South Side Innovation Center Received $1M for Modernizing Facilities

The Whitman School of Management’s South Side Innovation Center (SSIC) has received $1 million in federal funding from the Small Business Administration (SBA) as part of the Congressional Community Project. The funds will be to modernize the SSIC facilities to better serve the community and to make accessibility improvements.

 The SSIC, an entrepreneurial project of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, seeks to increase the vitality of the local and area economy by recruiting, nurturing, and training emerging and mature businesses. For the past two decades the SSIC has provided businesses with incubation support, development, education, market access, and credit assistance, using highly skilled trained professional counselors.

“The upgrading of the facilities at the South Side Innovation Center really helps to position the SSIC as an important engine of regional venture creation in the face of the economic opportunities coming to CNY as a result of Micron and associated population growth,” says Principal Investigator Alex McKelvie, a thought leader in entrepreneurship and interim dean of the Whitman School.

“This significant investment in modernizing the SSIC facility truly is a game-changer and will act as a cornerstone of our work to support even greater success for our community entrepreneurs and innovators. This investment is an investment in creating an even greater future for Syracuse and Central New York. We very much appreciate the SBA’s continued support of Whitman’s entrepreneurship programming in the community,” says McKelvie.

Renovations are expected to begin sometime in the Fall of 2024.