Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the SmartZone?
What organizations make up the SmartZone partnership? 
What's the overall goal of the SmartZone?
What will the SmartZone focus on?
Is there a SmartZone incubator?
How are MSU faculty involved?
Michigan State University 's role
Michigan State University Foundation's role
Michigan State University Corporate Research Park 's role
MBI International's role
Lansing Community College—Small Business & Technology Development Center 's role
Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce's role
How will you measure the SmartZone's success?
What are the next steps?
Where is the SmartZone?
A. The area in downtown Lansing bounded by Grand Avenue to the west, Michigan Avenue to the south, the Grand River to the east, and Shiawassee Street to the north.
B. The area in Lansing bounded by I-496 to the west, the Lansing Corporate City Limit to the north and northeast, Collins Road to the east, and Dunckel Road to the south.
C. The area in East Lansing bounded by Bogue Street to the west, Grand River Avenue to the north, Hagadorn Road to the east, and the Red Cedar River to the south.
D. The area in downtown East Lansing contained within the East Lansing Downtown Development Authority District as adopted by the East Lansing City Council by Ordinance 635 on June 17, 1986, and amended by Ordinance 889 adopted on February 18, 1997.
What organizations make up the SmartZone partnership?
To achieve the goal of stimulating the growth of technology-based businesses and jobs, 10 partners have come together to make the SmartZone successful:
City of East Lansing
City of Lansing
County of Ingham
Lansing Community College - Small Business & Technology Development Center
Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce
MBI International
Michigan Economic Development Corporation
Michigan State University
Michigan State University Foundation
University Corporate Research Park
What's the overall goal of the SmartZone?
To create a method and environment to identify commercial opportunities within MSU and other places, and to grow or attract businesses by providing incubator space, entrepreneurial expertise, exposure to potential markets, access to capital, incentives, and long-term profitable locations. The long-term goal is to retain these businesses in the SmartZone area or, at the very least, in the Lansing regional economy.
What will the SmartZone focus on?
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Promoting economic growth including jobs, income and investment
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Encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit
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Providing value to client businesses and stakeholders
Is there a SmartZone incubator?
The SmartZone will utilize MBI International as its initial primary incubator facility. Additionally, the SmartZone will explore financing a portion of the cost to construct and install an access road, utilities, and telecom infrastructure into the south end of the University Corporate Research Park (UCRP). Inside this portion of the UCRP, plans call for the construction of a development named Research Village, which will provide up to 100,000 square feet of space for businesses graduating from the SmartZone's incubators.
The SmartZone will also explore the creation of a Technology Incubator in downtown East Lansing. This facility will cater towards developing MSU spin-offs, while also supporting other local high-tech ventures. The facility is expected to create physical incubator space in downtown with professional staff providing traditional incubation services, i.e., low-cost rent, shared equipment, business consulting, and mentoring programs. The initial facility would be located within existing downtown office space with the future goal of expanding or relocating it into the East Village redevelopment project area.
The East Lansing Technology Incubator will be phased in over the next three to five years. It is expected that within the first several years, resources will be dedicated for use with SmartZone partners, e.g., MSU's Office of Intellectual Property, to provide incubation and accelerator services (further discussed below). Once a sufficient number of potential businesses are being generated through these services, the actual incubator space and dedicated staff support can be developed.
How are MSU faculty involved?
The SmartZone will also offer a combination of business accelerator services to identify and commercialize opportunities and technologies produced by research at MSU or through innovations elsewhere in the region. This will include:
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Identifying and securing additional sources of seed capital for the incubators
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Developing a “Professional Support Network” of legal, accounting, and marketing services for additional consulting support
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Creating a network of angel investors and venture capital alternatives, e.g., exploring the creation of a venture capital fund with local banks under Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) guidelines
The intent will be to create a network that will support businesses located in the incubators but also be accessible to all businesses within the Lansing Regional SmartZone.
The SmartZone also will contribute to the development of regional business education forums. It is expected that these forums will be an integral component of increasing exposure to the SmartZone while simultaneously providing an avenue for high-tech business to connect. The SmartZone expects to expand its efforts to broaden the existing wireless hot spots in Lansing and East Lansing. Wireless services could be made available free of charge to qualifying high- technology businesses. In addition, fiber optic network connectivity will be deployed to the incubator facilities.
Michigan State University 's role:
MSU faculty are actively generating spin-off companies in the Lansing area, such as AFID Therapeutics, Inc.; Airways Innovations LLC, Biophotonic Solutions, Inc.; Claytec, Inc.; ERL LLC; GEMA LLC; Geopathway LLC; Intermediary Biochemicals LLC; KTM Industries, Inc.; Mid-Michigan Research LLC; NamesforLife LLC; Qtox LLC; and Red Cedar Technologies, Inc. Two of these firms are currently incubating at MBI International.
