Marshall Center A Partner In High-Tech Business IncubatorJuly 15, 1998 GRAND OPENING:
With a snip of a giant pair of scissors, the Business Technology
Development Center opens its doors in the Calhoun Community College
Building on Wynn Drive in Huntsville. Known as "BizTech," the center
is designed to serve as an incubator for small businesses with a
high technology orientation that are attempting to establish themselves
in Huntsville and Madison County. The incubator is being supported
with grants from several city, state and federal government entities,
including NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Officiating
at the ribbon-cutting ceremony are, from left, Tereasa Washington,
representing MSFC Director Carolyn Griner; U.S. Representative Bud
Cramer, who led the effort in Congress to obtain federal funds needed
to establish the incubator in Huntsville; Dick Reeves, BizTech's
chief executive officer; David Anderson of the Tennessee Valley
Authority's Muscle Shoals Office; and Joanne Randolph, BizTech's
Administrative Director. The incubator will recruit new clients
that have the potential to grow and create jobs. As it prospers,
Ms Randolph said BizTech hopes to use revenues from its clients
to become self-sufficient. NASA's interest in being a part of BizTech
involves making NASA-developed technologies available to their clients
for potential commercialization, establishing a presence within
the incubator to provide on-the-spot assistance, and to help with
local economic development. MSFC has provided grants totaling $735,000
to help launch the endeavor. (NASA Photos by Jack Ray)
The Marshall Space Flight Center's Technology Transfer Office is supporting the local business incubator known as BizTech. This not-for-profit incubator will help grow new technology-based businesses. BizTech recently moved to their new location in the Calhoun Community College building on Wynn Drive in Huntsville, AL and will evenutally occupy about 41,000 sq. ft. of office space and a light manufacturing area. Part of the Marshall role is making NASA-developed and emerging technologies available to BizTech’s clients for potential commercialization PROVIDING SEED
MONEY for the new Huntsville/Madison County incubator for small
businesses with a high technology orientation, Teresa Washington,
Director of the Customer and Employee Relations Directorate at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center presents a check for $435,000 to Richard
Reeves, chairman of the board of "Biztech", the Business Technology
Development Center, Inc. The contribution, presented by Ms Washington
on behalf of MSFC Acting Director Carolyn Griner at the grand opening
of Biztech's new headquarters at 102 Wynn Drive in Huntsville, Alabama,
is the latest in a total of $735,000 donated by NASA to launch the
enterprise. (NASA Photo by Jack Ray) Formerly occupying temporary offices at 2111 Clinton Avenue in Huntsville, BizTech recently moved into its permanent facility in the Calhoun Community College Building on Wynn Drive in Huntsville. Eventually the incubator will have 41,000 square feet of office and light manufacturing space for itself and its clients. The college donated use of the space. Approximately $2 million will be spent in coming years to develop and expand the facility. According to Joanne Randolph, BizTech’s administrative director, the incubator will recruit new clients that have the potential to grow and create jobs. As BizTech prospers, Ms. Randolph said it hopes to use revenues from its clients to become self-sufficient. "Not all of the businesses which apply to BizTech are accepted into the incubator," Ms Randolph said. "We require that they be technology-oriented, have a viable product or service, and have a well-developed business plan. We also feel an essential element in client selection is that the entrepreneur be willing to take advice." BizTech also provides an affiliate program for non-resident clients. "This is a kind of ‘out-patient’ approach," Ms Randolph said. "All of BizTech’s support services and resources are made available to them, but the firms do not require office space." A mentoring program offered by BizTech should benefit clients. At the program’s core are many successful entrepreneurs and senior business executives who have volunteered to serve on a board of advisors for clients. Through the mentors’ resumes and personal profiles, BizTech matches advisors’ expertise with clients’ needs. "Through another network," Ms Randolph said, "we can link clients with discounted professional services such as legal, accounting, financial, training and employment services. Through its co-sponsorship of the small business incubator, the Marshall Center hopes to foster the establishment and growth of many new, high technology firms in Huntsville and Madison County. Sally Little, director of the Marshall Center’s Technology Transfer Office and a member of BizTech’s advisory committee, said, "Our interests in being a part of BizTech involves making NASA-developed technologies available to their clients for potential commercialization, establishing a presence within the incubator to provide on-the-spot assistance, and to help with local economic development. We’re excited about the possibilities of this partnership." The new Huntsville incubator is one of several NASA is sponsoring across the United States. NASA headquarters recently announced the award of cooperative agreements to three entities, each of which will establish a high-technology business incubator at one of three NASA Centers: the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.; and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., combined with the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The award made by Goddard is to a team led by the Maryland Economic Development Corporation. Team members include the Emerging Technology Center of the Baltimore Development Corp.; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the Johns Hopkins University; the Morgan State University (Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. School of Engineering); the University of Maryland; The Abell Foundation; and the CAN Co. Langley its new high-technology business incubator to the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology. Team members include Christopher Newport University; Hampton Roads Partnership; Hampton Roads Technology Council; Hampton University; Mentor Technology Ventures; Norfolk State University; Small Business Development Center of Hampton Roads; and the College of William and Mary. The third high-technology business incubator award was made by the NASA Management Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and by the Dryden Flight Research Center to the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Calif. The university will build upon the ongoing success of the Pomona Technology Center, an independently developed incubator, located in the technology park on university land. These business incubators also will provide U.S. start-up or small existing high-technology firms and U.S. educational institutions with a wide array of critical business development support services for the primary purpose of commercially applying NASA technology. Each new business incubator will receive funding from NASA in the amount of $400,000 per year for fiscal years 1998 and 1999, and will, in turn, match (or exceed) NASA's contribution through cash or in-kind funding from non-federal sources. In addition to the establishment of these three new business incubators at NASA centers, funds also were provided, based on program guidelines, to the six existing NASA incubators to enhance services to incubator firms. The existing NASA-sponsored incubators include: the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.; the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tex.; the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; the Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio; the Stennis Space Center, Miss., and MSFC’s BizTech. With the addition of the three new NASA business incubators to the existing six, NASA now has in place a nation-wide resource to expand the growing high-technology interests of small businesses and educational institutions. Further information on these awards can be obtained through the following NASA Center's E-mail addresses:
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NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has teamed with the Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA), the State of Alabama Department of Economic
and Community Development (ADECA), and the City of Huntsville, Ala.,
to establish "BizTech," the Business Technology Development Center
for Huntsville and Madison County.
