Local Network of specialised Business Centres
About this good practice
In the early 90s, FSS identified space as one main challenge that local business ecosystem was facing in the city. Companies struggled to deal with high costs of the offices, a clear barrier for their growth.
The path to hold and manage 7 centres was progressive, after a thoughtful reflection about the ecosystem’s needs, resources available, etc., which led to the strategy developed by the organization in this field. As a consequence, a sectorial approach was made, building progressively the organization´s “Business centres ecosystem”, classified as follows:
▪ Enertic: Innovative start-ups.
▪ PIA: Audiovisual sector companies.
▪ CEMEI: KIBs (Intensive knowledge based companies).
▪ Villa Yeyette: Gastronomy sector.
▪ Zentek: New Technologies and TICs sector.
▪ Belartza: Industrial and Third sector companies.
▪ Democenter: Services oriented companies.
The main stakeholders are companies and start-ups of the city working on the mentioned sectors. As part of its strategy, the option to stay in its business centres at lower rates for a determined period of time is included in some of the programmes developed by FSS to foster the R&D ecosystem. After this period (between 1 - 2 years), normal prizes are paid, always at a really competitive rate.
Besides, hosted companies have the access to different assessments in key fields such as internationalization, Intellectual Property management, business model, etc. That way, the benefits for the companies come with a twofold approach.
Resources needed
FSS has one person in charge of the management of the 7 centres, and 2 other persons for the buildings maintenance, which is expensive, depending on the building. As an example, the cost of the Enertic building reached 6,5 M €, co-financed by the Plan Avanza and POCTEFA (2007-2013).
Evidence of success
This GP has considerably evolved since the first Business Centre (Democenter) was built back in 1992. As a success evidence, 6 more business centres have been built. Besides, the average occupancy rate currently reaches an 80% in occupied sq. metres, as well as an average of 77% of premises occupation.
In terms of companies, that means hosting almost 250 businesses as an average per year, taking into account that the number can reach up to 300 companies when the centres are full.
Potential for learning or transfer
This should be a transferable practice for every institution dedicated to support the growth of its ecosystem, although it requires a clear strategy for the city, selecting which kind of support is needed. It can be either a sectorial bet either a more transversal kind of project to support all sort of companies.
It is also crucial to anticipate a clear business model behind the management of the building, properly analyzing the offer already existing in the market.
It is also crucial to anticipate the maintenance costs of the building as well as the future investments that might be required in order to remain competitive.
Finally, as there is a clear evolution and instability in the companies needs in terms of space and services, the design of the building itself and the business model behind must be flexible enough to be readapted in the future.