TITUSVILLE BUSINESS INCUBATION CENTER TO UNDERGO EXPANSION 
Additional space allows more companies to join TRDA-run facility

TITUSVILLE - Tom Rainey, director of the Florida/NASA Business Incubation Center (FNBIC), recently announced the Center will undergo a $150,000 expansion that will allow small companies with a focus on biotechnology to launch and grow into successful and viable companies.The current 10,000-square-foot incubator on the Titusville campus of Brevard Community College will be expanded by 5,000 square feet, thereby accommodating an additional 10 offices/production areas available for early-stage, high-technology companies. An existing commercial kitchen will be renovated into a working laboratory that will serve as the perfect environment for small, biotechnology or life sciences companies who need access to such facilities in order to conduct business.
 
"Building an entire laboratory from the ground up is very expensive," said Rainey. "By renovating an existing commercial kitchen, all of the necessary plumbing, gas lines and such are in place, thereby reducing construction costs," he added. 
The expansion will also prove beneficial to Brevard Community College-Titusville (BCC-Titusville). "With this expansion, we are going to be able to help companies covering a broad spectrum of biotechnology, from environmental science to medical research," said Albert M. Koller, Jr., DBA, president of BCC-Titusville. "Furthermore, we will be able to bring in new researchers who can work on university projects via this new laboratory."

Koller plans to internally market the new expansion heavily to his own biology and life sciences departments on campus, with hopes that they will utilize the numerous opportunities available through the Incubator, such as student internships.
 
In addition to the new laboratory, Rainey explained the FNBIC will add several new, state-of-the-art systems into this renovated space, including an advanced telephone system, video-conferencing center and T-1 access lines.
BCC will handle the contract operations for this expansion on behalf of the FNBIC. The college will begin accepting contractor bids for the expansion in mid-February. Renovations are slated to begin in early March with an expected finish date in late fall. Applications for these new spaces will be available to small, high-technology firms by late Spring 2000.

The FNBIC, which was launched by Florida's Technological Research and Development Authority (TRDA) in 1996, seeks to encourage and stimulate technology-based, small business formulation, growth and success in Brevard County. The incubator provides affordable space and shared office equipment and services, thereby reducing many of the costs associated with establishing and operating a small business. The program is managed through a joint partnership of Florida's Technological Research and Development Authority (TRDA), NASA/Kennedy Space Center and Brevard Community College.