A center in Albuquerque's Innovation District is helping grow underserved New Mexico businesses — but that's not all.
WESST — the Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency Team — established its Enterprise Center in 2009. Located at 609 Broadway Blvd. NE just outside Downtown Albuquerque, the center comes with 37,000 square feet of space for a mix of different purposes.
One of those purposes is the WESST Incubator, a business development program housed within the Enterprise Center. It's a mixed-use incubator program, meaning any type of company can take advantage of the incubator's resources, which include business consulting and access to different types of workspaces, said Mark Gilboard, the incubator's director.
It's not an accelerator, he said. While age doesn't matter, companies do have to submit an online application to join the incubator. Membership fees range from $599 for basic services up to $2,000 for the maximum access to resources.
Some of those resources include dry and wet labs that are around 400 square feet and light manufacturing space that totals around 900 square feet. The center has a manufacturing space with a double shipping bay that's roughly 1,900 square feet, too.
"The beauty of being a flexible space, a mixed-use space, is that there's room to expand," Gilboard said. "When you need to expand, we can provide that."
To see inside, click the slideshow at the top of the page.
Many of the companies in the incubator use more than one of the Enterprise Center's spaces, said Michele Newman, the director of the Enterprise Center. Those companies typically stay in the incubator for three to five years.
"We have companies that stay less and we have companies that stay way longer," Newman said. "It's just depending on what type of company they are and their needs, and when they're ready to get their first customers."
Alongside the lab, office and light manufacturing areas, the Enterprise Center has a multimedia production studio, dubbed the Studio at WESST. Spawned from a relationship WESST had with Comcast over a decade ago, the studio invites clients to film scenes and other multimedia material. It also doubles as a theater with a 42-seat capacity.
The center is home to a couple of anchor tenants, as well. Currently, those two tenants are The Hill Group Inc. and New Mexico First.
"We want it to be mostly incubator [companies], but we do, especially if they're part of the ecosystem or if they have an aligned mission, [have] a small amount of anchor tenant rental space," Gilboard said.
WESST, a nonprofit organization founded in 1989, has offices in Farmington, Hobbs, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Roswell and Santa Fe alongside its Albuquerque Enterprise Center. The nonprofit's focus is helping underserved populations with business and financial development through a mix of consulting, lending and training programs.
The incubator's current clientele mirror that mission. The majority of its seven companies are women-owned entities, either wholly or in part. Those include Etkie, a Native American jewelry company, and RingIR, a molecular technology company.
WESST's incubator is a member of the National Business Incubation Association, which Gilboard said gives the program access to a national network of other certified incubators. Its location in Albuquerque's Innovation District, down the street from the University of New Mexico's Rainforest building and within walking distance to Downtown, make it a good spot for growing companies that are regularly meeting with potential clients or customers, he said.
And while the Covid-19 pandemic caused a downturn in incubator applications, which Gilboard said hasn't quite returned to pre-Covid levels, he wants the Enterprise Center to also act as a space for events.
"Our mission starts with 'WESST is a home to entrepreneurs,'" Gilboard said. "We like this to be a home and a center of innovation, business building, storytelling. … One of the things that WESST does so well is being welcoming in an industry that can be kind of harsh."
