For a handful of lucky tech startups in Brooklyn, money really does grow on trees.
Two Trees, the landlord for most of Dumbo’s digital enterprises, has carved out 6,500 square feet of floor space at below-market rent for NYU Polytechnic’s startup incubator, slated to open this winter at 20 Jay St.
The New York City Economic Development Corp. ponied up $250,000 for the project, which is similar to another incubator at 160 Varick St. in Manhattan that opened in 2009.
The space Two Trees owns at 20 Jay will be able to accommodate about 15 companies, with rent for each workstation in the expansive loft costing just $400 a month.
The entrepreneurs will have access to free business, legal and technical advice, courtesy of NYU-Poly, which manages the incubator and collects rent, as well as access to the university’s ready pool of undergraduate and graduate students to serve as interns.
“This is a true collaboration between the public, private and academic sectors, with EDC providing critical seed capital, Two Trees providing much-needed work space at a subsidized rate, and NYU-Poly operating the facility and providing programming that will allow these businesses to grow and thrive,” said Economic Development Corporation spokesman Patrick Muncie.
“We are looking for entrepreneurs who have already developed a product or service or are near to a salable product or service,” said an NYU-Poly spokeswoman. The university will make its final selections at the end of the year.
Startups involved in digital media will likely fill the space, as NYU-Poly hopes to “take advantage of what’s already growing” in Dumbo, the spokeswoman added, referring to the flowering of Web advertising agencies in the area.
The third-floor loft space will feature amenities like a 50-person-capacity meeting room and 34 6-foot-by-6-foot workstations. NYU-Poly will also arrange for incidental business essentials, like high-speed Internet connections and copy machines.
The incubator is an opportunity for Two Trees to attract new tenants. If the budding tech firms find 20 Jay’s facilities and location to their liking, Two Trees hopes they’ll sign a lease for other space in Dumbo.
The Dumbo incubator is just the latest chapter in the development of the neighborhood, tucked snugly between the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge in an area that was once a warren of warehouses and cardboard manufacturers.
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