Incubator

Start-Up! is weekly column on entrepreneurship, start-ups, technology and innovation, powered by the Adams Hub for Innovation.

For a high school student to skip their lunch break, there's got to be a pretty significant reason behind it. For Carson High School, the cause of so many empty cafeteria seats on an otherwise normal school day was nothing short of big deal.

A Western Nevada College marketing class is taking steps outside the classroom to learn from professionals in the Carson City business community.

Next week, students from Dr. Robert Whitcomb’s Marketing Principles class will pitch their business marketing ideas at the Adams Hub for Innovation, the capital city’s’s small business incubator.

Aware Systems, LLC, a local tech startup company working out of the Adams Hub for Innovation in Carson City, has thrown their hat into the ring in the hopes of winning the $25,000 prize package offered by Biggest Little Startup Competition in Reno.

USDA Rural Development Nevada is reminding rural nonprofits, public bodies and Tribes that the deadline to apply for USDA's new Rural Business Development Grant is May 15.

Grant money can be used to acquire or develop land, buildings, plants and equipment; build or improve access roads, parking areas, utility extensions and water and waste disposal facilities; provide technical assistance, establish revolving loan funds and to support rural distance learning programs that provide educational or job training.

Start-Up! is weekly column on entrepreneurship, start-ups, technology and innovation, powered by the Adams Hub for Innovation.

Small businesses in Nevada were a big deal in 2014. The Nevada Small Business Development Center, a statewide resource for business assistance and headquartered in the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Business, helped open 136 new small businesses in the state last year.

“It’s easy to forget the impact small businesses can have, especially with the growing focus on many big-named businesses in the state,” Sam Males, director of the Nevada SBDC, said. “These smaller businesses created 470 jobs and $18 million in new financing, clearly making a marked impact.”

Start-Up! is weekly column on entrepreneurship, start-ups, technology and innovation, powered by the Adams Hub for Innovation.

Editor: I have been in the antiques business in Downtown Carson City for more than 15 years. The last six years have been extremely difficult, but perhaps our state may have reached a turning point.

In the last 15 years I have been involved in dozens of community meetings and planning sessions that were generally boring and filled with doomsayers and negativism. I've spent hundreds of hours gnashing my teeth listening to every malcontent in town who says that saving our Downtown is a waste of time and money. They have said it's by-the-way impossible.

Entrepreneurs Assembly and Adams Hub for Innovation are pleased to announce a collaborative partnership to create, educate and encourage entrepreneurs via a comprehensive business start-up training program and mentoring initiative to launch this October in Carson City.

Both organizations are united in their missions to help develop, nurture and strengthen the entrepreneurial community in the greater Carson City area.

As the capital of the Silver State, gambling is ingrained within Carson City’s DNA. Now, the city is making one of its boldest bets yet — turning an area known more for being the seat of Nevada politics into a viable location for startup companies.

The technology business incubator planned downtown in the former Stewart Title Co. building was named The Hub in a competition won by Ray Davy, a long-time Carson City resident.

Yesterday was my last official day in charge of Carson Now. Today I am heading off to Silicon Valley and the adventure of being a Knight Fellow at Stanford University.

I'm happy to report that I'm leaving Carson Now in good hands. Actually, two sets of hands, which will mean more news and better service for the people of Carson City.

Here is an interview I did with Steve Neighbors, Hop and Mae Adams Foundation trustee and president of the Carson Nugget, talking about the new business incubator. Sorry, it took awhile to get the video up. Neighbors talks about how the foundation bought the old Stewart Title building in downtown Carson City and plan to locate the much-talked-about business incubator there. He also mentions they are looking at other locations to put other incubators to help people start new businesses.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, will visit Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe on Monday as part of a tour visiting health care facilities in California and Nevada. The visit coincides with the FCC's Rural Healthcare Pilot Program, in which Barton Health received funding.
More information on the visit is forthcoming. Check back later today at www.SouthTahoeNow.com. Here is a bio on Genachowski found on the FCC's website.

Services for legendary radio commentator Travus T. Hipp will be held this Saturday, May 26, in Silver City. Hipp died early Friday morning, May 18, at his Silver City home. He was 75, as old as the Golden Gate Bridge in his beloved San Francisco.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 26, in Silver City. Gathering, gnoshing and remembering will begin at the Silver City Community Center, 385 High Street, at 10:00 a.m. Food and refreshments will be provided. Those who wish may bring more.

Monday night's presentation of the new plan for the Carson City Center development to the Nugget Advisory Committee has put this much-criticized project back on track, even winning over some long-time opponents.

The new plan is different enough it needs a new name: Nugget Project 2.0.

The new Business Achievement Center's 1st Open House on May 6th was a success. We thank everyone who attended and it was a pleasure to meet business people in our community.

