The proposal to the City Council to establish a small business incubator and shared work space facility downtown (page 1) is one that isn’t new, but it’s certainly promising.
Sweet Home Active Revitalization Effort members, better known as SHARE, and city officials have been talking about this for almost a decade. Previously, though, the time hasn’t been right. Funding was lacking during the recession and finding the right location has been a challenge.
It certainly appears that the pieces are falling into place now.
The purpose of this facility, which would be modeled after others in various stages of development around the state – the Foundry in Corvallis, Indy Commons in Independence, HatchLab in Baker, The Box in Stayton and another similar coworking space in the works in Lebanon, is to provide affordable space for entrepreneurs and people who want to work remotely.
These facilities are working, as Brad Attig, manager of the Corvallis Foundry, told the council last week. They are often profitable after a year or two and they provide communities with the opportunity to help businesses get started.
If Sweet Home’s plans come to fruition, the Sweet Home facility would be located initially in the old City Hall building – a block from the library and from the post office, and two blocks from Main Street in the heart of the downtown.
Yes, a location right on Main Street would be optimal, but what would be even more optimal would be to see some of the vacant storefronts in the heart of Sweet Home occupied by thriving businesses. It’s already happening elsewhere, in communities very similar to Sweet Home.
What is Sweet Home today? We’re largely a bedroom community with a few other larger local industries mixed in – forest products, metal detectors, radiators, ammunition, precision metalworks, some retail and a lot of public employees.
Those behind this shared work facility proposal, who include Chamber of Commerce and SHEDG leaders, say there are plenty more potential business owners out there, making items in their garages to sell online or simply formulating ideas.
Not only could a coworking facility be an incubator for businesses that could expand Sweet Home’s economy and standard of living, but there’s another benefit.
It seems to us that a facility offering affordable desk space and high-speed wifi, along with business comradery and education opportunities, as the Foundry and others provide, would be a draw not only for wanna-be new business owners but also for the occupants of some of those hundreds of cars that leave Sweet Home each morning for Eugene, Albany, Salem and points beyond, to return at dusk.
That’s a daily drain of intelligence and energy, people whose presence could serve Sweet Home well, if they were eating lunch here a day or two a week instead of exiting town to work elsewhere.
Although other communities, such as Lebanon, may be a few steps ahead in developing their business districts and economies, this could be a very good place to start for us.
Sweet Home is loaded with potential – natural resources that the rest of the state envies, as evidenced by the parade of RV’s through here in the summer. Tourism in Sweet Home is a grossly underdeveloped local industry.
But it’s not just tourism. We have innovative, energetic residents who could make something happen in a lot of fields, if given the chance.
This small business incubator and shared work space facility might just be that opportunity.