Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on Entrepreneur Collaborative Center:

Hillsborough moves ahead with new business incubator

Will Hobson, Times Staff Writer

    Wednesday, May 21, 2014 11:56am

TAMPA — Hillsborough County commissioners moved forward Wednesday with a plan to create a new business incubator to help entrepreneurs and startups.

The new center, Commissioner Sandy Murman said, is an “earth-shaking proposal” to foment economic development.

Currently, Hillsborough operates a Small Business Information Center on N 56th Street, east of Tampa, on a roughly $500,000 annual budget.

The new incubator — called the “Entrepreneur Collaborative Center” —- would probably be located in Ybor City and would require the county to double the budget to about $1 million, according to Ron Barton, the county’s economic development chief.

Details like an exact cost and timeline were not included in Wednesday’s presentation by Barton. The center would provide mentoring for local entrepreneurs and would help connect them with small business loans.

Barton suggested county tax dollars could be leveraged into loans to small businesses, a proposal met with skepticism by Commissioner Kevin Beckner.

“I would have deep concerns about government entering into venture capitalism,” Beckner said.

Commission Chairman Mark Sharpe praised the preliminary plan, and said he’d be interested in proposals to leverage county money for loans.

“This is risky. It’s different.” Sharpe said. “This is a whole new world we’re operating in.”