Inner city breeds business incubator; public/private coalition promotes project in vacant building near downtown. (Houston, Texas)

A broad-based coalition of city, education, and private industry leaders is promoting a plan to start up a major small business incubator south of downtown Houston.

The proposed incubator will provide subsidized office space, laboratory facilities and pro bono business support services for start-up companies seeking to bring to market new products spawned by Houston's biotechnology, energy, aerospace and computer technology communities.

So far, the group has secured $2.3 million in public and private funding to purchase and renovate the long-vacant Hargest College building at 2800 Main Street. The Midtown Redevelopment Authority is expected to close this month on the purchase of the building from the city to house the planned technology and entrepreneurial center.

A steering committee of 50 representatives from local businesses, banks, venture capital firms, universities, the Greater Houston Partnership and the City of Houston has met regularly since last September to map out a detailed plan.

Chairing the committee is Martin Lindenberg, a biotech business entrepreneur who came to Houston in 1993 as an executive with RGene Therapeutics in The Woodlands.

Lindenberg, who has medical, business and computer science degrees, says he was impressed and amazed at the size of the Texas Medical Center, but also was surprised at how few biotech companies were actually emerging from the medical …