Years after Western State Colorado University business professor Chris Greene began dreaming of a gathering place for people interested in cultivating the entrepreneurial potential of the Gunnison Valley, his dream has finally come true.
In an open house event tomorrow from 4-7 p.m, the ICELab will officially come to life in Western’s newly-renovated Escalante Terrace. The event will also double as this month’s Gunnison Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours Mixer.
The ICE Project — a business school initiative Greene has nurtured for several years — stands for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship. Now, in partnership with the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), housed at Western, the ICELab will help provide a wide range of resources to emerging or expanding businesses in the Gunnison Valley.
Throughout the development phase, the facility was referred to as the ICEHouse — a name that was changed to ICELab on the advice of attorneys to avoid potential conflicts with a similarly named entity elsewhere.
“The primary goal of the open house is to introduce this space to the Gunnison community,” said SBDC and ICELab director Gerrit McGowan. “It’s a very unique space, not only for Gunnison, but for any rural mountain community. We are taking what has traditionally been either a large, urban university concept and applying it to our unique environment. We don’t want people to just stumble upon it, but to get a real tour.”
The ICELab is more than a typical business resource center. It features “morphable working spaces for 10 to 15 businesses, developmental labs for product designs and promotional materials, a Small Business Development Center, and a café and bar,” according to a description online. “The space will also be used to host presentations, events and entertainment year-round.”
McGowan credits the One Valley Prosperity Project (OVPP) with making the lab possible, by identifying and prioritizing the need for resources to help local businesses and entrepreneurs. OVPP was a community-wide effort recently undertaken by the Community Builders Task Force to set economic development priorities in the Gunnison Valley.
“Because of OVPP, when I took over as director of the SBDC, people were jumping out of the woodwork saying how about a partnership, how about some money, which never happens,” said McGowan. “It’s extraordinary and speaks volumes about how special this community is.”
The ICELab bar and café will be operated by Sodexo, the campus food service provider. Sodexo is a French corporation that serves 75 million meals a day around the world, according to the company website.
“They have been one of the most amazing corporate partners I’ve ever worked with,” said McGowan. “The really unique thing in this partnership is that they’re committed to bringing in local vendors. That includes every spirit or beer we serve in the bar and as much locally produced food as possible.”
McGowan plans weekly programs at the ICELab, including guest speakers, a film series, an ICE Box lunch series and business showcases during happy hour events.
The ICELab is funded, in part, through a grant for roughly $650,000 from the Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. The agency exists to assist economically challenged communities across the nation. Delta and Gunnison counties became eligible for federal dollars to offset the impact of coal mine closures in recent years.
(Alan Wartes can be reached at 970.641.1414 or alan@gunnisontimes.com.)
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