tech center officially opens, tech center officially filled

there's room for more people on this bus.

tech-based growth. downtown reinvestment. prospering companies.

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This week, the opening of the 2nd building of the Youngstown Business Incubator was celebrated downtown, a building that is already filled from top to bottom with employees from YBI's portfolio companies.



Instead of bursting as the seams, the original building of the YBI is now able to breathe again, having the capacity to draw in additional entrepreneurs and individuals who want to be a part of the next chapter of Youngstown.

photo tour of 2nd building from I Will Shout Youngstown here.
additional stories here, here, here, here, and here.

An article titled "Specialization as Strategy for Business Incubators" by M. Schwartz and C. Hornych in the most recent issue of the scientific jounal Technovation identifies four advantages for locating businesses in sector-specific business incubators (SBI) like the YBI:

- high-quality premises and equipment for tenant companies
- high-quality consulting/knowledge sharing in specific fields
- increased probability of networking between tenants
- high trans-regional visibility for tenants

check, check, check, and check.

All four of these match what's going on in these buildings in downtown youngstown.

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In other news, two other YBI portfolio companies experienced some recent successes:

Humility of Mary Health Partners (HMHP) has agreed to be a a beta site for ErisRx, a software program from Eris Medical Technologies which manages billing and financial transactions in hospitals.

Syncro Medical Innovations was awarded a $350,000 research commercialization grant from the Ohio Department of Development's Third Frontier Initiative. Syncro has developed a magnetically guided feeding tube, and the funds will be used to build inventory, conduct clinical trials, and hire a clinical educator, staff engineer and marketing director. These funds are in addition to $500,000 provided by the federal government to Syncro for developing a feeding tube for battlefield trauma patients.

so, yeah, it's been a good week.

no time to rest though.

2nd look inside the new technology center

Well, the construction trailers have gone away and Shout Youngstown is bringing you the first pictures of inside the Technology Center, built immediately adjacent to the Youngstown Business Incubator.

Connected by interior hallways and miles and miles of cable, the emerging cluster of YBI buildings is rapidly taking shape. With renovation of the Semple Building currently underway, this three-structure complex will now assume an even larger role in the evolving economy of Youngstown and the redevelopment of our historic downtown.


Peering down the street, the facade of the new building is a departure from many of the brick and terra cotta buildings that line Federal Street.

Here is the main entrance of the building, which is a bit recessed from the natural plane of the sidewalk.


The structure is one of the most heavily-wired buildings in Ohio's Western Reserve, maybe the most wired building in the Mahoning Valley. Here is the nerve center of the building.

I'd put my server there.


Electric and data connections are abundantly visible throughout the structure.


This series of four tubes now run throughout the entire YBI complex, from the Reichart building through the Technology Center, and over to the Semple Building. It was be considered the "spine" of the complex, running data, voice, electrical and video stream throughout.


Initially much of the space will be the new home of Turning Technologies, as that company graduates from the incubation stage of the YBI. The managed cluster will be not only an adjacency of buildings, but an adjacency of technology companies learning from each other to become more competitive in the global economy.

The yellow on the walls is indicative of Turning's colors. The skylight to the left is bringing natural light down from the roof through the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor.


Peering up into the skylight . . .


and over to the glass-enclosured conference room.


The internal staircase is surrounded by glass, providing a glimpse of the kinetic activity within the building to the street level.


And looking out from the ground floor, to the home of the Youngstown Symphony, among other art organizations downtown in the DeYor Center.


Most people don't know this, but underneath the building is a parking structure.


The materials of the two buildings blend the new and the old, as this is the interface between the original structure and the new addition . . .


. . . which on the other side of the structure connects to the Semple Building.


And at night, the building displays its interior to the world.

Time to get the furniture in there, then all the people!


The new building is set to be immediatley filled - most of the space is now allocated.

With the departure of some of the "graduating" companies from the original "incubating" building, this frees up more space for new companies to enter the mix in the downtown.

- Affordable office space rates
- Two blocks away from a university of 13,000+ students and their research faculty
- A cultural hotspot in the Great Lakes region
- Historical and affordable housing in walking/biking distance

the pieces, one by one, are coming together.

