Mercer County Dedicates New Business Incubator October 20th (WYTV, w/ video)
LindenPointe eCenter Opens In Hermitage October 20th
(Youngstown Business-Journal)
A Place to Create 'Economic Magic' - eCenter Opens @ LindenPointe October 20th  (Sharon-Herald)

Business Incubation Guru Advises eCenter Officials September 16th
Youngstown Business-Journal "3 Minutes with..." - Gary Gulla, City of Hermitage (eCenter @ LindenPointe) August 22nd
Technology Business Incubator in Western PA Opening in October (KeystoneEdge.com) - August 18th
Hermitage Welcomes New High Tech Incubator (WYTV w/video) - August 18th
LindenPointe Incubator Nears Opening (Youngstown Business-Journal) - August 18th
Youngstown Business-Journal "3 Minutes with..." -  Yvonne English, eCenter @ LindenPointe August 18th
Western PA semiconductor company's new equipment provides more time for research, new jobs Keystoneedge.com - August 4th
Novocell Semiconductor, Inc. Awarded Keystone Innovation Zone Grant July 20th

Classes Teach Green Building Skills - Contractors Learn New Techniques May 23rd
Training Provides Over 50 Local Building & Construction Companies with Green Skills May 10th
October 1st Opening for Tech Center Still Expected May 7th
LindenPointe Developers Working on 'Pitch Book' April 8th
City Reduces Influence on LindenPointe Corporation Board April 5th

March 28, 2011 - Youngstown Business Journal / Regional Chamber Report featuring LindenPointe  YouTube video link


"Field Trip" - Students Monitor Tech Center Construction Project for City February 27th
City Creates Corporation, Tabs Board Members  February 25th
Wallace & Pancher Inc. Grows, Diversifies February 20th
BC3 @ LindenPointe Expanding Again February 13th
City Turned a Profit at Park February 11th
Zoning Frustrates Effort to Build Community @ LindenPointe February 4th
City to Set Up LindenPointe Nonprofit January 28th
LindenPointe Project Positions Region for Growth Jan 2011 Business Journal
Bc3 Expands Campus @ LindenPointe January 14th

Nonprofit Board Eyed to Oversee LindenPointe December 14th
Incubator Director Lays Out Vision for Tech Park Developers
November 19th
Investment Returns at LindenPointe - Youngstown Business Journal November 2010
Hermitage Planning Board OKs Sharon Regional IT Center November 2nd
U.S. Economic Development Administration Presents LindenPointe Success Story @ Kansas City Federal Reserve October 13th
LindenPointe Innovative Business Campus: Positioned for Success with 2020 Vision October 15th
City eyes stop on 'virtual expressway' October 5th
Officials ponder incubator structure August 6th
Feds give another $100,000 for tech center August 4th
Planning begins now for future business incubator July 15th
Sharon Regional gets $1M for tech center June 25th
'Green' tech center specs didn't discourage bidders May 7th
Hermitage's LindenPointe celebrates growth April 29th
LindenPointe project hailed as collaboration April 29th

HERMITAGE
Planning board OKs Sharon Regional IT center
Sharon-Herald - November 2, 2010, 2010
By Joe Pinchot, Herald Staff Writer

Hermitage Planning commission recommended approval Monday of a land development plan for Sharon Regional Health System’s information technology center in the LindenPointe technical business park.

John R. Janoso Jr., chief information officer for the hospital, said LindenPointe was selected as the location for the IT center because Sharon Regional officials want to use the services of two existing LindenPointe tenants: the city’s training and workforce development building for staff training, and Butler County Community College, which will turn out potential new employees.

“It’s a perfect location for us,” he said. The hospital even used the design of the workforce building by HHSDR Architects/Engineers., Sharon, as the starting point for the IT center design.

The current IT staff members and computer network equipment are in “extraordinarily cramped” surroundings in the hospital building in Sharon. All eight of those fulltime employees will move to the LindenPointe building once it is built, and Janoso said he expects to add 10 to 15 employees over three to five years.

The hospital is in the middle of a multi-year, multi-million- dollar technology upgrade that will reach all of its facilities and physician practice buildings, Janoso said. The 5,300-square-foot IT building will be located in a cluster that also includes the workforce building; the city’s technology center, a business incubator and testing laboratory now under construction; and Information Resource Technology, a software development firm that has been in LindenPointe since 2007.

Once the IT center is built, the hospital will have additional space in its main building for medical clinical services, Janoso said.

