Entrepreneurs have chance to Incubate

By Becky Bosshart

For those sitting on a brilliant business idea but who are low on funds or expertise, soon you will have a Northern Nevada incubator.

Last week, the Nevada Commission on Economic Development awarded $1.7 million in grants designed to help rural Nevada communities and blighted urban areas remain economically viable.

A grant was awarded to the Northern Nevada Development Authority, based in Carson City, for the Rural Regional Incubator Project. The cost of the project is $535,000, and the grant covers $360,000. Member agencies are contributing the rest.

The Incubator sounds like what it is: a place set aside for baby ideas to mature into productive enterprises.

Who will be nurturing these ideas? The list is long: the University of Nevada, Reno; the Desert Research Institute; the Small Business Administration; Western Nevada Development District; NNDA; Nevada Works and more.

The combined experience and expertise of these agencies will create a dynamic environment for small business and the young entrepreneur, an organizer said.

"There are a lot of small businesses with the potential to grow, but they may not have the skills to grow," said Ron Weisinger, executive director of the Northern Nevada Development Authority. "And some entrepreneurs may not have the skills, the funding or tech experience."

They enter the Incubator, and that all could change. The Incubator will be hosted at the future Western Nevada Community College Fernley classrooms. Right now, the Fernley campus is nothing more than a trailer. But just like the ideas of a budding billionaire, it, too, will evolve.

In about a year, that grant money will fund the construction of several classrooms for the benefit of WNCC students in Fernley and the Incubator, Weisinger said.

As soon as the facility is completed, the membership agencies will choose business owners and entrepreneurs to participate.

"Ten different businesses or entrepreneurs will be chosen to be in the incubator program. They could be from agricultural, high-tech or low-tech. Anything."

These 10 people, with the help of the agencies, will develop their ideas in brainstorming sessions.

This is the first time the Nevada Commission on Economic Development has provided direct funding to community agencies.

In other news, for all you train fans, the Nevada Northern In Ely benefited. The City of Ely/White Pine Historical Railroad Foundation received $310,000 for Northern Nevada Railroad Renovation. About 40 percent of the total project cost of $516,000 will come from other sources.

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The Silverland Express Hotel may have one of its best weekends since it opened Sept. 8.

Bikers participating in Street Vibrations' events often choose to stay or ride in Virginia City, and hotel owner Hugh Roy Marshall expected to get much of that business. He has a small bar and casino on the first floor.

In the future, Marshall hopes to market the Comstock Park Arena - where the camel races were held - to bikers as a place to show motorcycles or begin poker runs.

"We're just getting started with stuff we can do on the Comstock for the Street Vibration folks," he said.

The Silverland Express hotel cost $7.5 million to build and employs 12. The three-story hotel is along the route of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. Marshall calls it his "railroad hotel."

He plans to build another hotel about three blocks to the north of the Silverland. It will be named after the Comstock-era International, which was destroyed in a fire.

• Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.