Constantine’s business incubator gets pat on the back from congressman
By Kathy Jessup - Sturgis Journal - October 25, 2004. CONSTANTINE - 6th District Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, got a close look Friday at a St. Joseph County project that’s using local funds and public/private collaboration to grow jobs, one new small business at a time. Upton made a brief stop in downtown Constantine Friday to see how local officials have turned an empty commercial storefront into a small business incubator that could become a model for rural communities. Donald Beavers, Constantine village manager, said tenants are getting low-cost business space and office support services, plus the benefit of finance, legal, marketing and strategic planning knowledge from a variety of community resources. While no direct federal funds are involved in the St. Joseph County/Constantine business incubator project, Beavers said Upton has been a supporter and was on hand in 2003 when the Verizon Foundation contributed $10,000 to help finance the original feasibility study, now a model for a variety of communities considering similar initiatives. Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, wanted to know about the area’s access to high-speed internet capability. "We want to take some of the regulations off so that companies can invest in making it more available," Upton said. "If some place five to 10 miles down the road has the capability and you don’t, they’re going to go there. As chairman of the telecommunications subcommittee, they (public communications companies) know where I live and where my district is." Beavers said the incubator does not currently have Broadband internet service. The village is investigating several options to access the high-speed connections, however. "That’s one of the first questions I get asked," Beavers said. "They want to know about our communication capabilities." Constantine opened the downtown business incubator in a U.S. 131 storefront earlier this year and currently has space leased to two small businesses, while renting an upstairs apartment as residential space. The project is suppported by the village, the Constantine Downtown Development Authority and the St. Joseph County Economic Development Corporation. Local funds and financing through First National Bank of Three Rivers purchased the building for $52,000 and Meyer Ventures, Three Rivers, assisted with the $50,000 renovation to bring the site up to code and create suite space capable of accommodating up to six small businesses. The incubator currently is home for a one-woman massage/alternative medicine office and an Internet-marketing business that sells baking and art kits with activities youngsters can do with adults. Beavers said the incubator hopes to attract at least one more start-up business by the end of the year. The goal, he said, is to have the businesses eventually grow out of their incubator space and move into their own locations, either in Constantine or somewhere in St. Joseph County. Tenants receive a variety of free support services from the Glen Oaks Community College Center for Business Services, Western Michigan University’s business department, the county EDC and SCORE, a consulting network of retired business executives. "We know that about 80 percent of new businesses fail," Beavers told Upon and a handful of local business and government officials Friday. "We can’t quite turn that figure around, but we know the support of an incubator helps. The collaboration of the support system we have here is what makes or breaks it. A small town like Constantine could never do this on our own."