Hermitage received a $1 million state grant that will partly fund construction. City commissioners will act on the plan later in the month.

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United State Department of Commerce
Economic Development Administration
PROspective - October 13, 2010 - Volume 3 - Issue 10

EDA Presents at The Kansas City Federal Reserve

The EDA’s Philadelphia Regional Office was selected to present a current investment at the Kansas City Federal Reserve to demonstrate a successful federal interagency collaboration and cooperation project.

The presentation titled “Collaborations in Rural Communities” was given by Willie Taylor, PRO Regional Director on September 9, 2010 in Kansas City, Missouri. Joining Mr. Taylor was Lenita Jacobs-Simmons, Regional Director of the Department of Labor (DOL)-ETA2, who presented DOL-ETA’s role in the EDA funded LindenPointe Technology Innovation and Development Center located in Hermitage, PA. Economic
Development Specialist Alma Plummer, who submitted the national competing application to the Kansas City Federal Reserve and earned the opportunity for EDA and DOL-ETA to present, was also in attendance.

“Collaborations are geographic concentrations of competing, complementary or interdependent firms and industries that do business with each other and have common needs for talent, technology and infrastructure,” said Mr. Taylor. “The rural economy is more economically diverse than it once was. Rural communities will need clusters of economic activity and partners to bolster America’s competitiveness the in global marketplace. In addition, it will assist in the region’s ability to create new jobs and spur private investment.”

The LindenPointe Technology Innovation and Development Center is a prime example of regional collaboration strategically located in the rural Appalachia region of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Southeastern Ohio. The City of Hermitage, through the foresight of DOL-ETA2, and the LindenPointe Tech Center was a good fit to EDA investment priorities and mission to partner with distressed communities. EDA had a familiarity with the City of Hermitage based on a previous successful public works investment.

The new facility will provide training opportunities to enhance the emerging semiconductor and electronics clusters, as well as the biomedical and biotechnical clusters in the 115-acre LindenPointe Innovative Business Campus and surrounding region. Center programs will be developed to meet the identified workforce needs of local businesses and be consistent with existing sustaining industry clusters while enhancing the long-term development of the regional economy.

The OH-PA Interstate region has lost over 2,500 jobs in the past few years and thousands more since the collapse of the western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio steel industry. The Governors of Pennsylvania and Ohio are leading this collaborative effort to address the long term effects of the decline in the steel industry through the development of diverse sectors with growth potential and through the development of a well-trained workforce capable of supporting the manpower needs of these growth sectors. The project is an important component in a multi-capital, collaborative partnership to diversify the regional economy through strengthening technology innovation and workforce development.

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HERMITAGE
City eyes stop on ‘virtual expressway’
Sharon-Herald - October 5, 2010
By Joe Pinchot, Herald Staff Writer

With two clicks of a remote control button, Peter Grosskopf, who was in Hermitage, called up Brian Ricca in suburban Philadelphia. By the miracle of videoconferencing, Ricca and Grosskopf could see each other as well as hear each other. Then, Ricca called Dr. Steve Catt in Butler and Jim Baker in Tennessee.

With apparently little trouble, all four could talk to and see each other, and show each other documents and photographs that they had saved on their computers.

“Just a couple of years ago, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” Baker said of the high quality images and sound, and the ease with which they were shared. Baker and Ricca are with KBZ Communications, while Catt is a Butler County Community College professor.

The brains behind this ease was equipment that Ricca had with him. The “virtual expressway” is not cheap, about $15,000, but offers loads of possibilities for corporate, municipal and public service agencies.

IPLogic Senior Account Executive Jeff Floit said videoconferencing can be used for new employee orientation, human relations updates, training, contacting experts and connecting with employees who are on the road. In many cases, all is needed is a laptop computer equipped with a video camera and the proper software, IPLogic officials said.

Assembling a group of Hermitage city commissioners and staff and advisory officials, information technology and security business people and economic development officials, Assistant City Manager Gary M. Gulla said Monday he wants to create momentum for locating a virtual expressway at the technology center in LindenPointe.

“We hope to find a way to fund that,” Gulla said. There probably is not a need for any one entity to own such an expansive and expensive piece of equipment, Gulla said. However, firms and entities outside those located at the tech center could use the equipment at the tech center, or remotely. Maybe entities could pool their money, cutting down the cost to any one; yet, making it available to all.

“Everybody’s thinking about this idea in this region,” said Grosskopf, director of business development for IPLogic, Warrendale, noting that there are efforts underway for the “hub and spoke” model in Butler and Youngstown.

