LB Business Center Upgraded

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LB Business Center Upgraded
Shenneui Weber

Long Beach is converting an underused business training center in downtown into a one-stop shop that will provide co-working space and access to a wide array of business assistance programs to entrepreneurs.

The Long Beach City Council last month approved spending $250,000 for the upgrade to the Pine Avenue satellite office of a Small Business Development Center run by Long Beach City College. The 4,700-square-foot, city-owned facility is expected to house expanded business assistance services and co-working space when it opens in April.

The co-working space will be operated by Miracle Mile-based Blankspaces.

“This center will be a place for young entrepreneurs to start businesses and also for existing entrepreneurs to gain access to programs to grow their businesses,” said John Keisler, economic development director for the city of Long Beach.

The center is being named after the late Shaun Lumachi, a Long Beach business advocate and civic leader who died in a car crash in Florida in 2011 at age 33.

Shenneui Weber, the college’s chief operating officer for advancement and economic development said the SBDC’s annual budget is about $500,000.

The move to upgrade the facility stemmed from frustration among Long Beach officials and businesses that the center was not doing more to assist entrepreneurs.

“That’s when we in the city figured this facility that we own needed a relaunch, a 2.0 version,” said Long Beach City Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, who represents the downtown area.

Blankspaces founder Jerome Chang said he had been looking to launch a co-working space in Long Beach for the last three or four years to complement his other co-working facilities in Santa Monica, the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena.

“The Long Beach market was definitely underserved for co-working space,” Chang said.

That may no longer be the case now, since New York-based WeWorks opened about a year ago a 33,000-square-foot co-working space nearby at 100 West Broadway.

Chang said Blankspaces will charge companies between $300 to $500 per month for each person they have at the center – comparable in concept to WeWorks.

– Howard Fine

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