EDA receives grant for entrepreneurship center
by PERRY PEARSON - Ravalli Republic
Officials hoping to build an entrepreneurship center in Hamilton received some help recently thanks to a grant from the Big Sky Trust Fund.
Montana Department of Commerce Director Tony Priete awarded the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority a $13,500 planning grant last week.
Charged with providing quality, economic services for county residents, EDA officials hope to net about $41,000 from local, state, and federal sources to put toward a business plan for the proposed entrepreneurship center on Old Corvallis Road.
The authority has already secured about $8,000 locally, including money provided by the Ravalli County commissioners, according to Julie Foster. Officials also hope to land a $20,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Authority.
Foster and other RCEDA officials envision the entrepreneurship center as a step toward providing good wages to many residents in Ravalli County. Their goal is to nurture small businesses to expand and provide living-wage jobs through access to resources that increase productivity and income and capital, according to Foster.
The entrepreneurship center would be a15,000-square-foot facility located on four acres of land just outside of the existing Hamilton city limits. The land is currently owned by the Ravalli County Council on Aging but is slated for donation to the authority once a lift station is installed to provide city sewer services.
The lift station would service the RCEDA needs as well as the Council on Aging, which has plans to construct a senior housing center. Foster said the city of Hamilton has been supportive of the concept, which will include annexation of 20 acres into the city.
The entrepreneurship center would “enable scientists and entrepreneurs to build their businesses within a collaborative, entrepreneurial community with access to cutting-edge laboratories, business services and office space,” Foster said.
The facility will not be solely based on biotechnology companies. It is envisioned to assist home-grown businesses that may provide supporting services to an emerging local bio-science cluster.
Business and laboratory facilities may include access to wet and dry laboratories, Internet access and IT infrastructure, according to RCEDA officials. It may also include office space as well as common business amenities like conference and meeting rooms.
Foster notes Ravalli County is economically distressed, and points to a statistic that shows the current per-capita income for residents is only $22,041 - 70 percent of the national average.
The decline in personal income for Ravalli County residents has occurred over the last 30 years due to the loss of the traditional resource-based economy, Foster said. She notes that 43 percent Ravalli County's population commutes to Missoula for employment opportunity.
Foster and others hope to further cement the Bitterroot Valley as the state's center of biotechnology industry. Two expanding businesses in the county, essential to this, are GlaxoSmithKline and Rocky Mountain Laboratories, which are both in the midst of facility and work force expansions.
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