Renovations to start at Incubator

The incubator received a $25,000 grant for office renovation.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Business Incubator is cobbling together the funds to renovate first-floor offices for early-stage entrepreneurs.

The incubator on West Federal Street has created INSPIRE!, a new program that will offer space and other resources for the entrepreneurs to share.

The incubator announced Tuesday that the Youngstown Foundation has awarded it $25,000 for construction costs. It received $5,000 earlier this year from the Philip Thompson Charitable Trust.

Julie Michael Smith, chief development officer of the incubator, said renovation costs will total about $60,000. She said work is expected to begin this fall because she is confident that she will receive funding from other grant sources.

Space is available because the Youngstown State University Small Business Development Center recently left the incubator and moved to campus.

Remodeling of the 1,800-square-foot space will include a small conference room and shared office space.

The area will be designed for entrepreneurs who are working with the incubator but don’t yet need full-time office space. These people are writing software or refining their business plan, so they need space only for a few hours at a time, Smith said.

The incubator is working with three entrepreneurs in this category. It has eight tenants that have office space. The incubator is funded by the state and works with young companies that provide business-to-business software.