The widely distributed Marketplace radio program has produced a nice feature on tenants at the 160 Varick St. incubator operated by our supporting member NYU-Poly, and which was the first incubator in the City to receive startup support from the New York City Economic Development Corporation. You can read the transcript here or listen to the embedded audio below.

Our member Green Worker Cooperatives will partner with the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE) on a $4 million green-worker training grant announced by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz. You can read coverage in the Daily News or the Mott Haven Herald. Green Worker Cooperatives is an incubator for worker-owned cooperative businesses with a sustainable twist.

The Village Voice has published an excellent article outlining the way in which greentech startups are drawing benefit from the New York City Accelerator for Clean and Renewable Energy (NYC ACRE), a NYSERDA-sponsored clean and renewable-energy incubator that is part of the family of NYU-Poly incubators, supporting members of our association.

The article nicely highlights the ways in which city and state support for incubators reinforce, and how incubator tenant companies and student interns from both NYU and Columbia provide mutual benefit and opportunity in this fast-growing sector.

For all currently operational NYSERDA-sponsored clean-energy incubators operated by our members, please see this list.

The New York City Accelerator for Clean and Renewable Energy (NYC ACRE), a NYSERDA-sponsored clean-energy incubator operated by our supporting member NYU-Poly, will host 10-intensive, day-long sessions and seminars for experienced startup executives entering the cleantech sectors.

NYSERDA will fund tuition for the classes, which will run from Feb. 18th through May 7th at the NYC ACRE facility at 160 Varick St. in lower Manhattan. Admission is selective and limited to 25 candidates with 10 years of leadership experience in technology-based companies. For more information, see the university press release or contact NYC ACRE.

Three of our member incubator programs in New York City recently testified on the need for startup assistance before a joint hearing of the Technology in Government and Economic Development Committees of New York City Council. Full coverage of the hearing is available on the Technology in Government Committee's blog, including archival video of the entire hearing. Those of our members testifying were:

• Bruce Niswander, director of NYU-Poly's Centers for Entrepreneurship and Technology, including the BEST incubator in downtown Brooklyn and a separate facility at 160 Varick Street in Manhattan, including the NYSERDA-sponsored NYC ACRE;
• Dr. Eva Cramer, director of SUNY Downstate's Advanced Biotechnology Incubator in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and the affiliated BioBAT at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (testimony attached as a pdf);
• Colleen Gibney, of ITAC's Virtual Incubator Program (testimony attached).

Two of our member incubators in the Long Island City section of Queens — Mi Kitchen es Su Kitchen at the Artisan Baking Center and NY Designs at CUNY's LaGuardia Community College — are featured in an excellent story on business incubators in the Queens Courier community newspaper. The story quotes the respective managers Kathrine Gregory and Natalia Arguello and also tenants of both incubators.

The New York Times real-estate section highlights the story of Ecological — a tenant/client of the New York City Accelerator for Clean and Renewable Energy (NYC ACRE), a NYSERDA-sponsored clean-energy incubator that is one of three incubator programs managed by our supporting member NYU-Poly.

Ecological, which monitors sustainability performance across real-estate portfolios, recently raised $2 million in financing and is looking to graduate into commercial space, according to The Times story. NYC ACRE is collocated with NYU-Poly's City-assisted incubator at 160 Varick St., situated on the 12th floor of a building owned by Trinity Real Estate.

NYU-Poly's Brooklyn-based BEST incubator will be hosting our spring 2010 annual members' meeting. Watch for further announcements.

BioBAT, Inc., an organizational cousin of our supporting member the SUNY Downstate Advanced Biotechnology Incubator, is seeking an executive director to guide development of 500,000 square feet of bioscience research and biomanufacturing space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT).

BioBAT is a nonprofit entity created by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, acting on behalf of New York City, and the SUNY Research Foundation, acting on behalf of SUNY Downstate. Dr. Eva Cramer, the Downstate Vice President for Biotechnology and director of the Downstate incubator, also is president of the BioBAT board. 

Further information and instructions on how to apply can be found in the position description attached as a pdf.