Hammond business incubator seeks new, fledgling businesses

WANTED: small, fledgling, start-up technology-related businesses to incubate and grow within the Hammond INnovation Center.

In partnership with the City of Hammond, Purdue Calumet is managing and operating the Hammond INnovation Center, a new and small business incubator.

A downtown Hammond site at 5209 Hohman Ave. is being renovated to house the INnovation Center. The facility is expected to open in early March.

Meantime, the center’s executive director, Gregory Boyan, is operating out of the Purdue Calumet Entrepreneurship Center to market the INnovation Center and its services to prospective employer clients.

The concept of business incubators is that of providing space, phone, computing and other support services, as well as professional mentoring, consulting and counseling to enable business owners to focus exclusively on developing and growing their business.

“At the Hammond INnovation Center, we will coach, guide and oversee our clients,” Boyan said. “They will benefit from the expertise of Purdue Calumet faculty members and the labor of Purdue Calumet students, who will apply their classroom and textbook learning in experientially beneficial, hands-on ways. It’s a win-win-win opportunity.”

Boyan added, “The ultimate goal is that within a three-year period, these businesses will have developed and matured enough to move out of the INnovation Center and set out on their own in a permanent location, hopefully, in and around Hammond.”

The 8,200-square feet Hammond INnovation Center will have accommodations for 14 clients and several affiliate clients—those that are not housed within the incubator, but use accommodations and services there on a limited basis.

Though INnovation Center start-up costs are being provided by a $1.15 million Indiana Economic Development Corp. Technology Development Grant acquired by the City of Hammond, Boyan says it is hoped that the incubator eventually will be self-supporting.

As to what distinguishes the Hammond INnovation Center from other high tech business incubators, including the Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana in south Lake County, Boyan said, “Ours is focused more on smaller, start-up businesses—those that need neither a lot of space, nor wet labs and research and development facilities.”

Additional information can be obtained by contacting Boyan at 219/989-2100; 800/HI-PURDUE, ext. 2100; or gboyan@calumet.purdue.edu

News Release Date: February 22, 2008