Through MSU's Rational Siting / Push Pull Accelerator (RSPPA) grant from the Michigan Technology Tri-Corridor, two $50,000 loans have been extended by Michigan Economic Development Corporation with low and deferred interest to area start-up companies. Six additional RSPPA loans are expected to be offered to new applicants during the next 18 months. The immediate availability of such loans to biotechnology, automotive technology, and homeland security entrepreneurs should assist the early progress of the SmartZone.
Using funds from the same RSPPA grant, MSU has engaged NexusTech Ventures LLC and Shepard Advisors to provide no-cost consulting to start-up businesses in Lansing and Midland. Each consulting firm has been engaged to provide 800 hours of consulting over the next 18 months. Via “letter grants,” individual companies in the SmartZone will be allocated blocks of consultant hours, providing assistance with market evaluation, business creation, and business plan development.
Using funds from the same RSPPA grant, MSU has engaged a consultant from the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM) to assist in the preparation of federal grants for small-business initiated research. Thus, for the next 18 months, SmartZone start-ups in life sciences, automotive sciences, and homeland security will be able to receive free assistance with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant proposals.
Michigan State University Foundation's role:
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Support expansion of MBI and UCRP programs related to technology development and commercialization
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Provide investment capital for development, scale up, and commercialization of technologies
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Invest in new enterprises through its for-profit subsidiary, IP Ventures
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Access external funds and expertise through venture and private investors
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Provide business expertise and leadership to the overall technology development enterprise
Michigan State University Corporate Research Park 's role:
MBI International's role:
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Develop, prove, and scale up technologies originated from MSU, from within MBI and from other institutions
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Evaluate the commercial potential of new technologies, position them for commercialization, and license them in the marketplace
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Provide incubator space and services for pre-seed enterprises based on new technologies
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Undertake contract manufacturing for industry
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Secure private-sector funds to finance technology development and commercialization
Lansing Community College —Small Business & Technology Development Center 's role:
The Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center SM (SBTDC) at Lansing Community College provides a full range of services for a variety of small businesses that are emerging and growing, including new venture companies, existing small businesses, expanding businesses, new technology companies, and innovators. The SBTDC is recognized for its quality counsel, training, and market research capabilities. All services are available at low or no cost because of the financial support of the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Lansing Community College.
One-on-one meetings with experienced business consultants are available to assist small business owners in the process of building viable business plans, establishing strategies for growth and survival, creating practical marketing approaches, dealing with unexpected challenges, and generating realistic financial goals. The SBTDC also has several Technology Business Consultants at its disposal. Their expertise reflects Michigan's technology initiatives and needs in four functional areas: advanced manufacturing, bio-medicine/life sciences, energy, and information technology.
A range of training programs will also be offered. Focused on the needs of local entrepreneurs, training will be available in a variety of formats. Individual seminars, including how to get started, determining legal structure, accessing financing, and marketing are offered. The underlying success for businesses of all sizes is information, including the size and characteristics of industries, the marketplace, competition, foreign trade, and customer demographics. The SBTDC provides a full range of information services through the state headquarters.
Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce's role:
The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce will provide free access to its Business Resource Center (BRC) for new and growing firms offering on-site business counseling and mentoring services, computer work stations, reference library, other resources, and contacts throughout the region's professional network.
Through the BRC, entrepreneurs will have access to the free services of the SBA-sponsored Service Corp of Retired Executives (SCORE), and the Small Business & Technology Development Center staff at Lansing Community College, a partner in the BRC. SBTDC staff includes the services of an intellectual property attorney.
Other activities will include working to develop a network of early-stage and venture funding sources in concert with the MSU Foundation and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and working to market the Lansing Regional SmartZone in coordination with LRSZ Partners and the MEDC. The Chamber's privately funded Capital Choice Partnership will incorporate promotion of the LRSZ in its regional, national, and international marketing program of business location, start-up, and retention services.
How will you measure the SmartZone's success?
The SmartZone's success will be measured by several parameters:
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# of new firms incubated
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# of firms graduated from the incubators to SmartZone
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# of firms graduated from incubators to Lansing Region
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# of firms graduated from incubators to Michigan
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# of firms attracted to the SmartZone
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$ amount of private investment generated
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$ amount of public grants, loans, and contracts
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# number of direct and indirect jobs created or retained
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$ average pay of jobs created or retained
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$ total income and economic activity generated
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$ increase in tax value of property in the SmartZone
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# of firms served by SmartZone and partners
What are the next steps?
The two cities are moving forward with establishing the joint Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA). The City of Lansing approved the LDFA on May 2, 2005, and the City of East Lansing approved it on May 3, 2005. With the joint LDFA established, the LDFA and two cities can enter into an agreement with Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to receive SmartZone designation. With this designation, the LDFA can use tax increment financing (tax capture) to finance certain improvements in the SmartZone. The SmartZone plan presented above is a requirement of MEDC prior to entering into the SmartZone agreement. The SmartZone plan will form the basis for the development of a more technical Tax Increment Finance Plan (TIFP). The TIFP will contain cost estimates, specify uses and sources of tax capture funds, and receive formal approval by both city councils.
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