Lake Martin Innovation Center In Alexander City Helps Businesses Get Off The Ground

By Michael Tomberlin

Lake Martin has always been known for recreation, and now the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce is also making it a place for incubation.

In addition to being home to the chamber’s offices, the Lake Martin Innovation Center is a business incubator providing low-cost office space and support to young businesses.

The chamber moved into the former bank data center in February 2017 with big plans for the large space. Chief among them was a dozen suites for startup companies to set up and grow in Alex City. Chamber officials visited other business incubators throughout the state to discover best practices.

“So far, so good,” said Ed Collari, president and CEO of the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce. “Being in a rural community, we faced our challenges. Most of the facilities we toured throughout the state are in the backyards of four-year institutions, so being here in Alex City in rural Alabama we definitely had our issues. But so far, a year and a half in, it’s been a very solid success.”

Collari said the visits to other incubators helped the chamber with its “R&D – ripoff and duplicate” plan. They learned that successful incubators bring in tenants that have expertise in law, information technology and accounting so that they become an in-house resource to other tenant companies.

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