The Trenton Business & Technology Center

It might be one of Trenton's better kept secrets, but there is indeed an incubator beneath the multi-story Trenton Parking Authority building at the comer of Front and S. Broad Sts., opposite Mill Hill Park.

However, this incubator, which has been in operation since 1996 has nothing to do with infants. The only things it keeps "warm" are the hopes and dreams of certain would-be entrepreneurs, who rent rooms and even suites in the labyrinth of useful space that runs the full length and width of the ground floor.

Known as the Trenton Business and Technology Center, it primarily serves as a small business incubator for high-tech start-ups, but recently announced that it will make space available for rent to other types of start-ups, but not to retail outlets. Its director, Alan Spiewak, is both a lawyer and part-time college professor whose interest in education overflows to a Montessori school he and his wife Eileen operate in Plainsboro.

"What we do here," he said, "is take in start-up companies that are looking for advice and affordable quarters which will allow them to graduate - after one to two years - into the marketplace and do well. We have some statistics that show that 80 percent of companies that go through incubators are still in business five years later. We are looking for companies that are basically moving out of the home and into their first office space.

"We are not looking for companies who are seeking cheap office space. We are definitely not in competition with the real estate market, because when they graduate from here, they will be ready to lease, or whatever. But they come to us first so as to avoid that bigger step initially. In effect, we are a halfway house for new companies."

There are some 50 offices behind and adjacent to Spiewak's modest office that faces 36 S. Broad St., but is partially obstructed from view by several park-type benches set up to give the public a place to rest.

Office seekers can rent one space or 20 depending on their needs, but most start with a single room, or maybe two, and often expand within the incubator as their enterprises begin to flourish.

Spiewak and his small staff provide management help and enlist the aid of small business experts from Mercer County Community College (MCCC) and numerous government agencies on the federal, state, county and local levels that have been set up to boost the chances of entrepreneurs with the urge to succeed. And they all have access to a most important resource, Al Spiewak, who not only has a law degree, but an MBA and a background that includes growing up in a family who ran a well-established business in his hometown of Albany, N.Y. He also has taught business courses at Fordham University in the Bronx and at MCCC.

Spiewak fields such questions as "how do I get started" and "how do I find customers" as a matter of course. He also uses the services of a panel of some 20 advisors, who are experts in many different fields. Among these are law, insurance, networking, basic bookkeeping and office procedure, computers and the like, all of which cut down on the early struggles common to business start-ups.

Since the organization is a technology incubator, it follows that almost all tenants are in very specialized businesses. There is a firm called Sensors Strategies which advises government agencies and large firms on quality control with high tech devices now available.

There is also a firm that is working on a portable solar energy device that the owners hope will replace chemical batteries. This device, if perfected, would have unlimited chargeable life.

Another enterpriser is a web-site designer who is devoting much of his time to helping other incubator tenants do better. He also does terrific animations, according to Spiewak.

There are a couple of bio-research technology companies.. One is doing cancer research and is currently looking for funding. They believe that they have found new answers and will use the funding to prove their point. Another is working on a drug transfer device which eliminates the negative reaction that most "patch type" drug delivery systems have on many people who try them. Most patches have a strong skin reaction, this company believes, and this new firm believes it has answers that will make patches a more universal application.

Also on board is a person Spiewak described as a world class scientist, formerly with Bristol-Myers Squibb, named John Wille, who, "comes up with something new every other week." He is very enthusiastic and has a good grasp of what's practical, Spiewak reports, and is always on the lookout for solutions to many of the tough problems that the world faces.

Wille is vice president and director of research and development for Transkin Immuno, LLC. a start-up business that is developing the new skin patch product. He believes his firm will eventually be a $100 million company. Another tenant is a computer training school which specializes in high end computer education leading to Microsoft certification. Graduates are expected to supervise others in the field rather than actually doing the programming.

Also occupying an office in the incubator is a technical writer who is in a perfect position to work with the others who are developing all of the new technology coming out of the other offices. Not only can he put their research messages into English, he can also do it in German and Spanish. His wife is a graphic artist, so between them they make a formidable team as technical writer and illustrator.

Not surprisingly, there is a dot-com company which specializes in on-line improvements and has been expanding "hand over fist" for the past several months. In fact, they are doing so well that they may soon move to larger quarters, which is the very point of the incubator.

A tour of the inner building is mundane, but interesting. Finn names are usually cardboard signs that slide into a frame located next to a door, testimony to the temporary occupancy most tenants will experience here. Long, well lighted halls lead to the offices, a small lunch room, a lounge and various suites. In all there is 13,000 square feet of space, of which 7,700 square feet is rental space.

The incubator first opened in 1996 in its current location. Off to a slow start it brought in an expert who advised advertising the current center as the best office value in Mercer County with rentals as low as $225 a month. Included in the rental was an office, desk, rental chair, unlimited faxing and the use of common meeting rooms.

The campaign paid off, the center began to flourish and occupancy at one point reached nearly 90 percent. But there were some rough patches. Spiewak is the third director in a little over four years, having taken over the operation in October, 2000.

But the center's clients today seem happy and credit the incubator in helping them to survive beyond the critical first year when most new small businesses fail. Today's rentals range from $235 for 100 hundred square feet to $550 for 440 square feet. There is an extra fee for parking in the parking authority garage overhead. Internet access can be had for an extra $35 a month.

In addition to MCCC, other incubator sponsors include the Capital City Redevelopment Corp., and the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology. The center costs about $200,000 a year to run, reports Spiewak, with about half of that amount coming in from rentals. The balance is paid through grants, some of which have been made by First Union Bank and Merrill Lynch.