UCF, St. Cloud, Osceola County to host grand opening of incubator

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UCF, St. Cloud, Osceola County to host grand opening of incubator

Around Osceola

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 00:00

The city of St. Cloud and Osceola County officials will participate in the grand opening of the new
UCF Business Incubator–St. Cloud facility at 3201 Budinger Ave. in St Cloud, Wednesday, April 28, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Gordon Hogan, director of operations for the UCF Business Incubation Program, said the facility will launch a new era of economic development in Osceola County.
“We provide a wide range of services that accelerate the growth of promising young companies so they can play a greater role in economic expansion in the local area,” Hogan said.
The UCF Business Incubation Program currently supports nearly 90 full-time client companies, Hogan said, and ranks as one of the premier university-based incubation programs in the U.S.
Since 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 140 emerging companies generate more than $800 million in annual revenues and more than 1,600 new jobs with an average salary of $59,000,” Tom O’Neal, founder of the UCF Business Incubation Program, said.
Business incubation, sometimes referred to as “first stage economic gardening,” takes a new approach to local economic development, assisting companies with from one to 10 employees and up to $1 million in revenue.
“Traditional economic growth models rely on tax incentives, land donations and similar remunerations to lure existing industries to the local area to create local jobs at significant public cost,” O’Neal explained.
“In these tough economic times, it is essential to grow our own companies. The new UCF St. Cloud incubator is not only a great resource for our entrepreneurs, but also a great tool to add to our economic development tool box,” Maria Grulich Toumazos, Osceola County economic development administrator, said.
“Economic gardening has proved to be far more cost-effective in creating new jobs by accelerating the growth of local businesses and expanding the local economic base. Business incubation is a more sustainable and significantly less expensive way to generate economic growth in a community,” O’Neal added.
“St. Cloud is very excited to have one of the premiere incubation programs in the country in St. Cloud. The UCF Business Incubator-St. Cloud will not only assist in growing our own companies, but will help to achieve the long-time goal of diversification in the local job markets and the overall economy,” Ernie Gearhart, economic development consultant for the city of St. Cloud, said.
The St. Cloud incubator facility is one of seven in the University of Central Florida’s Business Incubation program.
Additional incubator facilities are located at UCF Campus, Research Park in east Orlando, and in Orlando, Sanford, Winter Springs and Leesburg.