Past Winners

Beaver Street Enterprise Center

Jacksonville, Fla.

Jacqulyn Perry, executive director

Year established: 2003

Incubator size: 25,000 square feet

Incubator clients: 18 in-house clients; 14 affiliate clients

Incubator graduates: 8

www.bsecenter.net

Achievements: The Beaver Street Enterprise Center is Jacksonville's only incubator — and Florida's only incubation program in a city's core: an area with high unemployment, low incomes and deteriorating buildings. Opened in 2003 and managed by nonprofit organizations FreshMinistries and Core City Business Incubators, BSEC works primarily with minority, veteran and women entrepreneurs who operate a variety of service businesses, including child care and tutoring, nonmedical home care, income tax and bookkeeping preparation, and mortgage lending. In addition to its in-house incubation program, Beaver Street also offers an affiliate program for home-based businesses through the Wachovia Foundation's Venture Out program.

BSEC aims to attract new industries, create jobs, launch new businesses, enhance stability and opportunity, and strengthen the city's tax base. And it's doing just that — even during the recent economic downturn. In 2009, Beaver Street resident and affiliate clients generated more than 800 full- and part-time jobs and $25 million in revenue. Operating at 92 percent occupancy, BSEC recently broke ground on a new 13,000-square-foot facility to house stage-two companies and recent graduates.

"The success of the incubator's graduates and clients in creating jobs in light of the current economic background is the most crucial success story that BSEC can proudly proclaim to its stockholders," says Beaver Street Executive Director Jacqulyn Perry.

Contact NBIA

Phone: (740) 593-4331
Fax: (740) 593-1996
340 West State Street, Unit 25
Athens, OH 45701-1565
info@nbia.org