Success prompts growth of Technology Business Center

Thanks to a grant from the Economic Development Administration, a branch of the US Department of Commerce, the South Dakota Technology Business Center will be adding 7,000 square feet. That will bring the technology incubator to 45,000 square feet at its location adjacent to Southeast Technical Institute.

“The additional space will give us the opportunity to serve more companies,” said Rich Naser, executive director of the facility. “We are 100% full, so having more space available will enable us to fulfill our mission and expand our services to entrepreneurs.”

The Technology Business Center will be able to access $1.2 million in federal grants with just $100,000 in local funds. According to Naser, all three members of South Dakota’s Congressional delegation to Washington, D.C. were active in acquiring this federal grant.

In addition to the new 7,000 square foot expansion, SDTBC will upgrade the center’s communication system and add videoconferencing to the services offered to tenant companies. The additional communications redundancy will ensure constant links to the rest of the nation as well as permitting shared information and teleconferences with other business incubators around the state. The space and services should continue to attract start-up high tech firms, Naser said.

“We expect to be able to accommodate as many as 50 additional employees in three to five companies with our expansion,” he said. “Our goal is to maintain our self-supporting cash flow and be able to offer about 1,000 square feet of opportunity space to encourage technological innovation for our area.”

Construction on the SDTBC expansion should begin in the spring of 2008, with completion before the end of the year. The technology incubator has “graduated” a steady stream of growing businesses during the past year, but the space available continues to fill, as the center fulfills its mission to encourage the next wave of innovative companies.

“The success of this concept has really energized the community,” Naser said. “From the mayor’s office to our friends in D.C. to the local business community, everyone worked hard to make this expansion possible.”