Chesapeake Innovation Center struggles
Interim director resigns as CIC confronts looming budget problems; calls mount to take the center under private management; new leadership reaches out to Northrop Grumman and others; loss of NSA contract a major blow
Mixed news from Maryland’s Chesapeake Innovation Center (CIC). The organization, which provides space for intriguing companies in the homeland security field, suffered the resignation of interim director Laura Neuman last week. Neuman had objected to plans to keep the center in expensive Annapolis by raising the rents on some member companies — a not unreasonable idea now that CIC has been suffering budget shortages stemming from a steady erosion of on-site clients.
Nevertheless, County Economic Development Director Robert Hannon remains undeterred in his quest to make CIC the go-to place for homeland security development and has asked Roger London, the incubator’s director of technology scouting, to serve as the center’s “operations manager.” “It’s my responsibility here … to make certain that I bring a financial discipline to not only our operation, but financial discipline to the CIC,” said Hannon. “We’ve got serious business in front of us.” If he fails, a growing number of critics are recommending the center be managed by a private firm.
In addition to reaching out to former CIC sponsor Northrop Grumman, Hannon has pledged to make up for budget problems caused when the National Security Agency failed to renew its contract with the incubator last year. He intends to do so by adding more affiliate firms — those that pay for services but not rental space. (CIC currently host twelve, down from twenty.) That is critical because the center is projecting a loss of $150,000-200,000 for 2007 on an annual budget of $1.44 million. Hannon will soon also have to confront the issue that led to Ms. Neuman’s resignation: whether to renew the center’s lease at its present location.
-read more in Katie Arcieri’s Capital report
