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Warren building to become home of Innovation Center
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center board of directors has chosen the 27,000-square-foot Market On the Square store on Courthouse Square to serve as its home.
The center, expected to be fully ready for occupancy next fall, will provide a place where companies in the advanced-energy field will be able to start up and grow, officials said at the Thursday announcement, made at the nearby offices of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th.
The two-story business-incubator building is in the middle of a block on West Market Street that is seeing new investment, including the Warren location for Eastern Gateway Community College, which will begin offering classes in January, and the renovated office of National Fire Repair next door.
The incubator building, which originally was a Kresge five-and-dime store, is larger than most business incubators, said board chairman John Pogue.
Most such incubators are around 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, he said, but the Kresge building will provide space for offices as well as development of advanced-energy technology.
Ideally, the building will be occupied by six to eight companies within a couple of years, Pogue said.
The 5,000-foot warehouse is likely to be divided into spaces for companies to use for research, said Pogue, who is a partner with the law firm Harrington, Hoppe & Mitchell of Warren.
Renovations are expected to take until the third quarter of 2011, though it will be possible for business activity to begin before the renovation is complete, Pogue added.
The board hopes to hire an executive director during the first part of 2011, as well as an advanced-energy expert who will be able to assist the new companies in their development.
Not getting that type of assistance frequently causes start-up companies in the advanced-energy field to relocate elsewhere or fail, Pogue said.
The board is buying the building from the John Taylor family for something less than the appraised price of $285,000, Pogue said.
Taylor’s daughter, Holly Taylor-Meyer, operated the gift shop on the first floor for three years. The Market On the Square will close Dec. 31, Taylor-Meyer said.
The Taylor family has owned the building since 2003. Before that, it was home to the Army and Navy store.
The site committee narrowed its search to three downtown locations before choosing the Kresge building, Pogue said.
Among the funds helping to pay for acquisition and remodeling of the Kresge building are $500,000 from the state and a $2.2 million federal appropriation to equip the building with “green technology.”
The selection of the Kresge building for the Innovation Center is part of a wave of investment in the downtown area, Mayor Michael O’Brien said.
There have been other businesses moving onto Courthouse Square and road and sidewalk improvements to nearly every road passing through the area.
“We’ve made downtown attractive to businesses, and new businesses have responded,” O’Brien said.