Rotary Gets Biz Innovation Center Update

Director of the Casper Area Business Innovation Center talked to 5 trails Rotary on Thursday; That amidst a growing buzz that the man who played a big role in her getting the position would no longer run the alliance behind the project.

Deanna Adams made no comment about her former colleague, in a interview with k2 radio, but stayed on topic as she gave an update on the Business Innovation Center.

"The construction, ground breaking should be starting within a couple, two, three weeks at the most from now. I can't give you an exact date there's still some paper work that needs to be done, but it should be very, very, shortly. And then we expect fourteen, fifteen  months out that the building should be ready for occupancy and that should be somewhere in May or June of 2012."

Adams says part of what she wanted to do in her address to Rotary was to straighten out what she feels are some misconceptions about the Innovation Center.  One of those is a concern that the center competes with the local business real estate market...

"My response to that is that if these start up companies could afford to pay rental rates in downtown Casper without any instruction or support they would have already done it."

New businesses who come into the innovation center will pay a rental rate for use of space in the building that includes access to staff as they consult with the start ups.

Adams says she expects to partner with other business support organizations and says they won't be duplicating services. Adams has been on the scene since last April working "virtually" with a number of small business start ups some of which, she says, have already hatched and moved on.