ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230049
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
The U.S. Economic Development Administration has approved a $2 million grant to build a small-business incubator and office space for regional agencies on the former AT&T plant site near Fairlawn in Pulaski County.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, announced the grant Thursday at New River Community College. The New River Valley Competitiveness Center will be the first building constructed on the tract since it became the New River Industrial Park in 1993.
The center, like one begun last month in Roanoke, will be used to encourage new small businesses by local entrepreneurs and help existing small businesses. It will offer flexible leases at below-market rates. Tenant companies would share services such as computers, photocopying and fax machines, conference areas, and clerical and technical support.
Boucher said about 80 percent of the new jobs in today's economy come from small businesses.
"The Small Business Administration estimates that approximately 75 percent of all new businesses do not survive the first five years," he said. "On the other hand, the SBA estimates that approximately 80 percent of companies hatched in incubators survive. Incubators clearly offer entrepreneurs a hand up as they seek to bring their good ideas to the commercial arena."
Earlier this month, Boucher announced a $500,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to build water and sewer facilities for the tract.
Pulaski County paid $1.3 million for the industrial park site in 1993, three years after AT&T closed its plant. New River Industries had bought the building on the former AT&T site for a textiles operation in 1992, leaving 653 acres for the industrial park.
County Board of Supervisors Chairman Joe Sheffey said the 31,081-square-foot incubator building will include 16,000 square feet for developing businesses. Another 5,090 square feet will be devoted to office space, and the rest will be shared by businesses and government offices.
Work on the building is scheduled to start in the spring, with completion as soon as 10 months after that.
The New River Valley Planning District Commission will relocate its offices into 2,855 square feet of the office space. For more than 20 years, those offices have been in the same Radford building that houses the city's school administrative offices on Wadsworth Street.
Other agencies, such as the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance now in the community college's Edwards Hall, also are expected to move to the new building when it is completed. It will be owned by the county's Industrial Development Authority.
The grant will go to the New River Valley Development Corp., a nonprofit economic development organization established in 1982. Wayne Carpenter, its president, said it has been helping secure SBA loans for small businesses, acting as the western arm of the Southwest Virginia Revolving Loan Fund, and referring clients to Radford University's Business Assistance Center.
Carpenter said New River Valley Planning District Executive Director David Rundgren proposed the concept of a small business center for the region in 1984.
Rundgren said he and others had been actively working toward such a center since 1990, when the AT&T plant shut down. "This was one project that was identified early," he said. "I think it's a wonderful opportunity to build business within the region."
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