MSU Technologies to relocate, become part of E.L. SmartZone

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The East Lansing SmartZone already was an incubator for multiple small technological business start-ups, but officials said it will receive a welcome boost when MSU Technologies moves in adjacent to the East Lansing Technology Innovation Center.

MSU Technologies is located in the MBI building, south of campus. It identifies and commercializes inventions created by MSU researchers. The upcoming move to the SmartZone, located above Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 333 E. Grand River Ave., is the result of East Lansing’s Big Picture Comprehensive Plan to promote development of a knowledge-based regional economy and a diversified and growing tax base.

“The benefits of bringing the technologies office to the SmartZone are excellent,” said Mike Poterala, executive director of MSU Technologies. “While we don’t focus directly on businesses, the ideas we can introduce to them will be incredibly helpful to their development.”

The SmartZone, on the third floor of the building that houses Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 333 E. Grand River Ave., brings together budding technology-based businesses to help them get on their feet before opening independently. Businesses within the SmartZone help the Michigan economy by allowing the state to catch up in state-of-the-art fields, said Tim Dempsey, community and economic development administrator for East Lansing.

“With a center like this, students can realize that there’s job opportunities in Michigan,” Dempsey said. “For four or five years we were behind the curb, but we’re rapidly catching up with the opportunities.”

The innovation center helps entrepreneurs and companies build business plans and marketing strategies, and merge concepts to create promising ideas.

With the addition of the MSU Technologies, SmartZone will be an entity to anchor the Mid-Michigan economy, Poterala said.

“We’re creating a central mass of companies with massive potential,” he said. “The center will create companies and jobs, and even increase the quality of lives in East Lansing. All kinds of positives will come out of this.”

Poterala said without the support of the community, the opportunities provided by the SmartZone would not be possible.

“We’re very grateful for the support from the university and East Lansing,” Poterala said. “Their being a part of the growing opportunities in this building will really help start this region rolling in the right direction.”

For students in tech-related fields, such as mechanical engineering sophomore O.J. Agari, the collaboration between MSU and East Lansing are positive steps toward creating potential jobs for graduates.

“Harboring potentially successful start-ups and helping them prosper is something I’d like to see more often,” Agari said. “Especially for majors like myself, seeing potential jobs opening up in the near future locally, it’s always a plus.”

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