strong network of support. Other local incubators, such as the WaterCooler, tend to serve companies that may not need as much guidance. He said he could foresee Greenhouse occupants moving on to the WaterCooler once they are more established.

“Generating the next generation of entrepreneurs is the most important thing we can do in this process,” he said.

Other Boise State University officials plan to keep a close eye on the project and view the Greenhouse as a way to further connect the university downtown and to build collaborations with industry.

Mary Givens, director of the university’s Office of Technology Transfer, said she hopes to see the startups taking advantage of university labs and research. She said that has already started happening at other incubators. For example, Boise Technology Inc., based at the SBDC’s TECenter incubator in Nampa, recently started conducting testing and product development in university labs, she said.

“That link is there,” she said. “We’re at the early stage of building the ecosystem.”

All early-stage companies will be eligible to apply for space at the Greenhouse, but preference will be given to companies that are focused on alternative or renewable energy, including solar, wind, geothermal, conservation and other energy sources.

Interested companies should visit the SBDC Web site to access the online application. Applications will be reviewed on a first-come basis.

Target companies will have four or fewer employees, and they’ll have progressed beyond the idea stage, with the potential to be scaled up quickly for high growth.