Entrepreneurs and start-up businesses now have a place of their own to get up and running with a new low-rent office space in downtown Ketchum.
The Hatchery has been set up by Jigsaw, a Ketchum-based nonprofit organization founded to promote educational and networking opportunities for local entrepreneurs, and will be open for its first tenants Monday.
Located on the ground floor of 411 Leadville Ave., on the northeast corner of Sixth Street, the 2,500-square-foot space will have four offices to hold between one and six people each, a conference room, kitchen and common room.
Rent for these offices will range from $100 to $150 per month for the offices and about $50 per month for "floaters," or single users willing to share a larger office with three to five others. Included in the rent are wireless and cable Internet service, a business library, printing and copying, as well as all utilities other than telephone service.
An open house of the Hatchery will take place Friday from 2-6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Jigsaw Executive Director Jima Rice said that the building's owners, Tom Ziegler and Buck Levy, made the space available at a low cost to encourage entrepreneurs and to help the local economy.
Rice said Jigsaw will also be located at the Hatchery and that the organization will be on hand to help businesses get off the ground.
Rice said she will work with entrepreneurs to set goals for success.
"We want to keep the businesses viable and growing," she said. "We're not looking for established businesses that can afford to rent office space elsewhere in town."
Rice said that while there will be no predetermined length of tenancy, growing businesses will eventually need to look for a larger space, allowing for new businesses to replace them.
In September, Jigsaw was awarded a $20,000 Rural Business Enterprise Grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the feasibility of a "business incubator" in the Wood River Valley. Rice said the Hatchery will help determine if a larger incubator program will assist the valley's economy.
The study, expected to take two to three months, will also look at where an incubator would best be located, what kind of businesses it should focus on and how it should be financed, structured and managed.
Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com
