Fast growth for the Elgin Technology Center
What was little more than an idea and a dream on Jan. 1 is now a fast-growing reality.
Lasse Ingebretsen officially opened the Elgin Technology Center a few months ago, hoping to create a high-tech hub in the downtown area. Now there are more than 130 ETC members and eight tenants renting office space in ETC's headquarters on the second floor of the Tower Building.
“I think that this has been an example of the tech community really standing up on its own and saying, ‘Yes, this is something we have been looking for for a long time,'” Ingebretsen said.
Jen Howver, founder of VOD Communications, was the first tenant to move into the building in early February. Howver does marketing and communications work, helping businesses all over the country tell their stories to clients and consumers.
For the last few years, Howver ran her business out of her Elgin home. She said being in the tech center has allowed her to more easily meet with clients and network with people in the tech community.
But Howver, who recently was featured on msn.com's Your Money as a local “momtrepreneur,” said she doesn't consider herself to be a tech person.
“The tech side of it is exciting to me, but what was more exciting for me was being a resident of Elgin and really wanting to help figure out how we can bring some more life to Elgin, especially the downtown,” Howver said. “If the tech community is the way to make that happen, I love it and I want to be able to get behind it.”
Tech center members have already brought more business to downtown restaurants and hope to continue that trend as more people get involved.
Ingebretsen has big goals for the tech center. By the end of the summer he would like to see 25 tech firms in downtown Elgin — with 10 or more in the Tower building itself. By 2015, he would like to see 115 such firms.
ETC headquarters are still a work in progress but much farther along than in January when there weren't even functioning bathrooms. Two more office suites are ready to rent — at $150 per month — and there is continued construction on a training facility as well as a podcast studio. Ingebretsen hopes to have both rooms completed by the fall.
The cheap rent is heavily discounted by the William R. Stickling Foundation, which owns the building. Neal Pitcher, a director of the foundation and building manager, said the hope in offering these rates is to grow their own tenants.
“We're hoping that as these new businesses take root and grow that they will need larger spaces elsewhere in the building,” Pitcher said.
Besides renting office space on a monthly basis, tech center members can also rent mailboxes as well as conference rooms or offices by the hour or day.
Members can come and go while the building is open, with access to the library and conference room whenever they need it. And where some people would see competitors, Ingebretsen said tech members find synergies, recommending each other to clients and brainstorming together.
Just in the last few months, as firms have moved in and members have taken advantage of the resources of the center, Ingebretsen has seen his idea take flight.
“I see a lot more innovation,” Ingebretsen said. “These people, once they get together, they are discussing new technology all the time, new business ideas. I'm very hopeful that Elgin is going to be the next tech innovation center in the Chicagoland region.”
Visit elgintechnologycenter.com for more information.