DETROIT, April 14, 2010 — TechTown has received an $800,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation to renovate new business incubator space and support operations. TechTown received notification of the award March 10.
“Entrepreneurship is critically important to the future of Detroit, and we value TechTown’s leadership in this area,” said Laura Trudeau, senior program director at The Kresge Foundation.
The grant allocates up to $650,000 for renovating TechTwo, located in the former Dalgleish Cadillac building at 6160 Cass Avenue. TechTown has a waiting list of entrepreneurs seeking office space and cubicles for lease, and other startup support services; the TechTwo building will help it feed the demand.
TechOne, TechTown’s first business incubator facility at 440 Burroughs Street, is full. TechTown received a $1.5 million grant from The Kresge Foundation in December 2007 to support TechOne’s renovation.
“The Kresge Foundation’s generous grant will help TechTown scale its operations and facilities to support as many Detroit entrepreneurs as possible,” TechTown Executive Director Randal Charlton said. “Kresge recognizes that entrepreneurship is an essential part of the economic turnaround of this region, and they see that the work we do here at TechTown plays a critical role in helping Detroit build a new economy.”
TechTown is a key partner in a three-year entrepreneurship initiative funded by the New Economy Initiative with the support of the Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The initiative provides entrepreneurial training programs like the Kauffman-designed FastTrac courses to encourage budding entrepreneurs in Southeast Michigan with the aim of creating 1,200 sustainable startup businesses. The Kresge Foundation is one of the ten foundations that contributed to the creation of the New Economy Initiative.
ABOUT THE KRESGE FOUNDATION
The Kresge Foundation is a $2.8 billion private, national foundation that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations through its support of nonprofit organizations in six fields: health, the environment, arts and culture, education, human services and community development. For more information, visit www.kresge.org.
ABOUT TECHTOWN
TechTown is an urban community of entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, mentors and corporate partners creating an internationally influential village in Detroit. TechTown brings the resources of Wayne State University to high-technology startup companies to diversify and strengthen Michigan’s economy in high-growth emerging industries. For more information, visit www.techtownwsu.org.
