A new business incubator will be located at 204 Main St. E. at the corner of Wyld. Photo by Jeff Turl.
A downtown business incubator will open February 2nd, thanks to financial contributions from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and FedNor, among others.
The incubator, to be named Enterprise Genesis, is the product of 18 months of work by the North Bay Newcomer Network’s (NNN) entrepreneurial sub-committee, chaired by Nipissing University School of Business Chair Dr. John Nadeau.
NNN is the Local Immigration Partnership project for North Bay, funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. It is operated by the North Bay and District Multicultural Centre.
The Trillium Foundation grant is $116,500 over two years and the FedNor grant is $91,676 over two years.
The incubator, to be located at 204 Main St. E. at the corner of Wyld, will house up to eight start-up retail businesses on the main floor and up to 15 non-retail start-ups on the second floor.
Newcomers to Canada will have priority access but incubator positions will be open to everyone. Those wishing to secure a place in the incubator must have a business plan for their enterprise and go through an interview process with a selection panel.
I you wish to start the process now, contact Enterprise Genesis manager Sarah Morin at the North Bay & District Multicultural Centre. She will move to the new location when it opens.
“Working on creating the project was an exciting experience,” Morin said. “Now I am even more excited to take it to the operational level. We are turning what has been a vacant downtown corner into a building that will have a potential of 23 business owners creating retail and other traffic. As they move out, we will see them create new jobs in the city.”
Incubator participants must attend workshops, mainly conducted by The Business Centre Nipissing-Parry Sound.
“The centre continues its valuable work in helping new Canadians discover the wonderful opportunities available to them here in Nipissing,” said Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli.
“I am pleased that the investment will help businesses start up or expand,” said Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Jay Aspin.
Participants will pay rent at lower than market prices, which increases over time to market rates, to encourage them to move on to their own locations and hire staff.
