WOW, Tulsa announcing a second incubator in less than a week's time. Hopefully this will wake up OKC's leaders that we need more business incubators here.

Second Tulsa incubator in the works
by Kirby Lee Davis
The Journal Record November 20, 2008

TULSA – Mayor Kathy Taylor presided Wednesday over her second small business support center launch in less than a week.


Mayor Kathy Taylor addresses the audience at a press conference in north Tulsa. (Photo by Kirby Lee Davis)

After more than a year of development, the north Tulsa economic development program FORWARD announced plans Wednesday to build and operate a business incubator on 3 acres at 1731 N. Peoria Ave. in north Tulsa.Rose Washington Rentie, executive director of the Tulsa Economic Development Corp., said the officials and citizens working in FORWARD hope to hold a grand opening one year from now. Details remain fuzzy, with no contracts completed, but Rentie said the organizers are considering a building of around 20,000 square feet, enough space to hold 10 or more startups.

This would anchor a small shopping center under development by Walman Commercial Real Estate Services of Tulsa. Those 3 acres owned by the Tulsa Development Authority offer room not only for the incubator, but two restaurant pad sites and one bank location. Katie L. Plohocky, a sales associate with Walman, said pad prices have not been finalized.

This follow’s Friday’s announcement of The Collaboratorium, an 8,000-square-foot incubator planned at downtown Tulsa’s 111 W. Fifth Building in space donated by Kanbar Properties.

Both operations will include some sort of financial aid. Rentie said the FORWARD program will offer 10 loan packages to north Tulsa residents, while the Collaboratorium will provide discounted office space.

Both programs also promise to go beyond traditional incubator services with executive coaching and mentoring, technical assistance and other educational options.
In both cases, the incubator operators themselves remain at the startup stage. Backers of the Collaboratorium are seeking to acquire or finalize everything from desks to mentors, while the nonprofit organization that will operate the FORWARD incubator has not been formed yet.

Rentie expects details on the loan program, including filing period, to come over the next few months. To enhance their success rates, the incubator program will encourage new franchisees.

She expects applicants to face few hurdles, with requirements including north Tulsa residency, a completed business assessment plan, having at least one member working the startup full time, and a small amount of equity.

A normal startup loan, she said, would require 10- to 20-percent upfront equity. Their program may require as little as 5 percent.

Through work with the North Tulsa Economic Initiative, Rentie said they have arranged lending resources topping $1 million, with other needed funding in reach.

Wednesday’s announcement drew a small but enthusiastic crowd from a predominantly black part of the community that, outside of an Albertson’s anchored shopping center landed in 2004, has struggled to attract new commercial growth. No grocery has entered the space Albertson’s vacated last year, although other retailers in the center continue on.

Crafted by the Tulsa Economic Development Corp., FORWARD is backed by the North Tulsa Economic Initiative, a community development group formed by Taylor. Community leaders behind that group have worked for more than a year to gather both economic growth strategies and support within the community.

Besides FORWARD, Taylor’s program also endorsed the Walman retail development and a north Tulsa marketing and communications campaign by Xposure Inc. of Tulsa.
All three proposals hope to build north Tulsa’s commercial business sector and strengthen that historically challenged region.

Rentie cited retail studies indicating north Tulsa loses some $210 million a year in retail trade because the region lacks the needed services.

“If we are able to capture just 2 percent of that, that would mean over $4 million in spending would stay in this area,” she said.

Reuben Gant, director of the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the development as a starting point.

“This is an opportunity to demonstrate that development can occur from within,” he said.
City Councilman Jack Henderson howled when he got to the microphone, excited by these developments.

“Tulsa is going to understand that north Tulsa is a part of Tulsa like everything else,” he said.