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City of Franklin Business Incubator Build-Out CDBG-Recovery Project
Overview
The Franklin Business Incubator building was one of the many structures damaged from the severe flooding casued by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Over 2 million dollars in funding was subsequently awarded from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Virginia Department of Business Assistance, and Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development Community Development Block Grant program to assist the City in undertaking the adaptive reuse of its old peanut warehouse in 2005 to provide space and technical assistance for the start up of new businesses in an effort to revive and stabilize the local economy. Since that time, the Incubator has experienced tremendous success and its three floors of office space (12,154 square feet) are constantly at maximum capacity. Currently, the Incubator is home to twenty-eight (28) businesses employing one hundred and twenty (120) individuals.
Approach
As a result of the expansion of the existing Incubator, this project created an additional 7,800 square feet of prime office space to be utilized by local, start-up businesses. As a result of providing the space, the estimated number of permanent jobs that will be created is seventy-seven (77) — forty (40) full-time, thirty-seven (37) part-time, and the number of businesses accommodated is eighteen (18).
Funding for the project was provided by a $150,00 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Rural Development. Additionally, the City was able to secure a $536,466 Community Development Block Grant - Recovery (CDBG-R) from the Virginia Deparmtent of Housing and Community Development (VDHCD) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in order to create new jobs, save existing jobs, and spur economic activity and invest in long-term growth.
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