Enterprise Center lends helping hand to new businesses
South County Times
October 23, 2009
by Linda Briggs-Harty
Maybe it's windows. For another, it's micro-brewed beer. For the computer guru, it's graphics and Web site management.
"It" encompasses the passions and practical purpose of three recent graduates of the South Enterprise Center, part of the St. Louis County Economic Council.
Since 2000, this business incubator located at 315 Lemay Ferry has helped entrepreneurs enter the market, find firm footing and pump plans for the future.
"We act as their business partner," said Dennis Breite, Vice President of the South County Enterprise Center and three other such incubators in Midtown, Wellston and West County. "It's all about increasing revenue and employment in the larger community at a faster pace than would ordinarily occur."
Offering below-market rate rental space, shared equipment, limited administrative support, conference facilities, speaker series and mentoring by proven business leaders, the Enterprise Center allows tenants room and resources to grow.
Businesses stay at the Center on average around five or six years, Breite said.
Some 30 different offices and light manufacturing/warehouse areas meet varied needs, he said. The Center avoids full capacity on purpose so tenants can change spaces, when needed.
Given such ground rules, the Center sees a high rate of success: 80 percent of business tenants "make it"; over 60 percent are minority- and/or female-owned, Breite said.
Annual revenue for the County's Enterprise Centers reached $45 million in 2007. Annual revenue, including that generated by graduates, was $160 million the same year.
Interest in the Centers has peaked after the economy tanked, he said.
In such an up-beat air, then, the South County Center's three recent graduates flew the coop to settle securely in a still flighty financial market.
Before they soared, though, the graduates earned lauds from County Executive Charlie Dooley and the Economic Council's President and CEO Denny Coleman at a reception in mid-August.
Each graduate boosts the local market in different ways.
South County residents Ron and Pat House, fittingly named, run Windows America now from South County and St. Peters locations. The Houses set up shop the year the Enterprise Center opened.
Their company provides engineered selected windows and doors with installation.
"The center helped us realize our dream by providing an outstanding facility, as well as financial and business guidance during the first hard years," said the Houses.
Lemay resident Leslie Decker, along with Bob and Angie Trammel, now serve clients in need of graphic and Web site design services from a setting across the street from the storefront office they occupied at the center.
Decker and company started at the center six-and-a-half years ago.
Along the way, according to Decker, they've formed a big network, thanks, in part, to the connections made possible by Enterprise Center staff.
"The Enterprise talking us up helped get word out about our business," Decker said.
Ferguson Resident Ray Hill is well on the way to opening the Regional Brewery and Restaurant he envisioned several years ago, in the early days of his brewing hobby.
Buying a classic two-story brick building on South Florissant Road that once housed a liquor store, Hill has gutted the inside and prettied up the outside. By January, his dream of serving his award-winning pilsner, along with other brews, smoked meat and choice foods, in a 300-seat facility will be realized.
Hill used the South County incubator since other warehouses in the County Enterprise system didn't work out. For less than a year, he stored cases of his Ray Hill Classic American Pilsner, brewed by Anheuser-Busch before the brewer became In-Bev.
In his short time there, he saw the merits of partnering with the Enterprise Center, he said.
"It's cost effective for a start-up business to go that route, since the Center has many amenities of a full-service office," Hill said.
The micro-brewer is one of the higher profile entrepreneurs to soar eagle-like after the Enterprise.
Formerly a computer specialist for the federal government, Hill took up home brewing only in 1998. In no time, the passion pushed him to quit his job, trade in savings and head for the mountains -- the mountain climb of construction.
The worst is over: inches of mud lined his brew-pub-to-be's basement, and apartments cluttered the upper floor.
Situated for patron viewing, two 15-barrel, copper-coated kettles beckon the busy brewer. Five 15-barrel fermenters stand sentinel-like off to the side.
A finished office sports framed magazine pieces profiling his quick rise to success.
Hill just won the "2009 Inclusive Award" (formerly, "Most Influential Minority Leadership Award") from the St. Louis Business Journal.
In 2008, he was named "Best Micro-Brewer" at the Show-me Beer Fest in Jefferson City. Locals at the 2008 West Port Beer and Brat Fest chose him as the area's favorite micro-brewer. In 2007 and 2008 at the St. Louis Micro Fest, he earned medals for brewing excellence.
Hill doesn't stop long enough to think how far he's come. He's his own marketer as well as brewer. So far, he's placed his beer in 500 stores throughout seven states.
"I hope to be successful enough to have a day off," he joked.
