The Buffalo News recently visited Harrison Place, the enormous former radiator-manufacturing plant being steadily reclaimed as a business incubator by our member the Mancuso Business Development Group, in partnership with the City of Lockport. The newspaper story highlights the progressive renovation and upscaling of the facility.

The Mancuso Business Development Group is led by Tom Mancuso, a board member of our state association and speaker at our recent annual meeting. Tom is the son of the late Joseph Mancuso, generally credited with having established the world's first business incubator (in 1959, in Batavia) and having coined the term "business incubator." For more information on Joe, see this background on the website of the National Business Incubation Association.

The Central New York Biotech Accelerator is the new name for a $24 millon, 40,000 square-foot bioscience business incubator under construction in downtown Syracuse. The facility formerly known as the CNY Biotech Research Center is set to open to company occupancy in early 2013, and the new name reinforces its primary purpose as a site for business formation and growth.

The CNY Biotech Accelerator can house up to 21 independent company modules, providing office and laboratory space for up to 100 individual entrepreneurs, scientists and technicians. For more information, see the news release from SUNY's Upstate Medical University, a partner in the Accelerator along with SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The role that our member the Pratt Design Incubator plays in the ongoing revitalization of Brooklyn is highlighted by WNET-TV's MetroFocus program. The MetroFocus story notes how the Pratt Institute, its alumni, and energy created by the incubator at the Brooklyn Navy Yard are all helping revitalize the Myrtle Avenue corridor where the Institute's main campus is situated. The story also includes a video produced by WNET's companion program Treasures of New York, featuring several incubator tenants and program director Deb Johnson (video embedded after the break).

The New York Daily News reports that Jamie Clawson, whose iPhone-case firm Valentine Goods is a tenant at our member NY Designs, is now expanding his urban accessories line after several of his pieces were worn on television by American Idol judge Randy Jackson. For more, see the article. NY Designs is a program based at CUNY's LaGuardia Community College.