Initiative cultivates potential

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By Jennifer DeWitt | Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:57 AM CST | () comments

Jeff Cook/QUAD-CITY TIMES Kim Kudrna is executive vice president of NewVentures Center in Davenport.

Two years after opening its doors as a resource center for entrepreneurs and start-up companies, the NewVentures Center is creating additional office space for a new crop of companies.

Located at Third and Ripley streets in downtown Davenport, the center has begun construction of new Class A office space at the center. The project will be known as the NewVentures Center Suite of Suites.

Kim Kudrna, NewVentures executive vice president, said the $400,000 build-out is Phase Two for the NewVentures Center, which opened in January 2005. Six additional offices will occupy 2,410 square feet of what had been unfinished space at the business incubator. The remaining unfinished area will be Phase Three, she said. The center hopes to secure funding to complete that build-out in the next year.

The center opened with 60 percent of its office space completed for the NewVentures Initiative, other partners and various tenants. “Now the original space is 100 percent occupied,” she said. A second floor is a separate operation owned by Kaizen Co. of America.

The build-out’s six office suites could accommodate up to 20 individuals. It is being funded, in part, by a $400,000 federal grant supported by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

Bill Maurer, NewVentures Initiative’s vice president of marketing and research, said the space is designed to meet the need of small business owners, particularly emerging entrepreneurs and technology-based companies. Tenants will find flexible leases, limited overhead costs as well as completely furnished offices, including furniture, computers, high-speed Internet and telephones. They will have a shared fax machine and copier as well as a conference room.

Kudrna said the center did intensive research to determine what Quad-City entrepreneurial companies are looking for in office space.

Amenities will include access to all the center’s other tenants, including the NewVentures Initiative and the Eastern Iowa Small Business Development Center, both of which provide business assistance and resources to a variety of Quad-City companies.

“Our goal is to get as many tenants as we can to utilize the incubator — to take advantage of affordable space so they can devote their scarce resources on their business, technology or invention. It’s a total turnkey, you come in and you have everything you need to get your business started,” Kudrna said.

Estes Construction, Davenport, is the general contractor on the project. It is expected to be ready for occupancy March 1.

Kudrna said the expansion is a continuation of the public-private partnership that built the NewVentures Center. Besides the new federal grant, awarded last year, the Suite of Suites is receiving support from the Riverboat Development Authority, Platinum Information Services Inc., Command Business Systems, LightEdge Solutions, Larrison & Associates, Corporate Express and AllSteel.

The NewVentures Center was built as a business incubator to provide a location for new and existing business ventures to grow and connect with resources to help boost their ideas and products.

Kudrna said start-ups, or companies in existence less than three years, as well as technology-based companies remain the focus for the center, but the new offices also could be leased to existing companies with high-growth potential. A few companies have expressed interest in the new space.

Rents will be based on the size of the space, the tenure of the company and the length of the lease. “They will be based on affordability,” she said.

Citing statistics from the National Business Incubator Association, of which NewVentures is a member, Kudrna said for every dollar of public support an incubator receives, it turns $45 back in revenues.

More information on leasing the space or on services available from NewVentures Initiative is available by calling Bill Maurer at (563) 327-0162 or by e-mail to bmaurer@newventuresinc.com.

Jennifer DeWitt can be contacted at (563) 383-2318 or jdewitt@qctimes.com.

NewVentures Initiative At a glance

Launched in 2003, the NewVentures Initiative is a not-for-profit organization affiliated with DavenportOne. The NewVentures Center, which houses the initiative, opened in January 2005.

Since its inception, the initiative has provided business assistance or referrals to nearly 230 companies.

Thirteen clients are under contract, representing the communications technology, ag-tech and clean energy sectors.

Clients have received a total of $406,400 in state assistance as a result of their involvement with NewVentures.

Clients have come from several Iowa counties, including Scott, Jefferson, Black Hawk, Lee, Benton and Muscatine, as well as Rock Island and Cook counties in Illinois.

Of the incubator space already completed at the NewVentures Center, 100 percent is occupied. Tenants include Interactive Technologies Group, the anchor tenant; start-ups Bawden & Lareau Public Relations, Sandler Sales Institute and Jay R. Hamilton, a patent attorney; and business development services, NewVentures Initiative, Eastern Iowa Small Business Development Center and Technology Transfer Initiative.

A new $400,000 federal grant is enabling the center to build-out 2,410 square feet of additional tenant space at the downtown Davenport facility. The Suite of Suites will offer six additional Class A office suites that will accommodate a total of about 20 more people.

The NewVentures Center was built with $4.5 million in public and private investment, including $1.5 million from the City of Davenport and Scott County; a $500,000 forgivable loan from the State of Iowa; and $2.5 million by private investors. Kaizen Co. of America, a partnership between Chuck Ruhl and Kent Pilcher, financed the construction of the second floor of the NewVentures Center. It is available for commercial lease but is a separate operation from the NewVentures Center.

Source: NewVentures Initiative