Closing incubator good for business

By Jackson Citizen Patriot

Sunday November 09, 2008

The following is a Jackson Citizen Patriot editorial:

It may have been painful for a few companies, but the Enterprise Group’s move last week to close a downtown incubator for manufacturers is the right step for a community that is serious about creating jobs.

Officials with this community’s economic-development group were wise to confront some realities about the incubator in its current form:

-It was housed in a building that is in poor shape.

-It was not helping businesses start up and get out on their own quickly enough.

-There is a better alternative.

First, the current situation: The incubator houses about 10 businesses in an aging building at 414 N. Jackson that is physically unattractive. It needs an investment of around $100,000.

There is a legitimate question as to whether this operation is “incubating” anything. While a dozen companies have set out on their own since the incubator started 12 years ago, some of its current tenants have been there for years.

There is a value in helping these small businesses to survive, but this is supposed to be a springboard for companies to head out on their own. That is not happening.

The final push out the door at this location is the likelihood of a better approach. Enterprise Group officials have been working with representatives from Jackson Community College, Spring Arbor University and Baker College to develop a “virtual” incubator.

Budding entrepreneurs and their new companies’ employees would take online courses and receive mentoring help for up to two years. The new incubator would have a small physical presence in Blackman Township’s new Smart-Zone and focus on developing of high-tech companies.

Compare that with the incubator’s present form, and there is really no question which is better.

For a community whose leaders talk frequently about “new,” high-tech industry, there is not much locally that encourages such businesses. This refashioned incubator would push start-up firms to develop, nurture them and then put them in a position to thrive without outside help.

Significant, too, is the prominent and cooperative role that the three colleges will play. JCC, Baker and Spring Arbor have not always worked in harmony, but their leaders appear to grasp that they should be a part of the local economy’s growth. They bring unique resources to economic development.

The new incubator likely will not open for two years, and that much of a wait is unfortunate. We wish it could happen faster. Beyond that, taking the incubator in a drastically new direction makes total sense.

The Enterprise Group should cut ties with the incubator’s deteriorating and expensive-to-repair building. The time has come for an approach that should create jobs for Jackson County more aggressively.

— Jackson Citizen Patriot