{"id":21794,"date":"2014-07-31T16:48:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T20:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=21794"},"modified":"2014-07-31T16:48:47","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T20:48:47","slug":"neighbors-want-bigger-role-in-re-shaping-business-incubator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2014\/07\/31\/neighbors-want-bigger-role-in-re-shaping-business-incubator\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighbors want Bigger Role in Re-Shaping Business Incubator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raleigh\u2019s Chief Information and Community Relations Officer Gail Roper faced some tough questions Monday night when she appeared before the South Central CAC<\/a> to\u00a0discuss the future of what is being called the 900 South Wilmington Incubator<\/a>.
\n\u00a0
\nOnce home to the Raleigh Business & Technology Center, the center came under fire last summer when a city audit turned up serious problems with the nonprofit organization\u2019s financial records. Among the issues were delinquent payroll taxes and $940 in unexplained payments made to the center\u2019s director, Robert Robinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BusinessCenter3\"<\/a>

City of Raleigh<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to the payments, Robinson received nearly $4,000 in loans from the RBTC, and a group he co-founded received a $290,000 fee for services rendered. Robinson also failed to renew the organization\u2019s tax-exempt status with the IRS \u2013 for three years running.<\/p>\n

Robinson resigned from his position June 30, 2013, days before the city issued its scathing report.<\/p>\n

The center first opened in August of 2000, after the city received a $500,000 federal grant and put up $907,00 of taxpayer money.
\n\u00a0
\nRBTC was to use the center as a business incubator that would primarily service southeast Raleigh, renting about 30 offices for small businesses at below-market rates and offering them shared services such as Internet access and a conference room.<\/p>\n

The initial goals of the center, specifically the intent to serve southeast Raleigh residents, were the topic of much discussion at Monday\u2019s CAC meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reckon the question is, is this a tool now for southeast Raleigh or is this a tool for all of Raleigh?\u201d said Dan Coleman, chair of the South Central CAC. \u201cWhy are we losing this tool that we had?\u201d<\/p>\n

CIO Roper responded, \u201cI don\u2019t think that there is a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving Forward<\/strong>
\nRoper plans to issue a Request for Information (RFI), soliciting organizations with a desire to run the incubator. The RFI is the first step in re-opening the facility. <\/p>\n

The city released a document July 1 that listed examples of what kind of issues potential respondents would need to address. These included a determination of which entrepreneurial segments would benefit most from an incubator space and finding out the \u201ctrue demand\u201d for minority incubator space.<\/p>\n

Coleman noted that the community initially had an important role in how the incubator was run, but felt the city\u2019s attempts to re-open the space were dismissing community members from their former role and replacing them with city staff.<\/p>\n

Roper said locals could help shape the future of the incubator by attending community forums and offering their input. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a pledge to make sure it is an inclusive process,\u201d Roper said. \u201cBefore we move forward with the Request for Information, we want to ensure that we have input from community.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s meeting, Roper said she wanted small and minority businesses to be on a level playing field.<\/p>\n

Coleman countered that the issue was not about minority businesses in particular, but low-wealth businesses in general.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cWe have a lot of low-wealth businesses in southeast Raleigh that may have a laptop or a smart phone, and a lot of them just need an office space,\u201d he said.
\n\u00a0
\nColeman said the area had lost a number of institutions over the years, such as the YMCA, and they didn\u2019t want to add the business and technology center to that list.
\n\u00a0
\nRoper said one of the stipulations of the federal funding received for the project is that the building remains an incubator until 2017.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cAfter that, it can be used for whatever,\u201d Roper said.
\n\u00a0
\nThe city has announced it would like to receive market-rate prices for the space, something unlikely to happen with a traditional incubator model.
\n\u00a0
\nEnlisting City Council<\/strong>
\nIn the meantime, Coleman remains skeptical of the city\u2019s plans to rework the incubator.<\/p>\n

He made a motion that \u201cThe business and technology center will stay on task with its original intent, that it was going to commit to serving southeast Raleigh and the surrounding area.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motion was seconded and unanimously approved by the CAC.<\/p>\n

Coleman used the motion as a way to call out\u00a0Councilman Eugene Weeks, who, alongside city manager Ruffin Hall, was also in attendance that night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our Councilman is not going to sit here and tell us that he thinks it\u2019s a tool he needs in his toolbox to be able to lift his district up, who cares after this point,\u201d Coleman said.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cEither we have it or we don\u2019t, none of us are going to fight if it\u2019s not something [Weeks] believes in.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nWeeks said once he gets enough information from \u201cthe intelligent people here,\u201d he will \u201cgo to the table with this.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cThe southeast Raleigh community wants to look to Weeks as far as questions we have concerning this, we want to hold him accountable for this, we\u2019re asking to provide leadership on it,\u201d Coleman said.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cThe reason [RBTC] went south is because we were disengaged, thinking someone else was minding the store,\u201d he said.
\n\u00a0
\nLearning From The Past<\/strong>
\nRoper emphasized a number of times throughout the night that the city would look at specific metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the new incubator.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to do going forward is have clear indicators how we measure success – the number of jobs created, the number of businesses created, how it affects our youth in terms of entrepreneurship,\u201d Roper said.<\/p>\n

Among the problems cited in last year\u2019s audit was a noted lack of information collected to assess the program\u2019s effectiveness. <\/p>\n

The audit stated, \u201cA business incubator should collect sufficient information so that it can periodically perform comprehensive evaluations of the effectiveness of its programs.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nAlthough the city is still determining which factors it will use to measure its success, Roper said these indicators would be \u201cappropriate to the goals we are setting for the incubator.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The South Central Citizens Advisory Council discussed Monday the goals and intentions of the city\u2019s plans for the former Raleigh Business & Technology Center. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24061,"featured_media":21795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1725,1724],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21794"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24061"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}