Hunt For Business Centre
Newcastle Herald
Monday August 12, 2002
NEWCASTLE City Council will probably vote tomorrow night to take a fresh look at its proposed $500,000 business incubator idea.
After a thorough examination, council officers have decided to pursue alternative locations, project partners and funding sources.
The planned incubator might support up to 19 start-up businesses who, after their lease period, would then move into rental accommodation in the city centre.
Council city strategy staff have concluded the two sites considered in its feasibility study are financially unviable.
One site, with 15 business spaces, was proposed in a council-owned property on the corner of Stewart Ave and Hunter St while the other, with 19 spaces, was proposed in the former railway institute building between Union St and Worth Place.
This site, owned by the Honeysuckle Development Corporation, is under a 50-year lease to Performing Arts Newcastle.
Councillors had been advised the locations would meet the Federal Government criteria for set-up funding up to a maximum grant of $500,000. The funds are not available for projects where capital improvements are made to a privately owned building.
But the feasibility study into the two sites has concluded that neither site is financially viable without extra income sources.
The same study found that there was a estimated demand for 19 incubator spaces with an average office size of 20 sq metres.
Some 82% of all registered businesses in the inner Newcastle local government area are classified as small businesses, which is having fewer than 20 employees.
© 2002 Newcastle Herald
Share This