Creative Corridor Incentive Fund preps to award more grants

The Creative Corridor Incentive Fund recently awarded its first two grants to help new economy-based start-ups renovate work spaces in downtown for future growth. It's now in the process of preparing to award a handful of grants within the next 4-6 weeks.

"We have four that will be announced very, very soon," says Mark Denson, program manager for the Creative Corridor Incentive Fund. "We have had quite bit of interest in the fund."

The New Economy Initiative has committed $2.5 million to the Creative Corridor Incentive Fund, which managed by the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. The fund's focus is to help entice creative-sector businesses relocate to the lower Woodward Corridor through things like helping finance work space renovation.

The first two grants from the Creative Corridor Incentive Fund went to GalaxE.Solutions, an IT firm, and Harmonie Park Media Group, an Internet radio company. GalaxE.Solutions received $300,000 to install the specialized equipment, along with office equipment and furnishings for its offices in the building at 1001 Woodward. Another $120,000 went to the Harmonie Park Media Group so it can equip an Internet New Media Center in the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District.

The idea behind these grants is to help cluster creatively inclined start-ups in the lower Woodward Corridor so they can grow and create jobs at an accelerated rate. "These like-minded companies benefit from being close to one another," Denson says.

Source: Mark Denson, program manager for the Creative Corridor Incentive Fund
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.