Business incubator celebrates 12 years of success

--Photo by MARY BERRYHILL Laurie Katana, manager of the Bonner Business Center, with business owners of "Gem Berry" products, Harry and Betty Menser, and Jack O'Brien, with business staff members, Kris Fankell and Lori Kern. Not shown is staff member Kim Kernodle.

SANDPOINT -- Our local Bonner Business Center, or BBC, has seen more than 12 years of encouragement and assistance in the developing of new businesses in North Idaho.

"We were created for two reasons," said Laurie Katana, manager of the Center. "Job creation and to diversify the local economy."

When the timber industry was downsizing and timber-based jobs were vanishing, the BBC made its way to assist in creating about 125 jobs. Several of its "graduating" tenants were Unicep, Pneumex and Selkirk CNC.

The BBC offers nine offices, six industrial bays and a commercial kitchen providing an unlimited number of kitchen tenants.

"The kitchen has always been our 'claim to fame,'" Katana said.

It is the oldest operating kitchen incubator in the United States, and considered to be the rural model for kitchen incubators for both national and international economic development entities.

"Australia, Poland, the Seychelles Islands, Tanzania and England are just a few of the countries who have visited us to see how we operate," she said, "as well as visitors from 20 different states."

The BBC provides services to not only North Idaho, but eastern Washington and western Montana as well.

"It's a place where your 'start up' business can be nurtured into realization," she said.

According to Katana, statistics from the National Business Incubation Assoc., Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, show that businesses that begin in an incubator have an 80 percent success rate, whereas those starting without the services of an incubator have only a 20 percent chance of succeeding.

"That is due to all of the nurturing and resources that an incubator offers to a small business," she said.

The BBC provides affordable, ready-to-go facilities and a place where new and/or early stage businesses can operate and be prepared for long-term success.

The BBC is located at the Airport Business Park, 804 Airport Way. For more information contact Laurie Katana at (208) 263-4073.