Consultants suggest Bowie work with BSU on incubator

Report: Facility could tap into city’s small-business market

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006

A business firm is recommending Bowie work with Bowie State University to build and develop a business incubator that would help the city’s large number of home-based businesses grow and create economic development.

The city is interested in creating a business incubator, usually a building where upstart companies can share office space, supplies and resources that help them grow in size and find stability in the market.

The firm, ANGLE Technology Group, presented its initial report to the City Council at Monday’s meeting. Though the firm has yet to develop what kind of services the incubator would provide, where it would be located and how much it will cost, it sees promise in Bowie to create an incubator that would tap into the city’s small-business market.

‘‘We see a true opportunity for some really innovative things in Bowie ... you don’t find elsewhere,” said Lisa Smith, the project director.

Smith and Jean-Louis Racine, the project manager, said Bowie has several strengths to foster business growth. Bowie has a high education level and quality of life. The city is centrally located between Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis. Bowie has also seen small-business growth and has a sizeable number of home-based businesses.

And it will be those home-based businesses that an incubator would likely target, Smith said. In particular, businesses that would grow in the number of employees and would likely seek to stay in the community, rather than ‘‘lifestyle” businesses that are content to stay minimally staffed.

For that to be successful, the city must partner with Bowie State University, the consultants said. Racine recommended Bowie work with the university because the incubator could be housed on school property. BSU is currently developing a virtual incubator that allows participants to use the school’s supercomputer.

‘‘Having a university partner is a critical factor for success,” Racine said.

The council seemed fairly open to the idea, though only few had comments for Smith and Racine. Councilman Kevin Conroy (At-Large) said an incubator could promote business growth at the Melford property, which is slated to have several thousand square feet of office space in the near future, and shift the tax burden away from citizens and onto businesses.

‘‘In an effort to jump start or fill a void, this could be a way to try and bring assets to the city and offset the tax base,” Conroy said. ‘‘This is an identity we need to put out there.”

E-mail Jason Flanagan at jflanagan@gazette.net.