The owner of one of Louisville's most-recognizable office towers is looking to bring in a new kind of tenant: startups.
But these aren't the standard lease terms. Rather, the real estate investment firm will be offering up free office space, making equity investments and facilitating connections to help advance early-stage, scalable companies.
In-Rel Properties, the Florida-based owner of Kaden Tower, has launched a new initiative called the SMS Enterprise Center. It's led by Marc Kramer, a serial entrepreneur based in Philadelphia. I had lunch with him last week and got the details on how it aims to support local entrepreneurs.
Kramer is the president of Kramer Communications and executive director of the Private Investors Forum, which hosts the Angel Venture Fair, the largest gathering of angel investors and entrepreneurs in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He told me the owners of Kaden Tower are entrepreneurs, too, which sparked the idea for SMS Enterprise Center.
"They recognize that you can't build a company without the space to be collaborative," Kramer said. "They are passionately focused on getting us back to the point where America can be competitive on a global scale for innovation."
As Business First previously reported, In-Rel Properties bought Kaden Tower for $10.5 million from Kaden Cos. in 2018, later spending roughly $500,000 to renovate it. The firm, founded by principals Charles Stein and Dennis Udwin, also owns Meidinger Tower in Downtown Louisville. Both towers are leased by NAI Fortis Group.
Louisville has a great foundation, Kramer said, citing the momentum from both the companies themselves and local ecosystem builders.
"What we're looking to do is accelerate that by providing six months- to a year-worth of free rent, and if the company has great potential, we're going to put capital in it, for equity, of course. We're going to leverage my contacts in both the investment world — via Angel Venture Fair — and also all the contacts that we can open up to create sales opportunities for the companies.
"That's really important. I've run over 25 startups, and raising money is one thing, but really the most important thing is opening up doors to create future partnerships."
In-Rel Properties has set aside an entire floor, roughly 6,800 square feet, for the SMS Enterprise Center, and once it gets interest from startup companies, it's willing to renovate that space based on their needs and preferences. Kaden Tower is one of Louisville's largest office buildings with more than 100,000 square feet of leasable space.
Kramer said depending on the size and scale of the company, SMS will invest $25,000 and up via its funding arm L&L Capital. All kinds of startups — aside from other real estate, medical device and biopharmaceutical companies — will be considered.
"We're looking for startups that are going to hire a lot of people," Kramer said. "Software development, e-gaming, metaverse, cybersecurity ... anything that requires significant brain power that could benefit from having a shared space."
If interested, startups can reach out to Kramer at mkramer@smsenterprisecenter.com or apply here.
