Visitors ask, will it play in Peoria?

Group from Illinois city tours Innovation Hub in NLR

Since it opened more than two years ago, the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock has drawn interest from entities across the state that want to open similar projects to encourage entrepreneurship.

Interest is now coming from out of state.

A group of 14 business leaders from Peoria, Ill., were in North Little Rock on Monday to learn more about the Innovation Hub. Conversations between the Innovation Hub and Greater Peoria Economic Development Council began about six months ago.

Greater Peoria Economic Development Council Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Daly said she has been researching innovation-focused centers for about a year as her town looks to build what it calls "Catalyst." The mix of manufacturing, art and design, education and co-working space offered by the Innovation Hub is rare enough to warrant an in-person look.

"We looked at a lot of different models, but what struck us about the Innovation Hub is that it included a lot of the pieces we're interested in. ... That is very much in line with our goals in our region," Daly said. "This really is the only space we found so far that has all of the elements we were looking at putting together."

Peoria's traveling party was seeking a first-hand look at how each component of the Hub worked. Specifically, Daly said, the group was curious about staffing, funding and programming. Currently, the Innovation Hub operates on a $1.2 million budget, using a mix of public and private funding.

During the visit, they toured the space occupied by HubX-Life Sciences, an accelerator designed to help health care-related startups gain footing.

Since the Innovation Hub opened two years ago, it has grown from one to 11 employees. Memberships to the center, which allow access to manufacturing equipment, mentoring and education programs and work space, have grown to more than 200.

Similar efforts are underway in Jonesboro and Fayetteville. Innovation Hub Executive Director Warwick Sabin said the attention is proof that the Innovation Hub, while lacking a major startup business success story so far, is working as intended.

"I think we've created a really unique and effective model here in central Arkansas by combining a lot of resources and programs that accelerate the development of talent and enterprise," Sabin said. "I know that the leaders in Peoria did a lot of their own research to see what other models existed around the country that they could replicate or learn from. They chose ours. They decide to make the drive down here to see it for themselves. Visits like this underscore the things we're doing right."

Included on the visit were representatives from Caterpillar corporate headquarters. The $55 billion construction equipment manufacturer employs about 15,000 people in Peoria and the surrounding region.

Plans call for Catalyst to be located in a 127,000-square-foot warehouse currently owned by Caterpillar, just down the street from its corporate headquarters. The company announced in 2015 that it was keeping its offices in downtown Peoria and has been pushing for a revitalization of the town's Warehouse District.

An Innovation Hub-style entity in downtown Peoria would help the city grow, said Jay Babin, senior design engineer at Caterpillar. The company currently has its own innovation lab and is interested in growing its efforts.

"We need to retain the talent and grow the talent in the community," Babin said. "We also have a lot of retirees. We don't want them to leave town. They want to give back. We want them to give back. We're revitalizing the downtown area. Our thought is that we'll have a hub of our own on the other end of the street from our headquarters."

Business on 04/19/2016

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