A place to grow technology businesses

JACK TEMPLIN, co-founder of the Providence Geeks, stands in the space at the American Locomotive Works complex  where he and the EDC hope to create an IT incubator. /
JACK TEMPLIN, co-founder of the Providence Geeks, stands in the space at the American Locomotive Works complex where he and the EDC hope to create an IT incubator. /

The R.I. Economic Development Corporation is working with a local IT entrepreneur and co-founder of the Providence Geeks to launch an IT and digital media incubator in the American Locomotive Works complex to help grow that sector in the state.
The R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council has asked the General Assembly to earmark $600,000 in the fiscal 2007 state budget to finance the Internet Technology and Digital Media Initiative, which would be housed directly above the EDC’s offices.
The 30,000-square-foot center would provide subsidized incubator space for about seven to 15 IT and digital media startups and offer programming for all companies in that sector, which pays the highest wages of any industry cluster in the state, said Saul Kaplan, executive director of the EDC.
Information technology and digital media jobs in Rhode Island pay an average of $65,281 per year, versus an average $37,065 for all private-sector jobs in the state. There are currently 15,379 IT and digital media jobs in Rhode Island, which account for 4 percent of all private sector jobs in the state and produce about $1 billion in wages, according to the EDC.
“We want to … focus on a very important sector within our innovation economy, one that we’re particularly well positioned to grow in, that pays very high average wages,” Kaplan said. “By strengthening this sector, we can have an impact on our entire economy.”
Unlike many traditional business incubators, the center would operate on a membership model and seek to become a physical, cultural and virtual nexus for the entire sector, said Providence Geeks co-founder Jack Templin, who is consulting on the project.
In addition to providing space for several companies that show potential to grow substantially, the center would provide meeting space and offer workshops, training and other programming for everyone in the sector, Templin said.
A Web portal administered by the center would provide IT and digital media professionals with a directory of resources, a job-posting board, a calendar of community events and eventually a social networking medium, he said.
Creating a central location of activity and fostering interconnectivity between organizations and individuals in digital media and IT will help Rhode Island retain entrepreneurs coming out of Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, among others, Templin said.
Eventually, the center would attract out-of-state companies and entrepreneurs looking to relocate existing ventures or launch new initiatives, raising Rhode Island’s profile as a regional and national center for IT and digital media innovation in a manner similar to what occurred in the 1990s along the Route 128 corridor in Massachusetts, he said.
“We don’t want to have a collection of sort of isolated and disparate individuals and organizations. We want them to be connected to form a true economic cluster,” Templin said. “We expect that by creating this, we’ll not only be internally connected, but we’ll hit a critical mass of activity that will be interesting to the outside world. …When you create a cluster, that’s when it becomes grantable. That’s when you can label it and market it.”
ALCO, which is being developed by Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, is the largest project in the city since the Providence Place mall, spanning 25 acres that will include rehabilitated mills and new construction, with 323,000 square feet of office space, 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 385 residential units.
The EDC, which already has moved into the complex, has a one-year option to develop the second-floor space where it hopes to build the IT incubator, and it is urging state legislators to fund the project despite a major projected budget deficit, Kaplan said.
“This is too important to our economic development strategy, and [it’s] one of the few sectors where we should see a very near-term payback for strategic investment,” he said. “It’s a tough budget year, and we will make the case for growth of this important sector within the economy.”
In the meantime, the EDC is moving forward with plans for the center. Templin said he has taken several startup companies on tours of the space, and the reception was “very positive.”
The EDC is also assembling an advisory committee for the center, Templin said, which already includes Angus Davis, co-founder of Tellme; Bill O’Farrell, CEO of Public Display; Lee Hower, a venture capitalist at Point Judith Capital and co-founder of LinkedIn; and Don Stanford, GTECH Corp.’s former chief technology officer, who is now an adjunct professor in Brown’s computer science department.
Construction of the center would begin as soon as possible if the initiative is funded when the budget is approved sometime this summer, Templin said. The center would be managed by the EDC, with the expectation it would eventually become an independent nonprofit organization, he said.
In the event that the General Assembly doesn’t fund the center this year, the EDC would look for other ways to finance the build-out of the space at ALCO or elsewhere, and continue with its strategy to develop the state’s IT and digital media sector, Kaplan said.

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