NB Telegraph-Journal | N.B. CompaniesNB Telegraph-Journal | N.B. Companies As published on page B1/B6 on October 2, 2004
BUSINESS INCUBATOR Hatching new enterprises Saint John’s Trinity Center aims to help new firms get off the ground
DAVID SHIPLEY Telegraph-Journal
Jim English head of the Trinity Business Center takes in the new decor.
Embracing risk may prove to be a great strategy for Saint John’s newest business incubation centre. On Friday, construction crews were putting the finishing touches on the Trinity Center for Business, which will soon provide high-quality space and support to fledgling companies.
The project is the brainchild of Jim English, a Saint John High graduate who went on to receive business degrees from the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton and Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
"Ideally it will be a true incubator in conjunction with, hopefully, a bunch of other centres that develop in the city as well," said Mr. English, president of Spencer Investments, which has owned the building for 80 years.
The new Trinity Center is housed in a newly renovated, but historic-looking, landmark building on Charlotte Street in Uptown. It will offer modular office set-ups that provide flexibility for new ventures as well as upscale office space that can be rented on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
The centre will also offer virtual business space, which provides clients with reception services and a place to work when they are in town. A 12-person conference room and six-person meeting rooms can be booked on an hourly or daily basis, and a full range of business technologies, from wireless Internet to multimedia presentation tools, are also available.
Mr. English’s company will benefit through tenant revenue and shared cost, but he is also looking forward to the opportunity to work closely with young entrepreneurs.
An educational background in finance helped Mr. English start an aquaculture company in Maine that was sold in 2000, and found Risk Capital Strategies Inc., a private investment firm in Saint John.
Not only can tenants benefit from his experience in business, but also from fellow tenants such as CANLink Global Inc., a company that specializes in creating business opportunities between Atlantic Canada and Beijing.
"The idea is to kind of generate a bunch of synergies together and to provide a bit of mentorship," he said.
The new business centre also offers Mr. English the chance to provide foreign investors with space in Saint John so they can establish relationships with companies in the city or start their own businesses.
"About a year-and-a-half ago, we decided to put in this business centre," Mr. English said. "It started like a lot of other ideas where I could use more space and some infrastructure, but did I really want to rent an entire office, hire staff and buy equipment?
"So we started to think maybe we could share some space."
Mr. English and his partners were concerned, however, about renting to firms that may grow and need a larger space or might go out of business. The solution was to embrace the risk, and build a business model from it.
To that end, his company will even consider providing investment capital to promising startups with a sound business plan.
Tenants, meanwhile, will bask in the freshly fixed-up building at 107 Charlotte.
"In Saint John I think you do things either as cheaply as you can or you do it to the highest degree of quality," Mr. English said.
Interior renovations include birch-stained wood for doors, marble floor tiles and modern lighting. The building’s original tin ceiling, four meters high, has also been preserved.
"The goal is for people to start up here and then move on," Mr. English said.