1st look inside the new technology center

valued readers:

had the opportunity to make it inside the new Youngstown Technology Center this week. When construction is completed, the structure will connect to the Youngstown Business Incubator, and will be home for maturing companies that graduate from the YBI.

with both experienced and growing technology companies moving into downtown youngstown, this "managed cluster" of firms is growing into an even larger nexus for software development companies and their innovative partners, including the university just a few blocks up the hill.

let's peer inside . . .



shown above is the facade of the structure, as interior doors connect the Incubator to the Technology Center.

shown below is the view heading down federal street, as the Technology Center sits next to the Semple Building, also undergoing renovation currently for MORE tech companies. Then adjacent to the Semple is the landmark Home Savings and Loan.


Peering behind the blue tarp, we have the entrance to the building leading us to the inside.


Skylights running through the middle of the building will bring natural light to the lower floors.


And of course, miles and miles of cable will be spread throughout the building.


Here's a photo from the second floor with its yellow walls:


Each floor of the structure will have a kitchenette right in the middle for all of the floor's employees.


Here's a view from the back windows, looking out onto art deco home of the Youngstown Vindicator.


And finally, a view from the front windows looking out onto the multi-recital hall complex which houses the Youngstown Symphony, among other cultural organizations.


looks to be progressing nicely!

as the Tech Center finishes up in the next few weeks, more construction will shift to the Semple Building, to be followed by work on the beautiful Wells Building - the 4th structure of this cluster.

Youngstown is accelerating at a rapid pace - - jump on as we are moving forward.

now that the bids are in, a few considerations

Last week, the Business Journal reported that six companies submitted bids to build the Youngstown Technology Center downtown. The building, which is slated to open by December 2007 will house companies that are looking for room to expand from the current solitary Youngstown Business Incubator building. As this second building is built, the renovation of buildings three and four for the complex is anticipated to begin.

The bids received ranged in cost from...
$4,549,000
$4,800,000
$5,013,000
$5,135,911
$5,962,145
$6,198,500

Indicating there is a gap of about $1.5 million between the highest and lowest bid.

Let's hope the final choice incorporates not just the lowest cost, but also good design.

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Sure, cost is important. In fact, it's very important.

But looks are important as well.

I try to host architects and city planners in downtown youngstown on a fairly regular basis.

To borrow a line from the Princess Bride, when they see the design of the Childrens' Services Building, they claim: "Dear God, what is that thing?"


Maybe a below the belt comment, but really...a lot could have been done to make that building a little more inviting.

People don't necessary dislike all aspects of the entire building (the brick is kinda nice) , but most criticism is centered on the windowless ground floor and the sheer feeling of nothingness as one walks from the DeYor center to Hazel Street. It hard to believe that building is now a fixture on our main street for what will probably be at least 50 years.

And that's what I would like to stress upon those making the decision, if they ever read this blog, or if their buddies do: that the Technology Center will probably be on our main street for a long time.

A real long time.

Maybe the extra cost associated with a nicer building if it makes the site more attractive, that is actually welcoming to pedestrians and tourists, is money well spent.

UPDATE:

well, coming on the heels of this blog entry, the news broke that the CIC rejected all 6 of the bids.

According to the Business Journal, "The technology center is funded by a $2.5 million grant through the state of Ohio Board of Regents, a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s economic development administration, $248,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and $750,000 already spent on demolition and remediation from the states Clean Ohio Fund." These values add up to about $5.5 million dollars.

Alternatively, the Youngstown Vindicator had the amount come to $5.9 million in state and federal funding.

So when you figure in the cost of demolition ($768,500) between $4,729,500 and $5,131,500 seems to be remaining.

The executive committee of the Youngstown CIC, rejected the proposals Monday because they “omitted required characteristics and/or were in excess of the amount available for construction.”

wow. Maybe we'll be getting a big box store on Federal Street now.

And the second round of bidding may be much more interesting now that all of the other initial bids are known.

I guess we should just hope that some respectable design emerges from all this. Maybe the city can throw in a few bucks from their pool of money for facade grants. Or maybe another 200K is floating around out there.

Brother, can you spare a dime?