Our next Open House is scheduled for Thursday, September 15th from 4-6 PM.

We are a hybrid facility consisting of a business incubator, resources, training, services and business co-op. Our group of professionals is here to help businesses from startup to expansion, including taking companies public.

Give us a call for a no cost consultation at (775) 884-6116 to see how we can help you.

Press Release — A leading national economic development executive who represents companies looking to relocate or expand throughout the United States, today told a group of more than 100 Reno and Tahoe businesses, community leaders and residents not to abandon current economic development initiatives, but to re-evaluate strategies and continue to fund them for future success.

(Press Release) — Business owners and residents will have an opportunity to participate in an economic development plan update for the Greater Reno and Lake Tahoe region at the Business BUZZ “Beyond Target2010” economic forum, Thursday, March 31 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. The program is sponsored by the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uLECuGK07U

Several people at yesterday's Board of Supervisors meeting mentioned the generosity of Mae Adams for donating land to Carson City for the proposed Knowledge and Discovery Center and public plaza, the centerpiece of the City Center/Nugget Project.

I've heard some critics complain about this donation, which does little to bolster their case. Despite the unorthodox lease deal, it really is a donation we should be thankful to have the option of using for a new library.

But this donation does come with one very large and expensive string attached.

After a marathon meeting today, the Carson City Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to allow staff to begin negotiations on agreements to develop the City Center/Nugget Project.

But the project may face hurdles getting final approval, as two of those voting yes expressed concerns about the project.

Carson City leaders will learn next week whether the proposed Carson City Center, also known as the Nugget Project, is financially viable and may vote on whether to move forward with development agreements.

Thursday's meeting of the Board of Supervisors is a culmination of many months of studies, public meetings, workshops and a citizen's advisory committee. Supervisors will hear the results and recommendations of the project at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 17 in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 East William Street.

At the end of today's Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting, city manager Larry Werner said that he has city staff working out answers to questions raised about the Nugget Project before forwarding it to the board.

Werner noted that questions about the location of the parking garage and hotel/conference center portions of the project were raised at the last citizens advisory committee meeting, and he wanted resolve those questions before sending it to the board.

One of the things that came out at Monday night's Nugget Project advisory was a setback for the business incubator part of the project.

It was announced by project consultant Mark Lewis that C4Cube, the business incubator in Reno that was considering operating the planned Carson City incubator, was no longer a part of their discussions. We don't know exactly what happened, but not having an experienced operator could threaten this part of the project.

One point I think you could get all sides of the debate over the Carson City Center/Nugget Project to agree on is that it's a very complicated deal.

But after spending a good deal of time looking at the newly released feasibility study for this project, it struck me that it's really not that complicated. If you strip away all the extraneous issues about the land leases and who is paying who, it comes down to a simple trade.

It boils down to this: the Carson Nugget is giving the city a piece of land to build a new library and public plaza. In return, the city is building the Nugget a new parking garage for its casino and future hotel/conference center.

I have been been going over the Nugget Project feasibility report this morning, tying to digest the details.

Overall, it really isn't much different than what was presented to the citizens committee back in September. The one exception is that P3 Development seems to think that building a hotel is more feasible now, following another study showing that it is.

Monday's Advisory Committee Meeting included a lot of new details about the Nugget Project that we are still looking through.

For those who haven't seen the presentation by P3 Development, you can read it here.

I think they made the best pitch for this project so far, and showed that this somewhat scaled-down version is at least close to being feasible, given the revenue constraints requested by members of the Board of Supervisors.

The developer of the Carson City Center/Nugget Project tonight presented an update on the progress made so far on a final plan to present to the city for approval.

The meeting of the Nugget Project Advisory Committee was supposed to see the final plans tonight, but those plans have been delayed by legal and financial issues, according to City Manager Larry Werner.

What they did get was an overview of where the project stands right now, along with a look at some numbers that could determine its feasibility.

There is an interesting discussion going on over at the Nevada Appeal site concerning the Nugget Project.

The story begins two week ago when Guy Farmer wrote a rather harsh column that slammed the Nugget Project. In response, last week there was a guest column by Michael Douglass criticizing Farmer's take on the subject.

It's a bit of a challenge to follow the story out today about what's happening with the Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

It starts out saying that Nugget President Steve Neighbors is "encouraged" by the response from the governor's office, after meeting with them to discuss their concerns about the state's role in the project. Those concerns were expressed in a letter from the governor's Deputy Chief of Staff Lynn Hettrick last month.

But later on in today's story, Hettrick said the same issues about providing sufficient space for the Department of Health and Human Services and parking remain. I detailed how this affects the project here, and ran the numbers to show how the state office component of the plan doesn't pencil out.