The upstairs of the Center will be renovated and opened as the Hayloft Theater which will be used for the production of plays, dances, musical performances and other community events. When completed, the facility will be a total of 10,600 square feet in size with 5,300 square feet on each of the two levels and will house approximately 20 small business tenants. Incubators are a time-proven concept for the launch of small businesses, and nationwide small firms are the wellspring of economic growth, creating approximately 80 percent of the new jobs in today s economy. The incubator facility is a highly appropriate means of stimulating the formation of a larger number of business enterprises in our region. The Small Business Administration estimates that approximately 80 percent of all new businesses fail within the first five years.
Incubators offer entrepreneurs a hand up as they bring their good ideas to the commercial arena.
A small business incubator is best described as a special environment designed to nurture fledgling businesses during their formative and most vulnerable years. Incubators are multi-tenant facilities with flexible leases at below market rates which typically offer their tenants the opportunity to share services such as photocopying, fax machines, computers, conference areas and clerical and technical support which would otherwise be too expensive for each business concern to maintain on its own. I am confident that the Jacksonville Center will enjoy the same success as the other small business incubators we have launched with federal funds in Southwest Virginia. The Jacksonville Center is unique in its focus on cultural and tourism related businesses. The Center will undoubtedly attract many of the annual visitors along the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway and serve to expand Floyd County s tourism economy.