A March 24 open house is scheduled at the Reading Phoenix Business Complex, which is opening in a vacant factory downtown. It will be oriented toward manufacturing and service-related businesses. Building owner Kelley Huff of Enchanted Acres Farm, a client of the Kutztown University Small Business Development Center, bought the building last year and decided to lease most of it out as a business incubator. Its new home was last occupied by The Hershey Co., which made candy there until closing down the Reading facility in 2009.
Another incubator with space for up to six more businesses is expected to open by the end of this summer in the Berks County Community Foundation’s headquarters less than a mile away. Ernie Post, director of the Kutztown University SBDC, says that space in a certified green building that opened in 2009 would be perfect for companies offering business services like Web design or marketing. The SBDC plans to offer business development services to startups that use space at the incubator.
The opening of two business incubators so close together is great news for Reading, Post says. Not only does this development create space for startups, he predicts, but it will likely make it easier to recruit other businesses to the area.
Source: Ernie Post, Kutztown University Small Business Development Center
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