The demonstration Monday is part of the ongoing process of creating a business model for the tech center, which will house a business incubator for tech-related companies, and testing laboratory that hightech businesses can use to develop and test products, Gulla said.

With business mentoring likely to be part of the services offered to incubator tenants, Floit said companies could videoconference with other start-ups and talk about problems and solutions, what he called “growing together.” IPLogic is a voice and data communication company that deals with wireless, telephone and video technologies.

The company outfitted the training and workforce development building in LindenPointe with its phone system, and has been hired as a subcontractor at the tech center.

The equipment planned for the tech center will allow companies to participate in videoconferencing, but not to initiate them, falling short of virtual expressway capabilities, Gulla said.

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Officials ponder incubator structure
Mull best way to run tech center

Sharon-Herald – Friday, August 6, 2010
By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

It’s unusual for a municipal government to take the lead role in developing a business incubator, and Hermitage city officials still must determine just how the incubator in the LindenPointe technology center will be run.

“Is the (Hermitage Community and Economic Development Commission) the right structure?” said Assistant City Manager Gary M. Gulla, repeating a question city officials are exploring from its legal and practical aspects. “Is there another agency that we could partner with?” Gulla said. “Should we change the legislative structure of the EDC?”

Summing up some of the discussions at Thursday’s EDC meeting, Gulla said he does not foresee the city creating a non-profit corporation to run the tech center, but added that there are existing 501(c)3 agencies in the county the city can partner with, if such status becomes necessary.

An incubator provides working space and business instruction to entrepreneurs to create new businesses. The incubator at the technical center will focus on the so-called STEM industries — science, technology, engineering and math — and could include software makers, electronics manufacturers and biological research firms.

City officials visited the Youngstown Business Incubator Thursday and plan to go to the Technology Collaborative in Pittsburgh soon. Officials already have been to the Erie Technology Incubator, and the Gannon Small Business Development Center, Erie. This research will help officials develop a mission and business model for the LindenPointe incubator, an application and admissions process from prospective businesses, and an operating budget.

Gulla said he believes officials can have the structure and operations plan for the incubator done in six to nine months, subject to commissioner approval. The tech center construction will be completed next year.

“It’s an aggressive to-do list but it’s exciting that we have the opportunity to do this,” Gulla said. “I think we have the right partners to get it done.”

As word of plans for the incubator has spread, business people have come forward willing to help, Gulla said. Business people are needed to mentor incubating businesses, and assist in other ways.

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Planning begins now for future business incubator
HERMITAGE
Sharon-Herald Thursday, July 15, 2010

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

Although construction has only just begun to build a technology center in Hermitage’s LindenPointe technical business park, it’s not too soon to plan the mission and function of the business incubator side of the center.

Debra Steiner, executive director of the Gannon Small Business Development Center, Erie, told Penn-Northwest Development Corp.’s board Wednesday that incubators function much like parents do with children. “You need someone who
will make day-in and day-out contact with the tenants,” she said.

An incubator is not simply a building with cheap space, she said. True incubators have programs to help start-up companies develop business plans, find financing, market their products and learn the intricacies of business management, Ms. Steiner said. Those programs can include day-to-day contacts to make sure businesses are following through on business their plans, making sales calls and monitoring expenses and revenues, she said. She also suggested regular mentoring sessions where entrepreneurs can meet with seasoned business people to discuss operations.

The Columbus Technology Incubator maintains a pool of banks, law firms and other professionals who offer funding and in-kind services to start-up companies, Ms. Steiner said. She encouraged the participation of local colleges in the incubator because their activities complement those of incubators, Ms. Steiner said. Incubators must have rigid guidelines for accepting new businesses, and stick with a theme for the kinds of companies they want to nurture, Ms. Steiner said.

Incubators cannot simply accept every entrepreneur who comes along, she said. Incubators need tenants with “funding wherewithal” because no funding sources will hand out loans to entrepreneurs with bad credit, she said. Idea people are not necessarily the best business people, Ms. Steiner said.

Hermitage wants its five to seven incubator suites occupied by businesses in the so-called STEM industries — science, technology, engineering and math — and could include software makers, electronics manufacturers and biological research firms. “Technology can be difficult to finance,” Ms. Steiner said, noting that incubator officials need to constantly network with banks and other financing institutions so the lenders come to understand the potential of incubator companies and their industries.

