McKinstry is expanding its clean tech incubator program, adding an additional 18,000 square feet of space and a conference center at its facility in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood and opening a new 38,000-square-foot center at a historic electric railcar station in Spokane.
“Our vision was to create a springboard for the green economy – from clean tech innovations, to the education sector,” said McKinstry CEO Dean Allen in a statement. “We are now realizing how this model can play an integral role in the advancement of our green economy.”
The Seattle facility, which opened in 2010, just added two new companies to the incubator: Reklaim and E3 Washington. Others include General Biodiesel,EcoFab, Hydrovolts, Washington STEM, Intersect, Everest Sciences, TreeFree Biomass Solutions, and Teach For America.
The McKinstry Innovation Center in Spokane — housed in an old electric rail yard depot — will be built at a cost of $5 million, according to The Spokesman-Review. It has room for about two dozen companies, with four companies already slated to move in this summer.
A number of other business incubators have been established in the Pacific Northwest in recent years, from TechStars to SURF Incubator to Luni Libes’ new incubator for “social conscious” companies, dubbed Fledge. The University of Washington also recently opened a new 23,000 square foot incubator on the main Seattle campus in order to spin out technologies from the university.
