News

Lorenzo Intl. donates $20K to incubator

Published: 2/19/2008

It isn’t often that a landlord hands over $20,000 to help his tenant move out and into a new building, but that is what local businessman Greg Lorenzo has decided to do for the SUNY Fredonia Technology Incubator project.

That project’s current offices are in the Lorenzo Building at 314 Central Ave. in Dunkirk. Late last month, college president Dennis Hefner presented architectural plans for a new 21,000 square-foot facility for the incubator project. The new center will rise only blocks away from the Lorenzo building. The $4.7 million incubator will accommodate 10-15 fledgling businesses needing high technology infrastructure to operate.

"I’ve never been so pleased at the prospect of losing a good tenant," Lorenzo said. "We did not start up Lorenzo International as an incubator," Lorenzo added. "Nevertheless, we have benefited from similar site and county business development initiatives. With some of that help and a lot of hard work we’re growing our business even in a tough economic climate. Our contribution to the incubator project is one way that we’re trying to pay it forward."

Fredonia College faculty will operate the business incubator site in partnership with economic development organizations including the City of Dunkirk, the Dunkirk-Sheridan Empire Zone, the Chautauqua Workforce Investment Board and the Dunkirk Local Development Corp.

Jeff Corcoran, director of the technology incubator, expressed his appreciation for the community support the new incubator is receiving. "We are grateful to all of the business leaders who have come on board in various ways to help make this project happen," he said. "Numerous people have given generously of their very valuable time and expertise. Greg Lorenzo’s initiative in presenting us with this check speaks for itself in terms of leadership and his belief in this project and this community."

"We’d all like to see more business development in the area, but you have to be smart about it, especially when tax dollars may be involved," Lorenzo said. "Nationally, only about 20 percent of start-up companies survive their first five years. But according to a recent study, startups affiliated with university incubators survive at a rate of 87 percent. That’s the kind of leverage I look for in an investment."

Lorenzo International provides transportation and warehousing services to top manufacturing companies, distributors and shippers, large and small, throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Greg Lorenzo started in the transportation business as a truck dispatcher 20 years ago. He opened his first office as an independent agent in 1991. Over the past 15 years, he has served on the executive boards of numerous civic and charitable organizations and currently employs more than 90 people in Chautauqua County.

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