Apr 15, 2003 By Christine Haines 3 min read

REDSTONE TWP. – The ribbon cutting was held Monday for a job-creation project in Republic that’s been 10 years in the making. The Republic Incubator is the first of several incubators planned for Fayette, Greene and Washington counties through the Fayette County Community Action Agency and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Community Action Agency.

“The business incubator concept is based on offering affordable space with business support services,” said Jim Stark, the executive director of the Fayette County Community Action Agency.

Stark said his agency first considered an incubator project 10 years ago while rehabilitating apartments in the county. Stark said many of the apartment buildings had commercial space on the first floor that no one wanted to rent.

“That led to the formation of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Community Development Corp.,” Stark said.

The Republic Incubator project is being coordinated by the community action agencies and the community development corporation.

Stark said incubators provide support services to small businesses to get them on their feet.

“Eighty percent of small businesses go out of business in the first five years. Small businesses that start in a business incubator have a much higher success rate. Eighty-seven percent of businesses that graduate from an incubator succeed,” Stark said.

The Republic Incubator is located in a 70,000-square-foot former grocery warehouse. It will serve Fayette, Greene and Washington counties and is expected to support 11 new businesses.

U.S. Congressman John Murtha (D-Johnstown) obtained a $350,000 federal grant for the project.

“This $350,000 investment in this project will allow us to continue to make improvements,” Stark said.

Crews are putting a new roof on the building. Stark said future improvements may include a professional-quality kitchen for a food production business. Murtha said he expects the site to be successful.

“You’re near the Mon Valley Expressway and you have utilities. A lot of incubators don’t have utilities,” Murtha said.

Murtha said grant money for incubators often goes into infrastructure development, but the $350,000 grant can go directly to site development since all of the utilities are in place in Republic.

“Small business is where the growth is,” Murtha said. “It used to be that coal and steel were the big thing in southwestern Pennsylvania. When they went down, we had to find alternatives. We had to diversify.”

Murtha thanked National City Bank for its willingness to provide financing for the incubator.

“We couldn’t have put our money in if we hadn’t had local involvement,” Murtha said.

Stephanie Cipriani of National City said financing incubators is new for the bank.

“We traditionally have done housing and my boss said to start thinking outside the box, so we did,” Cipriani said.

One business is already located at the Republic site. Stark said DWE, a light manufacturing company, employs about 21 people.