March 14, 2019
Media Contact:
Scott L. Peterson, Director of Communications, Office of Public Information, 202-277-9412
COLUMBIA, MD – Howard County Executive Calvin Ball marked his 100th day in office yesterday by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Howard County Economic Development Authority (HCEDA), for the Gateway Innovation Center in Columbia. The Center is being launched to serve as a nexus of resources for innovation and small, minority, woman, and veteran-owned business creation and support. Strategically located between Washington, DC and Baltimore, in the 920-acre Columbia Gateway Innovation District, the Center itself will occupy nearly 50,000 square feet. The industry sectors the Center will focus on include: cybersecurity technologies, healthcare IT and medical technologies, agricultural technologies, and government solutions providers. Video from the event can be found here. Photos can be found here.
“In our first 100 days, innovation and economic opportunity have been priorities for my administration,” said Ball. “That is why I am signing a memorandum of understanding that will grow our local economy by making the Gateway Innovation Center a reality. By consolidating our business incubator, business resource center, and added services, we are putting all the pieces together in a single facility, to form an innovation hub.”
“I am excited to support this important economic development project in District 2,” said Howard County Council Member Opel Jones (D-District 2). “The Gateway Innovation Center is critical to our efforts to grow small, local, and minority businesses in Howard County. It was an honor to join County Executive Ball on our first 100 Days in office on this momentous occasion.”
The goal of the Center will be to provide programmatic platforms to support and grow new and existing businesses and create access to capital. This programming will include:
- Business Incubation featuring the current Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, including:
- Entrepreneurs in Residence Mentors Program
- The Business Resource Center (which includes services provided by the Maryland Small Business Development Center: SBDC, Procurement Technical Assistance Center PTAC, and SCORE)
- Focused efforts for small, minority, woman, and veteran owned business
- Home of the Howard Tech Council, the largest regional tech council in Maryland
- Catalyst Loan Program – the loan program specifically targeted for small, minority woman and veteran owned business funded by VLT proceeds
- Co-Working, featuring collaborative work space
- Innovation labs in collaboration with National Partners
- Collaboration with Academia to include Technology Transfer- University System of Maryland, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Loyola University in Maryland, and Howard Community College
- Innovation Café
- Event Space
- Entrepreneurs in Residence
- Gateway Community Partners
“This is the place where we will have small business services for the budding entrepreneur,” said Larry Twele, HCEDA CEO. “It really does cover the full spectrum of entrepreneurship.”
“We left Silicon Valley, but this is our new Silicon Valley,” said Theresa Dessaso of the Howard County based company, Trimia. “Let’s go do it, let’s solve some big problems.”