A special place has been created in downtown Sudbury to help new businesses get up and running.
The new business incubator is called The Innovation Quarters and is located at 43 Elm St., inside the TD Bank Building.
The initiative is a partnership between the City of Greater Sudbury Development Corporation (GSDC), FedNor, Norcat and the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.
"The incubator program is designed to support local start-ups who are leveraging technology to create operational efficiencies, improve customer experience and provide goods or services in innovative ways," said a GSDC news release.
Lisa Demmer, chair of the GSDC board, said she was pleased and proud to see the new facility as a place where "innovative and forward thinkers" could work on moving their businesses forward.
"In Greater Sudbury, entrepreneurship is a cornerstone of the local economy, with nearly 9,000 small and medium sized businesses operating within the city. The entrepreneurial spirit of our community has its foundation in the mining industry. However, today, entrepreneurship is also occurring in many other sectors and spaces." Demmer said.
She said the strength of entrepreneurship in Sudbury is being bolstered by this latest initiative and she was particularly pleased with the financial support from FedNor, Northern Ontario's economic development agency.
Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe said she too was happy to see FedNor's support for the new incubator.
"I am pleased that the Government of Canada through FedNor was able to provide close to $900,000 to help the City of Greater Sudbury establish this business incubator that will support business startups in the region,” Lapointe said.
“Specifically, the FedNor funding was used to purchase equipment, hire staff and help renovate the space into a state of the art facility.”
Nickel Belt MP Marc Serré said he too was pleased to be part of the ceremony, as the initiative didn't just happen overnight.
Serré recalled early consultations with Debbi Nicholson, president of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, as far back as 2015 to get the incubator idea rolling.
Serré said it was a project that had a lot of partners and he thanked them for their work and success.
Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger said he too was happy to see the project finally come to reality.
"As mayor and as a member of the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation, I'm really proud of the number of people and number of organizations that we have here that truly, I think, understand the importance of something like an innovation hub that we have here today," Bigger said.
The mayor added that as the population grows older, Sudbury needs to keep attracting young people and entrepreneurs that will continue to grow the business community.
"We have an aging demographic. We need young people to move up tpo Sudbury and reverse that trend of people moving out to the GTA and to Ottawa and other areas of Canada. This is the time. This is the opportunity for migration back to Sudbury," Bigger said.
One of the key partnerships the new centre has is with the chamber of commerce. Chamber president Debbi Nicholson said the new innovation hub had been several years in the works and she was pleased to see it come to life.
"It has been a struggle, but here we are, and we're very proud to be involved with this. With this space,” she said. “I see the Innovation Quarters as being a landmark in our downtown. And I really see it as being a center that is going to foster innovation and entrepreneurship and business startup. We have an amazing program that we can offer either new or or older business entrepreneurs and have had them be able to go through the programming and be linked to mentors and supporters and people that can help them through their journey.”
NORCAT regional innovation centre coordinator Brendan Skiffington said his organization was also pleased to be part of the new incubator.
"As a long-standing collaborator of the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation, we are excited to support the grand opening of the Innovation Quarters," said Skiffington.
"This important initiative will help fast-track technology development in our community, maximizing opportunities within Sudbury’s innovation ecosystem and fueling economic growth, job creation and prosperity for our region.”
Len Gillis covers mining and health care for Sudbury.com.