In a well-managed incubator, companies mentor each other and form strong relationships because they experience similar obstacles and triumphs, she said. They bounce ideas off each other and encourage the development of those ideas. Incubators do not need to be tied to businesses located within the incubator, Ms. Steiner said. Some serve companies located elsewhere, and these connections can help generate new businesses, she said.

The management of an incubator facility needs to be kept separate from the management of the incubator program, she said. Incubators are their own businesses and cannot be addicted to rents — they need to make sure businesses develop to the point that they can move out on their own, usually in three to five years — and attract operational financing outside of rental income, she said. Rents, while they are market-rate, do not cover expenses, she said.

Ms. Steiner praised Hermitage and Mercer County officials for their economic development efforts, and said they stand out when compared
to other communities she has seen. “Mercer County has been one of the most proactive communities in pulling together and moving ahead,” she said.

Gary M. Gulla, Hermitage’s assistant city manager, said city officials visited the Gannon center this week, and also have been to the Youngstown Business Incubator and Pittsburgh Technology Collaborative. He said the other incubators have shared their documents, made their officials available for interviews and related what their experiences have been like.

“Everybody has the same goal: to get the entrepreneurs of tomorrow out there, get it going and generate business,” he said. Gulla said he hopes the Penn-Northwest board members will use their contacts to talk up the tech center among business people they come in contact with.

“I hope they become our apostles,” he said.

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'Green' tech center specs didn't discourage bidders
HERMITAGE
Sharon-Herald - May 7th, 2010

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

The four sets of bids to build the technology center in Hermitage’s LindenPointe technical business park came in at about the pre-bid estimate, but there might be a problem with the apparent low general construction bid.

Of the seven general construction bids opened Thursday, Veon Construction Corp., West Middlesex, tendered the lowest at $3,435,000, with Rien Construction, Brookfield, behind at $3,568,640. The other bids ranged from $3.6 million to $3,988,000.

Other apparent low bids: Rabe Environmental Systems, Erie, $854,000 for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. The other three bids were $891,000, $979,534 and $989,715. D.J. Hannon & Sons Inc., New Castle, $240,590, for plumbing, the lowest of five. The other bids ranged from $286,000 to $379,333. Power Contracting Co., Carnegie, $722,000, for electrical construction. The other bids ranged from $777,222 to $844,000.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Hermitage's LindenPointe Celebrates Growth

April 29, 2010
By Dan O'Brien
The Business Journal - Youngstown, OH


HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Two major projects under way in this city stand to create a new business culture that will enable the Shenango and Mahoning valleys to emerge more economically diversified and competitive.

So said officials during a groundbreaking Wednesday at the LindenPointe Innovative Business Campus that launched construction of an expansion of Butler County Community College and the new Technology Center of Excellence.


Gary Gulla and John Fernandez turn
shovels at the press event.

"It's nice to see how we translate policy into real projects and real jobs," said John Fernandez, U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for economic development, who was on hand to celebrate the two projects. "This partnership is exactly the kind of work we need to be doing."

The new technology center received a $4.2 million grant in January from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to help fund construction of the new building. The grant was augmented with a $1.25 million contribution from the state, which Gov. Edward Rendell announced in August 2008.

The EDA had previously awarded the project $800,000

"This project represents a big example of President Obama's formula for sustainable growth and to get this country out of a cycle of boom and bust," Fernandez told an audience of about 200 business and government leaders from western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio. "We want this recovery to be broader based than others."

That necessitates new public-private partnerships that end up investing in a wide range of technology applied to research and business development, Fernandez said. "We're faced with unprecedented global competition," he said.

Small companies that develop new products, services and technologies will provide the business imputes to create this sustainable economy, he said.

Where these companies locate also matters, Fernandez noted. "They want to be around each other and share a talent pool," he said.

The new Technology Center of Excellence is the result of a partnership between the city of Hermitage, the West Central Workforce Investment Board, the Mercer County CareerLink, the Penn-Northwest Development Corp. and executives from the technology sector.

The 16,500-square-foot building will include testing for use by high-tech companies, five to seven business incubators for new companies, and common class, break, meeting and rest room areas. The classrooms will also have teleconferencing equipment.

Among the beneficiaries of a strong tech center in western Pennsylvania are communities in northeast Ohio, officials said.

The OH-PENN interstate region, a regional workforce development initiative that combines the interests of Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in Ohio, and Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania, helped move the project along, noted Gary Gulla, assistant city manager for Hermitage.

"We're linked here in the Mahoning and Shenango Valley region," he said.

In a show of solidarity, Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams attended the event and told the crowd "we will rise an fall as a region."

