As late as couple of days before C4CUBE was scheduled to move its business incubator into new quarters in Midtown, its new quarters were essentially without water or power — and not because someone had forgotten to change over the utility billing.
The long-vacant building at 800 Haskell St. — a block west of South Virginia — had suffered grievously from vandals, Mother Nature and squatters.
Heroic efforts by crews from Ira Hansen & Sons Plumbing and Providence Electric got the building back on its feet as C4CUBE began the first of two dozen trips across downtown with a 26-foot moving truck.
“We took a building — no water, no heat — and brought it back to life,” says Norman Smith, one of the organization’s managing directors. “We have been inspired by others who have done the same in Midtown.”
C4CUBE, which is the home of a dozen startup enterprises, previously was housed a mile to the north in the office building at 300 E. Second St., across from Aces Ballpark.
As the five-year-old nonprofit began looking for a new home, Smith said its leaders were drawn to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Midtown neighborhood.
While the new building can provide space for as many as 20 incubating companies, its 16,800 square feet also provide first-floor space for meetings such as the regular sessions that C4CUBE sponsors to introduce investors and startups to one another.
And the building also provides co-working spaces for entrepreneurs ready to establish themselves somewhere other than a coffee shop or a bedroom, but not yet ready to take the step into a full-blown office.
The goal is creation of a thriving community in which entrepreneurs bounce ideas off one another and inspire one another, says Ky Good, a managing director with Smith of the organization.
“This has to be more than just a building with some people in it,” he says.
C4CUBE will host an open house at the new building from 4-7 p.m. on Wednesday.
