Mayor Bloomberg opens first small business incubator in the Bronx; Part of city's network of affordable office space

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has opened the Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator. The Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator, which is housed in the BankNote Building at 890 Garrison Ave. in Hunts Point, will ultimately accommodate up to 400 entrepreneurs from the borough and across N.Y.C. over the next three years, and will further the city's efforts to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation across a variety of sectors. The nearly 11,000 s/f space will provide approximately 180 workspaces - comprised of virtual offices, and physical on-demand co-working spaces, dedicated individual or team spaces, conference rooms, classrooms and common spaces - all wired to support the latest digital and video technology, and will assist startup businesses and entrepreneurs across various industries including finance, new media, technology, green finance and technology, biomedicine, and healthcare. The N.Y.C. Economic Development Corp. provided a $250,000 grant in order to establish the incubator, which is the eighth to open as part of the city's growing network of incubators. Mayor Bloomberg was joined at the announcement, held at the new incubator, by city council speaker Christine Quinn, NYCEDC. president Seth Pinsky, council member Diana Reyna, Sunshine Realty Management co-Founder Cheni Yerushalmi, Dan Allen, founder of SuperMango Media, Matt Weir, VP of Taconic Investment Partners, Paul Wolf, co-president of Denham Wolf Real Estate, Stuart Schulman, executive director of the Institute of Virtual Enterprise, and Rolando Franco, IBM Executive IT Architect and University Ambassador to CUNY. "Over the past three years, we've worked with the private sector to establish eight business incubators that provide low-cost office space to new businesses in growing fields - and the Bank Note building is the perfect place to foster this type of innovation in the Bronx," said Bloomberg. "Allowing entrepreneurs to rub shoulders and share ideas, in an environment that's affordable enough to let them turn those ideas into action, is a key part of what we're doing to create jobs and diversify N.Y.C.'s economy." "Creating the conditions for the city's entrepreneurs to write the next great New York success story is at the heart of mayor Bloomberg's economic development strategy," deputy mayor Steel said. "By expanding our network of incubators to the Bronx we will help hundreds more entrepreneurs open businesses that will create jobs and attract private investment to the Bronx." "The opening of the Sunshine Bronx Incubator is a ray of hope for aspiring businesses in the Bronx and for the future of N.Y.C.," said Quinn. "Just like our kitchen incubator, La Marqueta, in East Harlem and the city's seven other up-and-running Business Incubators, I am confident the Sunshine Bronx Incubator will help spur job and business growth. I want to thank mayor Bloomberg, deputy mayor Steel, and EDC president Seth Pinsky, and my council colleagues for their continued dedication to these efforts." "The opening of the Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator is a significant milestone in the Bloomberg Administration's ongoing commitment to foster entrepreneurship and innovation across the city," said Pinsky. "As the first city-sponsored incubator to open in the Bronx, Sunshine Bronx will play a particularly important role within the community, facilitating the growth of more Bronx-based startups and ensuring a bright future for the borough and its economy."