Ithacating in Cornell Heights

With all these Collegetown projects wrapping up over the past few months, I may need to re-balance my update schedule. The Student Agencies renovation is complete and eHub has opened. I intended to take a few interior photos, but the staff on the first floor were tied up with several other visitors, so I moved on to the next site.

I think the real benefit to this project isn’t so much the renovation as those who are occupying it. eHub is meant to encourage student entrepreneurs. They may migrate to Rev, they may be successful and grow their business locally, adding local jobs and helping to diversify the local economy beyond meds and eds.

For example, the tech startup Rosie was launched in 2012 by Cornell students, and was housed in eHub’s eLab space. After they graduated, the founders migrated to Rev, and have since migrated to office space on the Commons. Today, the company employs 21 people locally (26 total), with more hires planned. Another eHub “grad”, FiberSpark, has stayed local and provides the fastest internet service in Ithaca. Not all the companies are successful, and not all the successful companies stay in Ithaca. But if even a portion of them survive and thrive here, than that’s a real asset for the community. I look forward to seeing what an expanded program will cultivate.