The University of Florida and Gainesville city leaders have now broken ground on a new business incubator facility, which officials say will help spur the formation of new companies based on research by the school’s faculty and students.
The project – called the Florida Innovation Hub – is being funded through an $8.2-million grant from the Economic Development Administration and another $5 million in university funds.
School officials say they hope the project will help bring students, investors, and entrepreneurs together so they can create new ideas and start a corporation together. The building is expected to house as many as 15 to 20 companies at a time, in addition to multiple service providers such as a law firm and an executive search firm.
The facility is expected to be completed by the fall of 2011, but the project is already attracting many companies to the region. The president of the local Chamber of Commerce told the Gainesville Sun that the project was "planting the flag" for the area to become the site of a growing number of new high-tech companies.
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