Williams said that the stronger western Pennsylvania is economically, more opportunities become available for residents in northeast Ohio. Together the region benefits as a whole.

"Too many times in the past, leaders have allowed invisible boundaries to separate us and define us," Williams said. "If it's good for western Pennsylvania, it's good for Ohio."

Those synergies are also evident in Butler County Community College's expansion at LindenPointe, officials said.

"We want to become northwestern Pennsylvania's institution of higher learning," said Nicholas Neupauer, president of Butler County Community College. The college is expanding its existing 4,000-square-foot building to 20,000 square-feet.

The expansion will include five more classrooms, two computer labs, one science lab and a student lounge. The building will be ready in time for classes beginning on Jan. 15.

The idea is to create a campus-like environment to make it more amenable to students. Once the expansion is finished, Butler County Community College will have expanded its Mercer County branch from 196 seats to more than 1,000 seats. "You can count on Butler Community College to be a partner here for many years to come,” Neupauer said.

Copyright 2010 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.

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LindenPointe project hailed as collaboration
HERMITAGE
Sharon-Herald - April 29th, 2010

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

The problem with economic development efforts in the past has been that towns and cities viewed their neighboring municipalities as competitors, said John Fernandez. U.S. assistant secretary for commerce and development. The real competition is from China, Singapore and elsewhere around the world, not the next town over, he said.

The federal government has been inconsistent in its role in economic development, and needs to promote cross jurisdictional partnerships, Fernandez said. “It’s too infrequently put to work,” he said. “We can’t let our communities just be out there on their own.” Projects such Hermitage’s tech center in LindenPointe technical business park, shows the benefits of cross border support, he said.

“We really are in this together,” Fernandez said Wednesday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the tech center and Butler County Community College’s renovation and expansion of its LindenPointe campus building. Construction bids will be opened Tuesday for the tech center, which will provide technology business incubator suites and a testing laboratory.

The commerce department’s economic development agency is providing $4.2 million, and the state is kicking in another $1.5 million. Work already has begun to build five new classrooms, two computer labs, a science lab and other amenities at the BC3 building.

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams set the stage for Fernandez’s comments by calling for overcoming the artificial borders of local, state and federal jurisdictions. “If it’s good for western Pennsylvania, it’s good for eastern Ohio, and vice versa,” Williams said. Williams spoke on behalf of the OH-PENN economic group that encompasses Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania and Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties in Ohio. “We are seeing one of the manifestations of the success of that agreement,” he said. Williams pledged to support more Pennsylvania projects, while adding, “We hope to see you in Ohio.”

Hermitage Assistant City Manager Gary P. Gulla noted Youngstown’s success in attracting companies to the Youngstown Business Incubator and the planned expansion of V&M Star Steel. Lenita Jacobs-Simmons, regional administrator for the U.S Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, also touted the OH-PENN regional effort. “I’m excited to have the first interstate region in my region,” she said. “We have some neighbors trying to do the same thing.” The OH-PENN region is a model for an effort to regionalize counties in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, she said.

Ms. Jacobs-Simmons also said the tech center project helps break some of the barriers between economic development and workforce development. The U.S. economy has been for too long been tied to booms and busts in specific industries, Fernandez said. New technology and ideas have always fueled new products,
businesses, services and jobs, and communities should be encouraging innovation. Innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs tend to want to be around each other, hence the clusters such as Silicon Valley, Fernandez said.

The tech center could be the seed that leads to private investment and jobs, he said.
“It truly represents a great, living example of President Obama’s vision for a new foundation for stable, economic growth,” Fernandez said. “I think it’s a great project. It will really help the region enhance its emerging technology cluster.”

The BC3 project also shows an example of breaking through community borders. The college, the fastest growing of the 14 community colleges in Pennsylvania, is enjoying marked enrollment growth at its Lawrence and Mercer county campuses, said President Dr. Nicholas Neupauer. Ruth Purcell, director of the BC3 Educational Foundation, called the LindenPointe expansion the most innovative project in the college’s history.

The foundation has undertaken capital projects in Butler County, but usually provides scholarships and technology equipment, she said. “It’s hard to believe that it was only less than a year ago that the BC3 Foundation was asked to buy the building.” Ms. Purcell said. BC3 is an investment in the community in that 75 percent of its graduates stay in their home areas after graduation, Neupauer said.

The college offers associate degrees in business, elementary education, psychology and general studies.

Pictures from the April 28th Groundbreaking event!

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