There probably aren’t many places you can find a microbrewery, gym and guitar repair shop under one roof. But the Orange Innovation Center is one of them.
The facility at 131 West Main St. serves as a business incubator, hosting and nurturing mom-and-pop shops until they are able to expand and forage on their own. Property investor Jack Dunphy purchased the building from Noel Vincent, who ran The Bedroom Factory out of the facility for years, in May 2013 and continued to run it as the incubator Vincent had converted it into.
“My vision was that I really liked being here and meeting the tenants who were here. And I thought that it offered a great potential, being practically half-empty,” Dunphy said. “It just seemed like it had a huge upside potential, as an investor, and it also had a huge enjoyment factor because the people were interesting, doing interesting things, and it would be a great deal of fun.”
Brianna Drohen, the innovation
center’s development director, said there were 24 tenants at that time and the innovation center now boasts 50, with another three interested.
“You have more than just one person behind you here,” Drohen said. “It’s kind of a community and we all help each other out.”
The Quabbin Harvest Food Co-op is an example of an organization that “incubated out” of the facility. It now operates a store downtown.
The center is also gearing up to create a “maker-space,” called LaunchSpace, for area entrepreneurs and hobbyists. LaunchSpace, in cooperation with the innovation center, is expected to provide a place for people to engage in the hands-on crafting of personal and collaborative projects and art.
Drohen, who is also LaunchSpace’s chief financial officer, has said she hopes to have 50 to 75 members annually. The designated 10,000-square-foot space on the third floor can host businesses and workshops pertaining to crafts.
Dunphy referred to the innovation center as being like “an onion, in a positive way.”
“New things keep opening up,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to come here.”