First-time entrepreneurs in North Bay now have new downtown digs to call home.
The North Bay and District Multicultural Centre has created an entrepreneurial proving ground for business start-ups with the opening of a new incubator.
The centre has leased and renovated a two-storey commercial building on the corner of Main and Wyld Streets.
Known as Genesis@204, a marketing spin on its Main Street address, the space offers a premium location with traditional back office support such as fully wired work stations, photocopier and meeting room access.
Office furniture was being moved in in mid-February, said manager Sarah Morin, with new lighting, exterior siding, and bilingual signage being installed ahead of a handful of tenants arriving.
Morin said the refurbished building will look unique in the downtown core.
“It’s really going to pop on that corner.”
The building will feature eight kiosk-like spaces for retail tenants on the main “Boutique” floor for walk-in traffic, and three private offices and 15 cubicles in the upstairs “Business Loft.”
Clients of the multicultural centre get first priority on space but it’s open to all would-be entrepreneurs.
The space is intended to be only temporary. The rent structure gradually increases the longer a tenant stays there. By the third year, it’s at market value.
A downstairs retail space begins at $400 a month and doubles to $800 by the second year.
In the upstairs Loft, cubicle space starts at $75 per month and jumps to $200 after a year.
A private office is $225 for the first year, escalating to $325 for year two and $425 in year three.
“You’re not being penalized for being there, but you could get a bigger space for the same price,” said Morin.
The hope is that tenants eventually move out and populate vacant retail and office spaces in the downtown.
In February, Morin estimated about six or seven tenants were filling out paperwork for the upstairs work spaces with the retail floor a little slower in capturing interest.
Without targeting any specific type of tenant, Morin said the building could be home for a diversified base with internet or traditional marketing firms, to those working in the resource industry.
Business support comes in the form of regular mentorship and monthly workshop events which will run the spectrum of topics from accounting and business banking, to work-life balance and human resources. It’s mandatory for incubator tenants to attend at least six a year, said Morin.
“It’s not just cheap space. We really want these businesses to thrive, be successful, and outgrow the incubator and go on to bigger things.”
She’s anticipating these kinds of networking events will create an internal buzz among tenants.
“You’ll be working alongside people that aren’t necessarily working in the same industry, but they’ll have the same entrepreneurial spirit and mindset to bounce ideas off of.”
The germination of the incubator idea began two years ago with a discussion with the welcoming committee of the North Bay Newcomer Network, a local immigration partnership, about how to assist new arrivals in town who need help getting started in business.
“This gives them a chance to test it and see if a full-blown store is worth their while,” said Don Curry, the multicultural centre’s executive director. “These are people who may have been selling out of their house until now or were at a farmer’s market.”
The centre is cashed up for the next two years with more than $300,000 in funding provided by the multicultural centre, Ontario Trillium Foundation, FedNor, Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, Canadore College and Nipissing University.
Other support is coming from the Business Centre Nipissing-Parry Sound, YES Employment, HR North, VS Group, Réseau de développement économique et d’employabilité de l’Ontario (RDEE), and Innovation Initiatives Ontario North (IION).
