Flagstaff-based small businesses will now have a new space to call home.
The City of Flagstaff and Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET) incubator held its grand opening for their 28,000 square foot facility this week. The building will house small businesses working through the NACET incubator or accelerator program.
“For us, the incubator focuses on startups and the accelerator focuses on scaling. The accelerator will focus on companies that are already in revenue or that are near it and are ready to start building up pretty rapidly,” Annette Zinky, president and CEO of NACET said.
Zinky said that 80 percent of the building will be usable, leasable space for clients. There are 24 offices, three manufacturing spaces, and six wet labs that range from 850 to 975 square feet.
“Its got conference, meeting and board rooms and collaborative space,” Zinky said. “I have four companies wanting the three manufacturing spaces.”
READ: “Flagstaff accelerator NACET stretch their wings to 28,000 sq. ft. facility”
The new building was funded by a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant.
Before the new building, NACET’s incubator space was to full capacity most of the time. When a company outgrew the incubator, they went straight to total independence, according to Zinky.
Zinky is hoping that this new space will help keep small businesses in Flagstaff as they grow.
“If you give a company a chance to grow here and hire more people, the likelihood that they’ll feel more connected to this place and want to be a part of it as they grow is higher,” Zinky said.
NACET also partners with Northern Arizona University, hosting student incubation program and startup weekends. “We handle student incubation and student entrepreneurship for them,” Zinky said. “So we work with them on that.”
NACET was founded in 2001 as the Northern Arizona Technology & Business Incubator, Inc.. They rebranded in August 2007 to become a more inclusive incubator with a broader client base.
They now has three outlets for businesses to grow – an accelerator, an incubator, and a small business development center. The incubator program costs $150 a month to join.
For more information on accelerators, click here.
